2026 BGG rank #5135

First Giants

2–5 players 30 min Ages 10+ 2.1/5 complexity 5.8/10 rating

About this game

Dive into First Giants, a race to create the most prestigious prehistorical animal exhibit! Build your engine by collecting cards with powerful effects OR score points by playing your cards in the exhibit area. But beware! Once displayed, you’ll lose their beneficial effects. Timing is crucial to win! First Giants is a game of set collecting and combinations in which players recruit cards representing dinosaurs, flying reptiles, giant mammals… of various size. These cards have many different powers and you can create powerful combination to earn amber, victory points and the ability to exhibit your fossils. —description from the publisher

What it feels like

Set Collection Open Drafting Card Game Archaeology / Paleontology Fine Art and Art Museums

Explore these mechanics in Cardboard

Start an original prototype from reusable design patterns—not this game's content.

Open mechanics workbench

Game intelligence

Learn the game

80% knowledge coverage

Setup

1. Shuffle all cards and place them faceup in the center of the table to form the deck. 2. Place the 4 Dig Site boards in the center of the table. Draw 8 cards and randomly assign 2 cards faceup to each Dig Site. 3. Place the News tokens, amber, and point tokens near the Dig Sites to form the supply. 4. Each player chooses a color and takes their 4 markers of that color, 1 Museum board, and 2 amber. Place markers and amber on the dedicated spaces of the Museum board. 5. Based on player count, add Set tokens (C-side up) to the supply: 2 players = 14 tokens, 3 players = 20 tokens, 4 players = 24 tokens. Return remaining Set tokens to the box. 6. The player who most recently encountered a dinosaur takes the first player token and starts the game.

Turn flow

On your turn, you must perform exactly one of two actions: ACTION 1 — PLAY 1 MARKER: You must have at least 1 marker on your board. (1) Take 1 marker from your board and place it at a Dig Site that does not already contain one of your markers. (2) Take 1 of the 2 cards at that Dig Site and place it in your Study (above your board). (3) Apply that card's single-use effect immediately, and apply any relevant recurring effects from cards already in your Study. If multiple effects trigger simultaneously, resolve your own effects in any order, then proceed clockwise for other players' effects. (4) Refill the empty Dig Site space with the top card of the deck. ACTION 2 — RECLAIM MARKERS: You must have at least 1 marker at a Dig Site. (1) Take all your markers from all Dig Sites and return them to your board. (2) For each marker reclaimed, choose one effect: gain 1 amber OR display 1 fossil. You may choose a different effect for each marker, in any order. If you have no markers on your board, you must Reclaim. If you have no markers at any Dig Sites, you must Play 1 Marker.

Scoring and victory

The player with the most total points at the end of the game wins. In case of a tie, tied players share victory. Scoring sources: News tokens (worth 3 or 5 points each, as indicated on the token), Set tokens from incomplete sets (worth 2 points each), Set tokens from complete sets (worth 3 points each), Points earned during the game from card effects (point tokens taken from the supply)

Source: Rulebook

Rules to know

The most useful rules for getting a first game right.

Turn structure

Play 1 Marker: place a marker at a Dig Site, take a card to your Study, apply effects, refill the site.

To perform the Play 1 Marker action, you must have at least 1 marker on your Museum board. Step 1: Take 1 marker from your board and place it at a Dig Site that does not already contain one of your markers. Step 2: Take 1 of the 2 faceup cards at that Dig Site and place it in your Study (the area above your board). Step 3: Apply that card's effect (single-use or recurring) and any relevant recurring effects from other cards in your Study. Step 4: Refill the now-empty Dig Site space with the top card of the deck. If you have no markers on your board, you cannot perform this action and must instead Reclaim Markers.

Turn structure

Reclaim Markers: retrieve all markers from Dig Sites; for each, gain 1 amber or display 1 fossil.

To perform the Reclaim Markers action, at least 1 of your markers must currently be at a Dig Site. Step 1: Take all of your markers from all Dig Sites and return them to your Museum board. Step 2: For each marker reclaimed, choose one of two effects: gain 1 amber (from the supply) OR display 1 fossil (see display rules). You may choose a different effect for each marker reclaimed, resolving them in any order you wish. If you have no markers at any Dig Sites, you cannot perform this action and must instead Play 1 Marker.

Restriction

You cannot place a marker at a Dig Site that already contains one of your markers.

When playing a marker, you must choose a Dig Site that does not already contain one of your markers. Each player may have at most one marker per Dig Site at any given time. There is no restriction on placing a marker at a Dig Site occupied by another player's marker.

General

The Study is the area above your board where fossil cards are held before being displayed.

