The Oregon Trail: Hunt for Food Card Game
The Oregon Trail: Hunt for Food Card Game Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Goal of the Game
To work together to collect 600 pounds of meat before everyone in your wagon party dies. It sounds simple, but it's not. Honest. We've played this lots of times, we've figured out what we think are the best strategies, and we still don't win every time.
The Short 'n' Sweet of It Is...
Everyone playing the game is working together to collect 600 lbs. of meat ...
If at least one member of your party survives to collect 600 lbs. of meat, everyone wins.
It's harder than it sounds.
Contents
- 108 Hunting Cards
- 24 Supply Cards
- 6 Dice
- 12 Bullet Tokens
- 1 Hunter Playing Piece
- 1 Mover Stand
The rulebook notes that four coasters are included to protect the table. They have nothing to do with the play of the game.
Set Up
- Separate the Hunting Cards from the Supply Cards and shuffle them separately.
- Place four Supply Cards face up in the center of the table. Place the remaining Supply Cards face down, in a stack.
- Deal out all of the Hunting Cards, face down, to form a 6 x 6 grid, with 3 cards per stack.
- Give one die to each player.
- Place the Hunter Playing Piece into the Mover Stand.
Illustration 1: Hunting Card Grid — 6 cards wide, 6 cards long, 3 cards deep. All cards face down.
Starting the Game
The person who has seen a squirrel most recently goes first, by placing the Hunter on any stack of cards on the outermost edge of the grid and rolling the die.
Tip: Don't start on a corner—you could be trapped by obstacles and die quickly.
The number shown on the die determines the number of actions you must use on this turn: you can flip over cards, move, and/or shoot. Each of these activities counts as one action, and you can do them in any order that you like.
Flipping Cards
The number on the die not only determines how many actions you get, it also determines the farthest card away you can flip over on this turn. For example, if you roll a "3," you can flip over a card that is up to three stacks away from the Hunter at any point on your turn. You can only flip and move horizontally or vertically. You may not flip or move diagonally. You may not flip the card that the Hunter is standing on while he is standing on it.
No diagonal flips are allowed.
Your goal is to clear a path, with no obstacles, between the Hunter and Animal Cards, so you can shoot animals and get enough meat to save your friends and family.
Illustration 2: Flipping Cards — Die result 3. The die result determines how far the Hunter can flip cards: stacks up to three spaces away, horizontally or vertically, marked A and B on the illustration.
Each action you take deducts from the number you rolled. If you rolled a 3 and flipped over a card, you now have 2 actions remaining. You can move, flip, or shoot 2 more times on this turn, in any order that you choose (for example, you could flip, shoot, and then flip again).
Illustration 3: Die result 3. Actions taken: 1 – Flipped Card. Actions remaining: 2. Options: F = Flip Card, M = Move Hunter.
If you flip over a Hunting Card with a calamity on it, your turn (and possibly your life) is over, even if you have more actions remaining. Remove the calamity from play, follow the instructions on the card, and place it face up in front of you.
Moving the Hunter
On their turns, players may move the Hunter from one stack to a stack next to it. This counts as one action. The Hunter may not move diagonally, and the Hunter may not move onto the same stack twice on the same turn.
The Hunter cannot move through an obstacle; you must move the Hunter around it.
When you move the Hunter off of stacks with a face-up Clearing Card, remove those Clearing Cards from play at the end of your turn. When there are no more cards in a stack, that space becomes a permanent clearing.
Illustration 4: Legal Moves/Flips. Moves and card flips may never be performed on a diagonal. All moves must be made to adjacent squares only. Options: F = Flip Card, M = Move Hunter.
Collecting & Playing Supply Cards
When you land on an Abandoned Wagon Card, you may, at your option, select the Supply Card of your choice from the stack and place it face up on the table. After taking a Supply Card, turn the Abandoned Wagon Card sideways—it is now an empty wagon and acts as an obstacle.
If you choose not to take a Supply Card on this turn you may continue to move onto and through the abandoned wagon, and you can return to it and collect a Supply Card on a future turn. It does not cost an action to take a Supply Card.
