Trailblazers: Sasquatch Expansion Pack Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Game Turn
  • Tips
• Building a Trail
• Player Communication
  • Tips
• Sasquatch Discovered!
  • Tips
• Sasquatch Pursuit
  • Goal
  • Preparation
  • Pursuit Begins!
  • Reminder!
  • Ending the Pursuit
  • Tips
• Sasquatch Not Discovered
  • If One of the Players Had the Sasquatch Card
  • If No Player Had the Sasquatch Card
  • Reminder!

Components

• 3 hybrid base cards
• 5 character cards (4 tourists + 1 Sasquatch)
• 1 Sasquatch lair card
• 6 discard tally tiles
• 1 tally marker
• 1 Sasquatch figure

You will also need:

• 135 trail cards
• 3 base cards

These components are found in the travel version of Trailblazers (and in other editions of the base game). Players: 2–4. Playing time: 30 minutes. Age: 14+.

Setup

1. Among all the character cards, find the Sasquatch card and set it aside. Then add to it as many tourist cards as there are players in the current game. Return the remaining character cards to the box; they will not be needed. For example, if you are playing with three players, the stack of character cards formed at this step should contain 3 tourist cards and 1 Sasquatch card.
2. Shuffle the stack of character cards and deal each player 1 card face down. Set the last remaining card aside face down. Players secretly look at the character card they have received and then place it in front of them face down. Remember that your character card is confidential information!
3. From the base cards, form 1 vertical column. Next to it, place the 6 discard tally tiles, in order from 1 to 12 (see the illustration below).

[Illustration: a column of three base cards, with six discard tally tiles beside it, numbered 1|2, 3|4, 5|6, 7|8, 9|10 and 11|12 along the bottom.]

4. Shuffle all 135 trail cards, form a deck and place it so that all players have access to it. Place the 3 hybrid base cards next to the deck. Then each player takes 2 trail cards from the top of the deck.
5. The first player is the one who most recently went hiking, cycling or kayaking. You may also choose the first player at random.

Game Turn

Starting with the first player and continuing clockwise, players take turns placing either a trail card or a hybrid base card in the centre of the table, until the Sasquatch is discovered or the game ends.

On your turn, you must choose and place a hybrid base card if one of the following conditions is met:

1. It is the first turn of the game.
2. The previous player placed the fourth or eighth trail card in the longest discard row.

[Illustration: three discard rows beside the hybrid base cards, with the card in the longest row circled.]

If you place a hybrid base card, you do not place a trail card on that turn. In this case, you keep 2 trail cards in hand until your next turn.

If on this turn you do not place a hybrid base card, choose a trail card from your hand and place it in the centre of the table. Move the remaining trail card in your hand to one of the three discard rows, face down. The discarded card takes the leftmost free space in that row.

After placing one trail card and discarding the other, draw 2 new trail cards from the top of the deck and end your turn. If on your turn you placed a hybrid base card, you do not discard trail cards from your hand; you leave them for your next turn. Then the turn passes to the next player.

The game continues until the Sasquatch is discovered OR a twelfth card is placed in one of the discard rows (see the back of the booklet for details).

Tips

If your character card is a tourist card, you need to prepare each of the three discard rows by the time the Sasquatch is discovered. In this case you should try:

• to discard trail cards on which the longest trail matches the type of the base in that row. So, if the longest trail on the trail card you are discarding is pedestrian and the two shorter ones are water, you need to place it in the row where the pedestrian trail base is placed;
• not to discard trail cards that show animals;
• to keep the number of trail cards equal in all three discard rows. This will help delay the placement of the next hybrid base card and the end of the game.

If your character card is the Sasquatch card, try not to let the tourists discover you and catch you. In this case you should try:

• to make the longest trail on the trail card you are discarding NOT match the type of the base. So, if the longest trail on the trail card you are discarding is pedestrian and the two shorter ones are water, it is more advantageous to place it in the row where the bicycle trail base is placed. If the card shows trails of all three types, try to make sure that, when discarding, the type of the longest trail does not match the type of the base card;
• to discard trail cards that show animals;
• to place trail cards in the rows where the most cards have already been discarded. This will help bring closer the placement of the next hybrid base card and the end of the game.

