Out of the Woods Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Notebook: Action Card Reference
• Notebook: Rules
• Rules and FAQ

Notebook: Action Card Reference

Rules in the Notebook. Action Card reference:

• Block - Can be blocked. - Stops the action of the last card played. When played on a character card, the player that played them picks the card(s) back up.
• Reflect - Can be blocked or reflected. - Reflect a player's Attack, Burden, or Wilds back at them. Reverses direction of play.
• Burden - Can be blocked or reflected. - After playing this card, give the next player a card of your choice from your deck too.
• Attack - Can be blocked or reflected. - The next player draws 2 cards from the deck, and their turn is skipped.
• Skip - CANNOT BE BLOCKED OR REFLECTED! - Skip the next player's turn.
• Bedevil 2 / 4 - Can be blocked or reflected. - Next player picks up 2 or 4 cards from the deck. Player who played it can change the House.

Notebook: Rules

Snap points in the middle of the playmat for draw and discard piles. Discard marker is a stamp, so it can be removed it you'd like to keep the playmat art looking clean.

Shuffle the deck and deal each player 8 cards then place the rest of the deck face down on the table. Starting with the dealer and going clockwise, take turns in placing one card face up on the table. You win by being the first person to get rid of all the cards from your hand, in essence you have escaped Out Of The Woods.

Play by either matching the House (color frame) or playing an Action Card. Action Cards may have houses, but they do not need to match to be played. This is the primary way to change the House.

If you are unable to play, or do not wish to play a card, you draw a card. This ends your turn.

If the cards in the discard pile follow a story by having all four cards of the same story in succession, the player you played the last card of that story WINS automatically! If you have all four in your hand, you may play that AT THE SAME TIME to also win automatically.

In games with 3 or 4 players, the remaining players can continue playing until only one person is left with cards in their hand, who is then declared the loser and is eaten by wolves. Om-nom-nom.

Rules and FAQ

From the publisher's Rules and FAQ page. Questions are reproduced in the order and numbering printed on the page (the page runs 1 to 7, then 9, 9; no item 8 appears).

1. If player can't play any card from his hand (doesn't have a matching house card) then How to play? You don't have to play a card, you can pick from the deck if you want instead.

2. If a player has to pick up some cards from deck, but deck has no cards, then how to play? If the deck is fully used, pick up all the cards already played, give them a shuffle and use those as the new deck to keep playing.

3. If I have only 'block' card and not be attacked then Can I play 'block' card? Yes, you can play any action card at any time regardless of if it even makes sense.

4. If I have only 'reflect' card and not be attacked then Can I play 'reflect' card? Yes, you can play any action card at any time regardless of if it even makes sense.

5. If I have only 'burden' then can I play 'burden' card? Yes, you can play any action card at any time regardless of if it even makes sense.

6. If able to play 'burden' then does next player receive a card? Yes, give the next player a card from your own hand that you do not want.

7. If you reflect a burden, who gets what? The best way to think about a reflect card is that it simply becomes the action card you're reflecting, so there's no need to try and imagine the process in your head. So if you reflect a burden, you then get to give that person another card from your hand too as if you had simply played a Burden.

8. Do you need to keep the cards spread out so people can track which story is in progress? You can do this if you want, if you think it'll make the game more enjoyable, but generally we did not play like this and we kept the stories straight in our heads to make it a bit more challenging.

9. Is it really legal to put down all four cards in a single story (provided the house matches)? Yes. So if you suspect someone is trying to do this, keep a Block handy to thwart them.