Illustration 5: Abandoned Wagons. Once used to draw a Supply Card, an Abandoned Wagon should be turned sideways to indicate that it is both empty and an obstacle.
At any time, any player can suggest that players play a Supply Card (to remedy a calamity that a player has experienced). Players discuss whether or not to play the Supply Card to remedy a particular calamity, and then all players except the player with the calamity vote. The player who has the calamity can initiate and join in the discussion, but can only cast a vote if there is a tie.
After using a Supply Card, the Supply Card and the calamity it remedies are removed from play.
Shooting at Animals
You must have a clear path to shoot at an animal or be on the stack next to it. You may not shoot through cards that have not been flipped, and you may not shoot through obstacles, abandoned wagons, empty wagons, or other animals.
It costs one action and one Bullets Token (100 bullets) to shoot at an animal. When you decide to shoot at an animal, read the Animal Card so you'll know what numbers you need to roll. All players roll their dice at the same time—to kill an animal, every player must roll one of the numbers needed.
If you kill the animal, remove the card from play and place it face up on the table next to any face-up Supply Cards. You now have 100 pounds of meat toward your goal of 600 pounds.
Illustration 6: Clear Line to Shoot. The top example shows an animal within the Hunter's line of sight. This animal can be shot. The second example shows an animal with an obstacle in the way, preventing it from being shot.
If you did not kill the animal, players vote to decide if they will shoot at the animal again. Shooting again counts as another action and it costs another Bullets Token for each round of shooting. Players who already rolled one of the correct numbers during any of the rounds of shooting on this turn do not need to roll again; they hold onto their numbers.
If you miss an animal and choose not to shoot again, or if you are out of actions on this turn, remove that Animal Card from play—your prey has escaped.
If players do not shoot at an animal, that animal remains in place, face up. If the Hunter moves onto that space, remove that Animal Card from play—you have scared it away.
Illustration 7: Shooting at Two Animals. If 2 animals can be shot from the same position, shoot each in turn.
As players die, they pass their dice to the next player to the left who is still alive—live players will roll all the dice they have each time they shoot (but not when they roll to see how many actions they get on a turn). The same quantity of correct numbers is still needed to kill an animal as at the start of the game, even after players die. So, for example, if there are four players in the game and two expire on the Trail, the other two will each roll two dice. If they are shooting at a bison, for example, they will still need a combination of 4 ones and/or twos to kill the bison.
Illustration 8: Trapped Hunter. If the Hunter is blocked by obstacles then the Hunter is Trapped and all the players die.
Special Rules for Playing with the Original Game
Just as in the original Oregon Trail computer game, you can choose to hunt for food at any time. When a majority of players vote to hunt, stop building the trail and set up the Hunt for Food Game.
You can stop playing at any time you choose (even if you are trapped by obstacles). Leave the stacks set up. At that point, you get to carry back to the original game any Animal Cards or Supply Cards that you have earned. You may trade in 200 pounds of Animal Cards (meat) for one 200-pound Food Card from the Shop if one is available. If not, use the 200 pounds of Animal Cards just as you would a Food Card. Alternatively, you may trade in 400 pounds of meat for any Supply Card in the Shop (just as with other Supply Cards, you can trade in two cards for one of your choice).
If you choose to start hunting another time, place the Hunter on any stack on the outermost edge of the grid and begin play again.
When players die during the Hunting Game, write their names and a short epitaph on the tombstone side of the Roster Card, and erase their names from the other side. They are now out of both games.
Winning (and Losing) the Game
Play continues until:
- You collect 600 pounds of meat (note that the most any one card can count toward this total is 100 pounds)
- The Hunter is trapped and can't flip any more cards, in which case all players die and the game is over
- All players die gruesome deaths from calamities
- You use up all the bullets in the game (the 12 sets you started with, plus the four in the Supply Card deck)
Card Types
The Oregon Trail Hunting for Food Card Game includes two kinds of cards: Hunting Cards and Supply Cards.
Hunting
Hunting Cards have yellow backs.
- Animals – Bison, bear, deer, squirrels, and rabbits—these are the cards you are trying to collect.
