Der HeidelBÄR
Der HeidelBÄR Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Material
- 59 "bear-y" cards
- 1 blank card
- 1 rulebook
Object of the Game
The aim of the HeidelBÄR game is to describe and guess "bear-y" terms as successfully as possible. In exaggeratedly simple words: the player who has collected the most cards at the end of the game wins. The bear is in the detail, and so quite ordinary words containing "ber", "beer", "per" or of course "bär" quickly become genuine bear words.
Setup
Shuffle the cards as bear-ily as possible. Each player receives 3 cards face down onto their paws. Each player holds them so that they can see only their foremost card. The cards not dealt form the draw pile.
A starting player is drawn by lot. This player is now the active player.
Game Play
The player to the left of the active player says "up" ("oben") or "down" ("unten"). (This already describes the whole courtship of a bear; for this game it means that the active player must choose one term from the "upper" two or the "lower" two terms of their foremost card.)
After deciding, the active player places their foremost card, on which the term to be guessed is printed, face down in the middle of the table.
The active player must now try to paraphrase the bear word they chose. Their sentence may be at most 6 words long in total, and must always begin with "Dieser Bär..." ("This bear...") (so at most 4 further words remain).
Example: StripBÄR -> "Dieser Bär ... zieht sich professionell aus." ("This bear ... undresses professionally.")
When formulating the explanation, the active player should speak slowly and clearly, because now the other players are challenged. If any other player has an idea which "bear word" it might be, they FIRST slap their paw on the card lying in the middle of the table and THEN name their solution.
If the solution is correct, the paw-bear who named it receives the card in the middle and places it in front of themselves. This is what a victory point looks like in this game.
If the solution is not correct, the guessing is not yet over. The other players may also still give a guess, simply by calling it out, without any paw attack. However, each player may guess only once!
If their term was guessed, the active player receives 2 new cards from the draw pile, which they tuck behind their hand cards. This is also what victory points look like in this game.
If nobody could guess the bear word (after about 1 minute of silence, which even the active player should acknowledge), the active player sheepishly takes the card from the middle of the table and tucks it behind their hand cards. They keep their unguessed bear word to themselves, however.
In both cases, the next player clockwise is now the active player and takes their turn.
End of the Game and Scoring
The game ends when only one card (or no cards at all) remains on the draw pile.
Each player counts their hand cards and the cards lying in front of them (which they guessed). The player with the most cards is the winner and is celebrated with a collective growl from the group. This player has gained deep insights into the influence of bears on our language.
Golden Bear Rules & Tips
- Words with the same stem may not be used (e.g. for KleBÄR, not "Dieser Bär klebt").
- Translations into other languages are not allowed (e.g. for KleBär, not "Dieser Bär ist glue"). Generally used foreign words may, however, be used.
- Inexperienced bear cubs may be allowed to use 2 more words for their explanation; this raises their chances.
- For those who cannot decipher the bear language on the playing cards, a translation of the terms into human language is provided at www.heidelbaer.de in the download area of this game.
- For simplicity, the description of a bear may also begin with "Der Bär...", "Ein Bär..." or similar instead of "Dieser Bär...".