Reindeer Races Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Object of the Game
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • Draw a Card
  • Move a Reindeer
  • Moving a Reindeer by Leaping
• Action Spaces
• End of the Game
• Examples

Components

77 "Movement" cards, 27 "Track" cards, 16 "Reindeer" pawns, 16 bases, 15 "Reward" tiles, and 1 rules booklet.

Object of the Game

Score the greatest number of "Reward" points.

Each player races a team of 4 Reindeer across the 5 tracks available to them, in order to collect as many "Reward" points as possible. When a track has no more rewards, the game ends and the player with the highest total score wins.

Setup

1. Each player chooses a team of 4 Reindeer and assembles the 4 corresponding pawns.
2. Create the playing area: 1.1 - Shuffle the 27 "Track" cards. 1.2 - Place 5 rows of cards, face up, so as to form the 5 tracks of the game. Place 3 cards in the first row, 4 in the second, 5 in the third, 6 in the fourth, and 7 in the fifth. 1.3 - Set aside the 2 surplus cards, which will not be used during this game. 1.4 - Sort the "Reward" tiles by type. Then place them, by category and in decreasing order, at the end of each track, according to the diagram below. Each track is identified by the "Reward" symbol that characterises it. Thus, the track made of 3 cards is the Track of Letters to Santa Claus, the track made of 4 cards is the Track of Christmas Decorations, the track made of 5 cards is the Track of Christmas Desserts, the track made of 6 cards is the Track of Christmas Presents, and the track made of 7 cards is the Track of Christmas Trees.
3. Shuffle the "Movement" cards and deal 5 cards to each player.
4. Place the remaining cards in a face-down pile near the tracks to form "The Draw Pile".
5. Keep a free space near the tracks to form "The Discard Pile".
6. The youngest player begins the game, then play continues clockwise.

Track diagram (not reproduced).

Gameplay

On their turn, each player must choose between "Draw a Card" and "Move a Reindeer".

Draw a Card

1. Take the top 2 cards of "The Draw Pile" and add them to your hand.
2. If you have more than 7 cards in your hand, you must discard the surplus card(s) to "The Discard Pile" until you have 7. Your turn then ends.
3. When "The Draw Pile" is empty, shuffle "The Discard Pile" to form a new one.

Move a Reindeer

1. To move one of your reindeer, you must discard one or more cards. You may play any number of cards from your hand as long as the objects shown on the cards are identical. For example, if you have one card showing 1 "Christmas Present" and one card showing 2 "Christmas Presents", you may discard them together. However, you may not discard, at the same time, a card showing 1 "Christmas Present" and a card showing 2 "Christmas Logs".
2. "Santa's Elves" act as jokers and may be played with other "Santa's Elves" or added to other cards. For example, if you have one card showing 1 "Santa's Elf", one card showing 1 "Christmas Present" and one card showing 2 "Christmas Presents", you may discard them together. However, you may not discard, at the same time, a card showing 1 "Santa's Elf", a card showing 1 "Christmas Present" and a card showing 2 "Christmas Logs".
3. Count the total number of objects on the cards you discarded (each "Santa's Elf" card counts as 1), and move one of your reindeer that many spaces along the corresponding track. For example, if you discard a card showing 1 "Christmas Present" and a card showing 2 "Christmas Presents", you may advance one of your reindeer 3 spaces on the track corresponding to "Christmas Presents". If you play only "Santa's Elf" cards, you may choose the track of your choice. Warning! Each "Track" card is made of 2 spaces.
4. You may choose to move one of your reindeer already on one of the 5 tracks, or to bring a new reindeer into play on the track of your choice. It is quite possible to have several reindeer on the same track. However, you may move only one of them per turn.
5. Once a reindeer is placed on one of the 5 tracks, it stays there until it reaches the "Reward" tiles. However, it may change track or be temporarily removed from the race because of an "Action" space.
6. To reach the "Reward" tiles, move a reindeer one space beyond the last space of the track. If you have more movement than necessary, the extra is simply unused. There is therefore no need to have the exact count. Then take the tile with the highest value still available (for that track) and remove your reindeer from the race. Your turn is over. The reindeer may compete again on your next turn if you wish (on the same track or on another). "Reward" tiles must be visible to all players.

Moving a Reindeer by Leaping

1. Two reindeer may never share the same space on a track. If one of your reindeer lands on a space already occupied by another reindeer, it jumps over it at no "Movement" cost and stops on the next space (jumping always goes forward).
2. However, if you say "Leap!" while jumping over the reindeer occupying the landing space of your reindeer, that reindeer makes a prodigious leap (with great agility) of 2 spaces forward (the leap always goes forward).
3. If, in doing so, it lands on a space also occupied by another reindeer (once again), it may leap again over that one by 2 spaces forward, and so on... until it finally reaches a free space. Needless to say, you may leap over your own reindeer.

Action Spaces

Certain "Track" cards contain spaces showing particular scenery. Each of these scenery items indicates an action to take when one of your reindeer lands on it:

1. "Ice Patches": your reindeer slides 1 space in the direction shown by the wooden arrow. If this brings your reindeer onto a space occupied by another reindeer, apply the rules described in the chapter "Moving a Reindeer by Leaping". Reminder: a leap always goes forward, even when an "Ice Patch" makes you slide backward.
2. "Snowman": turn the "Track" card around, making it do a half-turn. The reindeer on the card must stay there when the card is turned. It will continue its race in the normal direction (forward) on the next turn.
3. "Skis": take 2 cards from "The Draw Pile" and discard any surplus cards if necessary.
4. "Yeti Tracks": your reindeer is frightened and leaves the track. Remove your reindeer from the race. The reindeer may compete again on your next turn if you wish (on the same track or on another).

If you leap over a reindeer that is on an action space, disregard that action space.

End of the Game

When all the "Reward" tiles of one of the tracks have been won, the game stops. Each player adds up the points on the "Reward" tiles collected by their reindeer. The player with the most points wins the game and the title of "King of the Reindeer". In case of a tie, the player holding the tile with the highest value wins. If there is still a tie, compare the second-highest value, and so on...

Strategic tip from the rules sheet: before taking the tile that would end the game, check the other players' scores.

Examples

Example 1: The blue player plays 1 "Christmas Log" and 1 "Santa's Elf". They can therefore move their reindeer 2 spaces on the "Christmas Log" track (1). They leap over the green reindeer and move 2 more spaces (2). Unluckily, they land on an "Ice Patch" space and must go back 1 space (3). They land again on an "Ice Patch" space and must go back 1 more space (4).

Example 2: The green player plays a card showing 2 "Christmas Logs". Rather than moving a reindeer already on the track, they choose to bring a second reindeer into play. They move it 2 spaces (1), pass over a reindeer of their own team (2), leap again over the yellow reindeer (3), slide on an "Ice Patch" (4), leap over the blue reindeer (5), and finally slide onto the "Reward" tile (6). They take the tile and remove their reindeer. As there are no more "Reward" tiles on that track, the game ends and scoring begins.