Building a Trail

You must place a trail card or base card orthogonally in relation to the cards already laid in the centre of the table, so that it touches them partially or completely.

A trail card or base card may be placed on top of trail cards already laid (covering them partially or completely), but it may not be placed on top of base cards.

You may connect trails of different types to each other.

The start and the end of a loop trail must touch the same hybrid base card, on the sides of that card that correspond to the type of the trail.

Allowed:

• Placing a card orthogonally in relation to the cards already laid.
• Placing a card on top of trail cards already laid.
• Connecting trails of different types to each other.

Not allowed:

• Placing cards on top of base cards.
• Breaking the rule of orthogonal placement in relation to cards already laid.

Player Communication

To lay loop trails, the players must work together. However, all you may tell the other players about the cards in your hand is which type the longest trail on a card is ("The longest trails on my cards are pedestrian and water"). You may also say that you have a good card for this spot, or that you can help connect these two trail segments. Try to give the other players the fullest possible information about your cards, but do not describe the configuration of the trails shown on them and similar details.

When a player has chosen and revealed one of the trail cards, the other players may openly discuss where and how it can be placed.

The players may also openly discuss which hybrid base card to place next, and where.

Tips

The players may openly voice their suspicions about other players if their game actions seem strange and illogical. At the same time, a player who has received the Sasquatch card may deceive the others about which cards he holds, voice suspicions, and simply give bad advice. His main task is not to fall into the tourists' hands!

Sasquatch Discovered!

The Sasquatch may be discovered in the course of the game in two cases:

1. The player who received the Sasquatch card announces this himself, after placing a trail card. In this case, place the Sasquatch figure on the trail card just laid. Important! A player cannot announce his role if the trail card he placed touches a base card, partially or completely.
2. A player who received a tourist card may accuse another player as soon as that player has finished his turn. This is possible even if the accused player placed his trail card next to a base card. After this, the accused player immediately reveals his character card:
   • If he has a tourist card, the game ends immediately in a defeat for the tourists. In this game the Sasquatch celebrates victory! If none of the players had the Sasquatch card, the tourists are still considered the losing side.
   • If he has the Sasquatch card, he immediately places the Sasquatch figure on the trail card or hybrid base card that he has just laid in the centre of the table.

Regardless of how the Sasquatch was discovered, after his character card is revealed the tourists begin pursuing him.

Tips

If the player who received the Sasquatch card wants to reveal himself, he should try to do so in the place where it will be hardest for the tourists to lay a loop trail. For example, if he has a card in hand on which all the trails are pedestrian, and he can place it as far as possible from other pedestrian trail segments and the corresponding base, it will be advantageous for him to reveal himself by placing this trail card. Remember that the tourists may place base cards even while the Sasquatch is being pursued, so do not reveal yourself too early.

If the players who received tourist cards are sure they have worked out the Sasquatch, it is advantageous for them to announce it at the moment he places a card that can easily be attached to one of the loop trails.

In addition, the tourists should try to place their trail and base cards so that the player who received the Sasquatch card has no opportunity to reveal himself as far as possible from other sections of trails and from the corresponding base.

Sasquatch Pursuit

Goal

The tourists must catch the Sasquatch. To do this, they must lay a loop trail that uses the trail card on which the Sasquatch figure stands.

If the Sasquatch figure is on a hybrid base card, the tourists need only lay a loop trail whose start and end touch that base in order to win. If the Sasquatch figure is on a card that is already part of a loop trail, the tourists win immediately.

Preparation

After the Sasquatch is discovered, the players do the following:

1. All players discard their trail cards from hand. Do not place these cards in the discard rows!
2. The player who received the Sasquatch card takes all the cards laid in the top discard row, shuffles them, forms a stack and places it face down next to the corresponding base card. He then repeats the same action for the two remaining discard rows.
3. Turn over the Sasquatch lair card so that the animal track is on its front side. Place the tally marker on the space "0".

