The rafting animals are standing in line for the canoeing trip. Everyone wants to be the first to ride on the rubber raft, so soon they are all shoving and pushing to get a place on the raft. It doesn't take long and soon the first animal is nudged off and that is before the ride even starts. Who can place animals on the rubber raft without pushing off any others?
In S.O.S. Whitewater, players want to assist animals onto the rubber raft that stands before them, but the raft has a rounded bottom so it teeters precariously as each animal boards. Each animal is on a wooden token, and three animals (out of 16) are drawn randomly to start the game. The active player must place one of these three tokens on the raft without touching the raft, stacking the animals, or making any animals fall. Oh, and animals of the same type much touch, so be ready to push a bit, if needed.
If the player gets the animal on board with no mishaps, she receives a cardboard animal token of the same type. If she knocks animals off, she must place these animals before her, then continue to load her animal on board, even though she won't claim a token. The player then draws a new wooden animal token from the bag.
Once all animals are on board or have fallen off, or all players have passed in turn, the round ends. The player who knocked off the most animals loses a scoring token. Everyone then turns these tokens face-down.
S.O.S. Whitewater ends after three rounds, and the player who collects the most pairs of animals wins the game.