The Study is the zone above your Museum board. Cards in your Study are faceup and their effects (both single-use and recurring) are active while they remain there. Once a card is moved from the Study to the Display (placed facedown below your board), it loses all its effects. Cards in your Study have not yet been scored.

General

The Display is the exhibit area below your board where fossils are placed facedown to score points.

The Display is the zone below your Museum board. It represents your museum's exhibit. Fossil cards placed on display are placed facedown and arranged into sets. A fossil on display loses all its effects permanently. The Display is the primary source of points at end of game.

Resource management

To display a fossil, spend amber equal to its size (1, 2, or 3). Eggs always cost 2 amber.

To put a fossil on display, you must spend amber from your supply equal to that fossil's size: 1 amber for Small (size 1), 2 amber for Medium (size 2), and 3 amber for Large (size 3). Spent amber is returned to the supply. Special rule: Egg cards always cost 2 amber to display, regardless of the size they are acting as. If you cannot pay the full cost, you cannot put that fossil on display.

Building

When displaying a fossil, take it from your Study and place it facedown below your board, either starting a new set or expanding an existing one.

To display a fossil: (1) Pay the amber cost equal to the fossil's size (see display_fossil_cost). (2) Take the card from your Study. (3) Place it facedown below your Museum board. You must either start a new set (place it as the first card in a new row) or expand an existing set (add it to an existing row). Starting a new set earns no points; you must expand a set to score. Once a fossil is assigned to a set, it cannot be reassigned to another set.

Building

Sets are either Family sets (same Family, different Sizes) or Size sets (same Size, different Families). The second card added defines the set type.

There are two types of sets in the Display: (1) Family Set: all cards share the same Family but have different Sizes. (2) Size Set: all cards share the same Size but have different Families. The set type is undefined when only one card is in the row. The second card added to the set determines its type — once defined, the type cannot be changed. You cannot add a card of a different Family to a Family set. You cannot add a card whose Size is already represented in a Family set. You cannot add a card of a different Size to a Size set. You cannot add a card whose Family is already represented in a Size set.

Common questions and edge cases

A player reclaims 3 markers. Can they display up to 3 fossils, one for each marker?

Yes. When reclaiming markers, for each marker reclaimed the player chooses either 'gain 1 amber' or 'display 1 fossil.' With 3 markers reclaimed, a player could choose to display up to 3 fossils (one per marker), provided they can pay the amber cost for each.

Can an Egg card be added to a Size set, and how does its wild size work?

Yes. An Egg card belongs to a specific Family but can act as any Size. In a Size set (same Size, different Families), the Egg acts as the required Size for that set. It cannot duplicate a Family already in the set. The Egg costs 2 amber to display regardless of the Size it acts as.

I have one Small Herbivore on display. I want to add a Small Carnivore. What type of set does this create?

Adding a Small Carnivore (same Size, different Family) to the Small Herbivore creates a Size set. The second card determines the set type. From that point, you can only add cards of Size Small with different Families (not Herbivore or Carnivore again).

Player A has a Size set of 2 cards and holds the News token. Player B gets a Size set of 3 cards. Can Player B steal the token? What if Player A then completes their set first?

Player B steals the News token because they have more cards in a set of the same type. However, once either player completes that set type (reaches maximum cards: 5 for Size sets), the News token can no longer be stolen from the holder.

I have a card with a recurring effect 'each time you take a Carnivore card.' I take a Carnivore card. Does the recurring effect trigger on the same turn I take it?

Yes. Recurring effects trigger every time their condition is met, including at the moment you take the card that has the recurring effect itself. So if the new card is a Carnivore, the recurring carnivore effect triggers immediately.

I want to display a Large fossil (cost 3) but only have 2 amber. Can I still display it?

No. You cannot display a fossil if you cannot pay its full amber cost. You must have at least 3 amber to display a Large fossil.

A card effect lets me display 1 fossil at no cost. Does this replace the amber cost, or does it only apply when reclaiming?

The 'display 1 fossil at no cost' card effect waives the amber cost entirely for that one display. It is triggered as a card effect (during the Play 1 Marker action), not during reclaiming. It is separate from and in addition to reclaim-based display opportunities.

The last Set token is taken mid-round. Does the game end immediately?

No. When the endgame is triggered (last Set token taken or deck empties), any remaining Set tokens from the box are added to the supply, and play continues until all players have had an equal number of turns, completing the current round. The game then ends and scores are tallied.

All 4 of my markers are at Dig Sites. What action must I take?

You must perform the Reclaim Markers action, since you have no markers left on your board to play. You reclaim all 4 markers and choose for each: gain 1 amber or display 1 fossil.

All 4 of my markers are on my board (none at any Dig Site). What action must I take?

You must perform the Play 1 Marker action, since none of your markers are at Dig Sites. You cannot choose to Reclaim Markers.