Pursuit Begins!

From now until the end of the game, only the players who received tourist cards will take turns.

The tourist sitting to the left of the Sasquatch goes first. Then the turn passes clockwise. Always skip the Sasquatch; he no longer takes part in the game!

If hybrid base cards remain in the common supply, on your turn you may choose one of them and place it. If no such cards remain, or you do not want to place them on your turn, you must place a trail card:

1. Take 2 trail cards from the top of the starting deck, or from the top of one of the stacks formed from the discard rows. You may take both cards from the top of the same deck or from two different decks. You may examine the first card you take before deciding where to take the second from.

   If at least one of the trail cards you have revealed shows an animal, move the tally marker to the next space on the animal track. You always move the marker one space, even if both cards show animals.

   [Illustration: face-up trail cards showing animals. Caption: "So the tally marker moves to the next space on the animal track."]

2. Choose which card you will place and which you will put into the box.

Important! You may not place trail cards or base cards on top of the card on which the Sasquatch figure is located.

Reminder!

Since, during the game, the player who received the Sasquatch card also moved trail cards into the discard rows, the corresponding stacks may contain both suitable and unsuitable cards, as well as cards showing animals. At the same time, cards from the starting deck may be safer in terms of animals appearing, but less useful for laying a loop trail.

Ending the Pursuit

The tourists win as soon as a loop trail is laid that includes the card with the Sasquatch figure. But do not forget the animal track! If the tally marker moves to the space "5", the tourists must completely finish the necessary loop trail before the end of the current player's turn and not let the Sasquatch escape. If they fail to do so, the Sasquatch wins!

Tips

When the tourists begin pursuing the Sasquatch, their main goal changes. If before this they were laying loop trails in order to earn victory points for them, now they must lay a loop trail that includes the card on which the Sasquatch figure stands. And they must do it as quickly as possible! So the players may boldly place cards on top of cards already laid, covering them partially or completely, if this helps them lay the necessary loop trail.

Sasquatch Not Discovered

If the Sasquatch card was never revealed during the game, the game ends at the moment one of the players places a twelfth card in one of the discard rows.

Important! You may accuse the player who placed the twelfth card in one of the discard rows of having the Sasquatch card as his character card. Depending on which character card he has, this leads either to the start of the pursuit of the Sasquatch or to an immediate defeat for the tourist team.

If the Sasquatch has not been discovered by the end of the game, reveal all the character cards, including the one that was set aside during setup.

If One of the Players Had the Sasquatch Card

1. Count the victory points earned by the Sasquatch. To do this, turn all the trail cards placed in the discard rows face up and count the total number of animals shown on them. Then, depending on the number of players at the table, multiply the resulting number by 4, 5 or 6 (for 2, 3 or 4 players, respectively). Thus, in a three-player game, the Sasquatch's total is 50 points (see the illustration below).

[Illustration: the trail cards from the discard rows laid out face up, with the animals circled.]

2. Count the victory points earned by the tourists. They earn victory points for the loop trails they laid, according to the rules of the base game Trailblazers. If the total points earned by the tourists are greater than or equal to the Sasquatch's points, the tourists win! If the total is less, the Sasquatch wins this game.

If No Player Had the Sasquatch Card

Count the victory points for the loop trails laid, according to the rules of the base game Trailblazers. Depending on the total points, determine how successfully you played:

• Fewer than 50 points. This is a defeat! But next time it will work out!
• 50+ points. This is a success!
• 65+ points. You showed incredible play!
• 80+ points. An unreachable result!

Reminder!

During the game, the Sasquatch will try to place as many cards showing animals as possible in the discard rows. Therefore, the tourists must place as few such cards there as possible, so as not to let the Sasquatch win. Cards showing animals can greatly affect the Sasquatch's final score!