Bear Went Over the Mountain
Bear Went Over the Mountain Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 45 poker-size (2.5" x 3.5") landscape cards
- 18 mini-size (1.75" x 2.5") score cards
- 1 rule booklet
- Optional: crayons, colored pencils, etc. for custom-coloring cards; scratch paper for scoring
Note: This game can really grow as you play! Clear a large table, or just get down on the floor. Be sure to give each player plenty of space to arrange their cards.
Setup
What is it that Bear wants to see? Choose a set of score cards, either at random or your favorites, and set them face-up in the middle of the play area. For 2 players, choose 9 cards; for 3 or 4 players, 11 cards. Set the rest aside. Each of these cards will be worth one point at the end of the game. Parents of younger children may wish to hold back the more challenging habitat and elevation score cards.
Shuffle the landscape cards into a single face-down pile, and turn over the top 4 cards where all players can see and reach them.
How to Play
The player who most recently went hiking goes first; in case of a tie, let the youngest start. Turns move clockwise around the group.
On your turn, choose a single face-up card, replacing it with another from the pile. Place your card in front of you, facing up, adding each new card to the right of the previous one. The game continues until all players have a ten-card-long hike laid out before them.
Card edges do not need to match, and while it's fun to let your mountains and valleys climb up and down, it's not necessary to play. (If playing without habitat or elevation score cards, even fixed card order is optional.)
Types of Cards & Scoring
Each of the landscape cards has several features, shown in the card image and repeated in the icon bar at the bottom. They include animals, habitats, and changes in elevation. Depending on the score cards chosen for this game, some of these will be worth collecting to win the game, while others can more or less be ignored. See the Card Icons and Symbols section below for details on the card icons and symbols.
Animal cards go to the player with the most animals of that kind, either a single type (Cardinals) or a group (Small Mammals counts both Squirrels and Rabbits together).
Habitat cards score for the longest continuous area of that type. Each card has both a 'left' and 'right' habitat, marked at the opposite ends of the icon bar. The longest stretch of, say, meadows, collects the card. For ease of counting, consider each card as having two habitats, even if they are the same type.
Elevation cards score for the largest net up or down change on a hike. A mountain counts from the lowest point to the highest, from left to right. A valley counts from highest to lowest, again from left to right. No card has greater than a 2-point change in elevation, but if younger players have trouble with addition or subtraction, keep these cards out of play. (See Elevation Change Scoring below for more detail.)
Once all players have placed their ten cards, it's time to tally score. One by one, check each score card against each player's hike. The player with the most sights takes the card and gets 1 point; if players tie, then they share the card and each get 1 point. You may wish to keep scratch paper handy to record scores.
When all score cards have been collected, players count their total, including shared cards. The player with the most wins the game; that's the hike that Bear would like best! In the event of a tie, the player with the fewest shared score cards wins.
Elevation Change Scoring
Scoring for elevation changes may seem a bit puzzling at first, so here's an example to help illustrate it. Let's say you've made a partial hike. How do you determine the size of that mountain?
Always count elevation changes from left to right. A mountain goes UP; start counting at the lowest point and stop counting at the highest point. In the example hike, the mountain goes UP: 2 + 1 - 1 + 2 + 1 = 5. A valley does the same, following downward change from left to right. A mid-hike dip doesn't affect the net change, but you'll have to add and subtract to reach the sum.
"Net" means the difference between the start and end values, regardless of what happens in the middle. This is opposed to "gross," which only accounts for a single type of change, like adding together all of the up arrows and ignoring the downs. In the hike pictured in the example, the net gain is 5, but the gross upward climb is 6. Scoring is always based on net gain.
Other Ways to Play
The game's standard rules should work for most children ages 4 and up, although any particularly troublesome cards for your child may be removed without any real impact on gameplay. For older players, there are two variant modes of play that you may use with the same basic components.
'Big Kid' Card Drafting Rules
For a more competitive game for adults and older children, play with the following changes:
- Play with as many score cards as your group desires. If this is your first time, start with 11, drawn at random.
