17 October 1903: The Esperanza ends up in a terrible storm and loses its battle against the elements. 163 people lose their lives, but a small group survives this disaster and washes ashore on the isle Juan Ansidad. For weeks they wait, hoping to be rescued, but they slowly run out of food. They come to realize that if they ever want to get home again, they will have to take matters into their own hands. A raft is carefully put together and with a small ration four brave survivors try their luck on the Pacific, looking for salvation. You have found the logbook in which the four survivors wrote down their adventures — their story, which lasted 21 days.

In the dice-driven survival board game 21 Days, you relive the events of 21 days recorded in this recovered logbook. The purpose of the game is to have (at least) one of the survivors rescued by the rescue ship on the 21st day. You do this by following the events described in the logbook and having the survivors, represented by two stacked dice per survivor, choose and perform actions on the various locations on the game board by using their placement dice.

Don't lose too many planks of the raft or else you will lose some of your survivors as well! In 21 Days, the four survivors are stuck together on a raft made out of six planks that are held loosely together. Some events during the 21 days may cause some planks to drift off. There are ways to prevent this, like saving up hope tokens or picking the right bottle cards. When the rescue ship enters the final spot on the rescue track and there are still survivors left on the raft, you will be saved and win the game.

21 Days is a dice-driven, Ameritrashy, game, so a lot depends on how you will roll the dice! However, there are ways to alter the dice, plan ahead, and make use of your survivor's special skills.