Cache Me If You Can!: The Geocaching Board Game
Cache Me If You Can!: The Geocaching Board Game Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Object of the Game
Be the first player to earn 18 points. Points are accumulated by collecting Geocaches and Geocoins.
Set Up
There are two types of game boards in this game. The main board is called the Town. The two additional boards are the Caching area. The Caching area boards are set up so that the path leading into the Caching area is adjacent to one of the three trail head squares on the Town board. The boards can be set up in a variety of ways, changing how the game plays each time. Boards can be set side by side so that only one trail head on the Town board is being used. The trail heads are indicated by the trail signs on the Town board.
Shuffle the Caching area cards and place face down in every space that does not have a Trail on the Caching area boards. Each player starts with a playing piece, a GPS/PEN indicator card, three Equip Cards and a randomly drawn Character Card. The GPS/PEN, Equip Cards and Character cards are placed face up in front of each player.
Each Equip card has two pieces of equipment illustrated, the player must decide which item they would like to use by placing the card in front of them with the item selected towards the game board. The card can only be flipped to change the equipment it represents at the Swag Store.
If a player should lose their GPS or PEN during play, they turn the GPS/PEN card face down until they are able to recover it by going to the Swag or Sporting Goods Store. No caches can be taken if the player has lost their GPS or Pen.
Movement
All players start at the Moonrise Coffee Cafe space on the Town board. The player that has the longest hair goes first. Play progresses in a clockwise direction. Players move 1 space per turn off of the trails and up to 3 spaces per turn on the Trails. Players may not move their playing pieces diagonally. Once a player interacts with a space, no more movement is allowed.
Sporting Goods Store
When players enter the Sporting Goods Store they will follow the arrows to create a custom path. Movement in the Sporting Goods Store is one space per turn. The parking lot with the Store label printed on it is treated like a trail space.
You may choose some of the following at the Store:
- Take an Equip Card: Draw an Equip card from the deck. The player must decide which item they would like the card to represent at this time. When the Equip deck is empty, it is NOT reshuffled.
- Take an Event Card: Draw a card and follow the directions. Cards fall into 3 categories – use immediately, use during your turn, or use at any time. Those that may be saved for later use may be kept face down in front of the player. If the conditions of the event cannot be met, the event is ignored and the card is discarded. When the Event cards run out, the discarded Event cards are reshuffled and stacked face down.
- Secretly look at Cards: The player may "peek" at cards in the Caching area at this time. Do not let the other players see the contents of the cards.
Hospital
When you are sent to the hospital you immediately place your piece on the Emergency Room Space. If you have Medical Insurance you may exit the next turn. If you do not, move your piece through the Hospital one space at a time until the exit is reached.
Entering the Caching Area
Players can only enter or exit the Caching area at the Trail Heads. The Caching area contains caches, hazards, special actions, and non-action cards. Movement along the trails is three spaces at a time. As soon as a player leaves the trail they stop immediately.
When a Caching area card is landed on it is flipped over (revealed). The card is either taken by the player or left in place. If taken, replace with another card face down underneath the player's piece. The player must move off the piece and return on a separate turn to look at a newly placed card. If revealed and not taken, the card is left in the square face up and affects all players that land on it after. If another player's piece is on the card when a second player lands on it, the card only affects the second player.
If the card is a cache, it is placed face up in front of the player that found it. The cache value will then count towards the player's total points. The player MUST have a GPS/PEN to find caches. Some caches will require additional equipment so that they can be taken.
If it is a Multi-Cache, the card is taken and placed in front of the player, but no points are awarded until all parts are collected. The Super-Multi and Multi-Cache cards are NOT interchangeable.
Note: The Trees, Clearing, and Rocky Ground cards have no actions associated with them. Movement is one square at a time over those cards. A face up Trail card turns the space it is in into a regular trail square.
Geocoins
When a cache with the coin icon is captured, take a Geocoin from the Geocoin deck. Place the coin with the coin icon (1 Point) face up until its goal is completed. Once the goal is completed, flip the card over and use the new value toward the point total. The coin from a multi-cache can only be taken after all the caches in the series have been collected. Once a Geocoin has completed its goal, it retains the new value even if it changes hands.
THE CAVE! Caching Area Card
When the cave card is revealed, you have awakened the bear! The player landing on the card and any player on any of the 8 adjacent Caching area spaces immediately go to the hospital. As long as the bear is awake, no one may stop on any of the adjacent cards. If a player is forced on to one of those squares, they immediately go to the Hospital. A player with the Snack card may enter one of the 8 spaces (or if they or any player on one of the 8 spaces has the Snack card when the Cave card is revealed), discard the snack card and flip the cave card back over. This puts the bear back to sleep (they get sleepy after a meal).
Playing Characters
Each character has an ability that overrides a game rule. Characters may use their ability and flip a Caching area card in the same turn. The order of action is 1) Player ability 2) Poison Ivy effects 3) Flip Caching area card.
Two Player Game Recommendations
A two player game has more interest if there is only one trail used off of the town square. Both Caching area boards should be set side to side in order to create one rectangular shape.
Advanced Victory Conditions
The game ends in one of two ways: 1) The first player to reach 21 points AND end their turn while standing in the Geocaching Mega-Event square* OR 2) After ALL of the cards are revealed on any one of the Caching area boards, play will stop when the next player lands on the Geocaching Mega-Event square*.
*A player may not stand in the square to prevent a player with Poison Ivy from winning the game.