- Instead of a set of face-up draw cards, deal 10 cards to each player, setting the remainder aside, face-down and unseen. Keep this hand hidden.
- Each player selects a card from their hand, and lays it face-down on the table. Everyone then simultaneously passes the remaining cards to the player on the left. Continue until everyone has selected 4 cards.
- When each player has selected 4 cards, it's time to create your hike. Choose 3 of those cards and place them face-up on the table. Reserve 1 card face-down.
- Repeat the card drafting selection until you have 4 cards face-down again. Choose 3 more of your selected cards to add to your hike. They may be added to either the left or the right side, in any arrangement you see fit. Cards previously laid down may not be moved.
- Repeat the card drafting until you have 4 cards face-down once more. No cards should remain unselected. Complete your hike with your last cards. Score and determine winner(s) as per the standard rules.
'Big Kid' Tiebreaker!
Given the game's simple scoring system, close scores and ties are common. If you simply must have a winner, consider the following: tied players continue their hikes in a "sudden death" fashion, placing one additional card each, then reevaluating the score. The game ends when one player successfully claims an additional score card. Should you run out of cards without closure, the winner is the player with the best bear impression, as judged by the other players. Big growls!
'Big Kid' Solo Rules
For a more challenging solo game for adults and older children, play with the following changes:
- Set aside the following score cards: most birds; most small mammals; most medium mammals; most large mammals; most bears.
- Lay out the remaining score cards, face-up.
- Set aside the 5 landscape cards showing bears for the moment. Shuffle the rest and draw 5 cards; these will be the first in a series of 5 hikes. Arrange them vertically, with space to expand as needed.
- Divide the remaining landscape cards into 5 piles, shuffling 1 bear card into each. Stack them together, face down, without reshuffling.
- Draw a card from the top of the deck, adding it to one of your hikes, if possible. The following restrictions apply: 1) Habitats must match at card edges: hardwood to hardwood; conifer to conifer; meadow to meadow. 2) If you cannot place a card because there is no habitat match, set it in a discard pile, face up. 3) If you draw a bear card, you must play it to complete one of your hikes.
- If you draw a bear card, one of your hikes is now complete. If possible, a bear card must match the habitat on a card edge; if no such match exists, any open hike may be selected. No further cards may be added to this hike. In addition, you must now select the scoring for this hike, according to the following rules: 1) Each hike must have 1 habitat or 1 elevation score card. (5 total means 1 per hike.) 2) Each hike must have at least 1 animal score card, and not more than 2. Assign cards now, but save counting score until the end.
- If you have started a discard pile, you may select the top (visible) card to place instead of one from the draw pile.
- When all bear cards have been drawn, all hikes completed, and score cards assigned, total your score. Each score card tallies 1 point for its animal/habitat/elevation value, as you would score during standard play, but only for the hike to which it is assigned. Your final score is the sum total of the score card values.
Solo scoring: What kind of animal are you?
- Under 25: Nervous Squirrel!
- 25-34: Cautious Rabbit!
- 35-44: Industrious Skunk!
- 45-54: Clever Fox!
- 55+: Big Ol' Bear!
Card Icons and Symbols
Everything on the landscape cards has an icon at the bottom of the card, as well as a distinct symbol in the card's primary image. The score cards use both of these as well to illustrate just what Bear would like to see on her hike today. Below is a brief list of things you might find:
Animals: Birds
- Bluebird (Eastern bluebird): 13 total
- Cardinal (Northern cardinal): 13 total
- Goldfinch (American goldfinch): 13 total
Animals: Small Mammals
- Squirrel (Eastern gray squirrel): 11 total
- Rabbit (Eastern cottontail rabbit): 11 total
Animals: Medium Mammals
- Skunk (Striped skunk): 9 total
- Fox (Red fox): 9 total
Animals: Large Mammals
- Deer (White-tailed deer): 7 total
- Bear (American black bear): 5 total
Habitats
- Conifer forest: 30 total
- Hardwood forest: 30 total
- Meadow: 30 total
Elevation Changes
- Mountain (uphill): 6 double, 12 single
- Valley (downhill): 5 double, 14 single