Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
Moby Dick, or, The Card Game is an adventure card game designed for 2-4 players, with additional rules for solitaire play.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Deck / Bag Building
Add new pieces during play to improve the cards, tokens, or dice drawn later.
Dice Rolling
Roll dice to introduce uncertainty into actions, production, movement, or resolution.
Hand Management
Time and sequence a limited hand of cards to preserve future options.
Trading
Exchange resources, assets, or promises with other players.
Simulation
Model a real or imagined system through detailed cause-and-effect rules.
Variable Player Powers
Each player has different abilities, restrictions, or strategic advantages.
Read the full game description
Moby Dick, or, The Card Game is an adventure card game designed for 2-4 players, with additional rules for solitaire play. Based on Herman Melville's classic novel, Moby Dick combines cooperative and competitive play in an attempt to loosely simulate life on a 19th century whaleship. The game is centered around three decks of cards: the Sea, the Sailor, and the Whale. After receiving an initial crew of sailors, players take turns at the topmast, where they draw Sea cards to advance the game. These cards contain various creatures and events, compelling actions between players or triggering the secondary phase of the game – the whale hunt. During a whale hunt, each player begins by choosing a small group of their sailors to lower after the whale. Play progresses much like the primary gameplay, with players taking turns defending against the whale's assaults and returning the favors. As the game unfolds, players gain oil from defeating whales or from certain events, which can be used to hire new sailors after others are lost at sea. Over time, key events (Chapters) will be drawn, and after a certain number Moby Dick will cease evading the ship and engage when sighted. This last battle is to the death, and only one player will survive. Call him the winner, or simply, Ishmael.