- Obstacles – Trees, flowers, rocks, bushes—these cards block your movement and your ability to shoot at animals. Obstacles can kill you too; if you are trapped you can't move past them.
- Clearing Cards – These cards have nothing on them—you can move and shoot through them.
- Calamities – Disease, drowning, snakebite, and more—you want to avoid these cards if you can. Nothing good comes from them.
- Abandoned Wagons – Scavenge for supplies from wagons that didn't make it to Oregon. Abandoned wagons appeared in the original Oregon Trail software, but not in the Hunting module. If you're a purist you can remove them from the game, but your chances of dying go way up.
Supply
Supply Cards have purple backs. Supply Cards are collected from abandoned wagons and are used to remedy calamities. Unlike in the original computer game, players share Supply Cards and vote on how and when to use them.
Supply Cards shown on the card-types panel: Clean Water, Crutch, Medicine, Spare Parts, Compass, 100 Bullets.
Sample Play
Tatiana, Greg, Kelly, and Julie are playing The Oregon Trail Hunt for Food Card Game.
Tatiana saw a squirrel out her front window this morning, so she goes first. She places the Hunter on top of a card on the outside edge of the Card Grid. She rolls her die, and gets a 3. She counts out 3 stacks from the Hunter token. Flipping the top card of that stack, she reveals a Clearing (action 1). She uses the rest of her actions (actions 2 & 3) and moves 2 spaces. Play passes to the left.
Play passes to Greg, who rolls a 2. He counts out one stack from the Hunter token and flips the top card over (action 1). He gets a Dehydration Calamity Card. He picks up that card and places it in front of himself. His turn is over.
Play passes to Kelly, who is sitting to Greg's left. She rolls a 3. She flips over a card that is 3 spaces away, revealing a bear (action 1). She flips over the next closest card between the Hunter and the Bear, and it shows an Abandoned Wagon (action 2). Kelly uses the rest of her actions to move onto the Abandoned Wagon space (action 3) and draw a Supply Card. She chooses a Bullet Supply Card, reasoning that bullets are in short supply. Kelly hopes that another Abandoned Wagon will turn up before another Dehydration card, so that the players can select a water card save Greg. She turns the Abandoned Wagon sideways to indicate that it is now an obstacle. Her turn is complete.
Play passes to Julie, who is to Kelly's left. Julie rolls a 4. She cannot flip over any cards that are 4 spaces away, so she moves the Hunter three spaces (actions 1-3) to line up for a shot at the Bear. To kill a Bear, players must roll either a 1 or a 2. The hunting party spends a bullet token to take the shot. Everyone rolls their dice simultaneously. Tatiana rolls a 1, Greg rolls a 2, Kelly rolls a 1, and Julie rolls a 1. The Bear is removed from play and placed face up beside the card grid to indicate that 100 lbs. of food has been collected.
Play now passes back to Tatiana, who is to Julie's left. Tatiana rolls a 1, and flips over a card one space away (action 1). It is another Dehydration Calamity Card. Greg is now dead and out of the game, since no Clean Water was found and given to him before this Dehydration Card was drawn. Greg hands his die to Kelly.
Play now passes to Kelly, since Greg is out of the game. Kelly rolls her die and gets a 3. She counts out 1 space away and flips that card over (action 1). It reveals a squirrel animal card. Kelly elects to use her next action to shoot at the squirrel (action 2). The hunting party spends a bullet token to take a shot at the squirrel.
To successfully shoot a squirrel, the target number for the dice is 3 or 4. Everyone rolls their dice at the same time. Tatiana rolls a 4, Julie rolls a 3, and because Kelly has 2 dice now, she rolls a 2 and a 1. The hunting party has 2 of the three numbers that they need to shoot the squirrels. Kelly chooses to use her remaining action to shoot at the squirrel again (action 3).
A second bullet token is spent and set aside. Tatiana rolls her dice again, and this time she rolls 4 and 3. The squirrel has been shot, and the card is placed beside the bear card at the side of the card grid. The hunting party now has 200 pounds of meat.
Good luck … you'll need it.