First Snow Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Goal
• Cards
  • Land cards
  • Resources
  • Inventory cards
  • Score card
• Gameplay
  • Round overview
  • 1. Prepare the polar bear
  • 2. Form a landscape
    • - Add a land card to the landscape
    • - Place a camp
    • - Check for the polar bear
    • - Finish the landscape
    • - Resolve the polar bear
  • 3. Resolve the camps
    • - Craft new tools
    • - Damage and repair tools
    • - Score food
• Game end

Components

• 9 cards
  • 6 land cards
  • 2 inventory cards
  • 1 score card
• 8 six-sided dice
  • 3 red
  • 3 blue
  • 2 white
• 8 cubes
  • 4 red
  • 4 blue

Setup

Place the 6 land cards in the center of the table, summer side up. Choose one at random and flip it over to the winter side.

Players randomly pick a color and each take an inventory card, 4 cubes and 3 dice in their color and one white die to represent a polar bear.

• Place the cubes next to each player's inventory card. They are used to mark what the Inuit is carrying.
• The white die represents a polar bear. Players use it to secretly choose the location where the bear will roam in each round.
• One of each player's dice is used to keep score. Set the dice to the number one and place them next to the "0" slot on the score card. It means that the players start with 10 points.
• Two remaining dice of each player represent the camps and are used to mark visited locations. The numbers on the dice determine the player order. Place the dice in a row above the land cards in the following way:

This is the player order for the first round.

Goal

The game has 6 rounds. At the end of each round players gain points for:

• feeding their Inuit
• keeping him warm

At the end of the game players add points for all the tools (in a good condition) they carry. The player with the higher total score wins.

Cards

Land cards

The land cards are double sided. They start with the summer side facing up and as the game progresses they get flipped to the winter side.

Players build a different landscape (using all of the land cards) every round, placing their camps on the newly formed locations.

Two adjacent land cards form a location. An Inuit who camps on the location gets access to all of its combined resources.

Resources

There are 7 types of resources in the game:

4 kinds of food (berry, fish, bird, caribou)

• used for feeding the Inuit

3 crafting resources (wood, grass, stone)

• used for crafting and repairing tools
• wood is used for keeping the Inuit warm as well

Some of the resources are only available to you if you carry a specific tool.

Example: The above picture shows a completed location with four resources. A single wood is available without any tool, a bird if you carry a bow, a fish if you carry an axe and another fish if you carry a net.

Inventory cards

Players use their inventory card for tracking carried items (resources and tools).

When you obtain an item, mark it in your inventory with a cube. The Inuit can only carry up to four items at once, so you only need four cubes.

At any time you can throw away an item to make room for a new one.

(You can even use a tool and then throw it away to make a room for that newly gained resource.)

The inventory card has the following areas:

• craftable tools
• carried tools (good condition, damaged)
• unused cube
• carried food
• carried crafting resources
• resources required to craft the tool

Example: Red player has two fish and a spear (in a good condition). He has one unused cube so he could carry one more item.

Score card

When you gain a point, move your die one slot futher.

When you get to "9" and you should gain another point, simply increase the number on the die by one and move it next to the "0" slot again (showing 20 points).

Example: The red player has 16 points and the blue player has 20 points.

Gameplay

Round overview

1. Prepare polar bear
2. Form a landscape
   • For each die in the turn order:
     • Add a land card to the landscape
     • Place a camp
     • Check for the polar bear
   • Finish the landscape
   • Resolve the polar bear
3. Resolve the camps
   • Day camp
     • Craft new tools
     • Take the remaining resources
   • Night camp
     • Score (food and warmth)
     • Damage and repair tools
     • Craft new tools
     • Take the remaining resources
4. Readjust the turn order
5. Cool the land

1. Prepare the polar bear

Each player secretly sets their white die to the number corresponding to the land card where they want the polar bear to roam this round.

(Hide the die with your hand or with a cup.)

2. Form a landscape

In the order set for the round, players pick a land card, add it to the landscape and place a camp on it. After a camp gets placed, the opponent checks whether the Inuit encounters the polar bear and if so, places their white die next to that camp.

When all four camps are placed, finish the landscape by adding the two remaining land cards. Resolve the polar bear if there has been an encounter.

The finished landscape should now consist of all six land cards with the four camps placed on it.

- Add a land card to the landscape

Choose any one of the still available land cards. You cannot choose a land card where you set your bear to roam this round.

If this is the first chosen land card of the round, place it in the center of the landscape area, starting the landscape this way. If the landscape has been started already, add the card adjacent to either side of the landscape.

Example: Red player has already placed a card number three. The Blue player picks a land card number two and he has to place it either to the left or to the right of the already placed card.

Each land card contains two incomplete location halves. Placing a card adjacent to another finishes a location between them.

- Place a camp

After you've added a card to the landscape, set your camp die to a number corresponding to the chosen land card and place the die on the card. You can place it either on the left or on the right half of the card.

There can be only one camp on each finished location, so you can only place your camp on a half that isn't part of an already occupied location.

Example: In this case the blue player can place his camp only on the left because the right half finishes a location already occupied by the red player.

- Check for the polar bear

After you place a camp on a land card, your opponent immediately checks their white die. If it's set to the number of the just placed card, your Inuit encounters the polar bear. Your opponent places their white die next to your camp to indicate this.

The bear only attacks the last Inuit he encounters in each round. If later in the same round your opponent places a camp on the card that you selected for the bear to roam on, move the white die from your camp next to their camp instead.

The first location visited by each player serves as the day camp for that round. To represent this, place the die underneath the land card. When placing the second die that represents the night camp, put it above the land card.

Example: The blue player picked land card number five and put it on the left. He's placing his second die now, so he's putting it abowe the card.

- Finish the landscape

After both players add two land cards each and place both of their camps, the landscape should consist of four cards, leaving two still unplaced.

Take the one with the lower number and place it on the left side of the landscape. Than put the other on the right.

Now the landscape is finished and every camp should be occupying one complete location.

- Resolve the polar bear

If there's a white die next to your camp after all four camps are placed, move that camp to the location with your other camp on it.

As your Inuit only camps on this one location now, resolve it as if it was the night camp, skipping the day camp phase.

Example: The two remaining land cards are placed on the left and on the right side, completing the landscape.

The red player encountered the bear. Thus he had to abandon the location and flee to his second camp.

The blue and a red areas mark the players' final locations.

3. Resolve the camps

Each player resolves both locations with their camps (starting with their day camp and following with the night camp) going through all the prescribed actions in order. (See the table on the right.)

Usually players resolve their camps simultaneously to speed things a bit, but if it's important for any reason, you can resolve them in order. (The player with the lowest number on any of their camps resolves them both first).

When you start resolving any of your camps, check which resources are available to you on its location (depending on your tools).

While resolving that camp, you can use all those available resources without the need to fit them into your inventory.

Together with the resources already in your inventory, use them for the actions prescribed for that camp.

- Craft new tools

You can craft any of the tools shown on your inventory card.

You have to use two specific resources shown on the inventory card next to each tool to craft it.

When you do, place a cube on the first slot next to the tool on your inventory card (marking it as in "good condition").

The tools help you access more resources or help you in some other way. At the end of the game you score one point for each tool in a good condition still in your inventory.

• Net helps you get more fish from water locations.
• Bow allows you to hunt birds.
• Spear allows you to hunt caribou.
• Axe helps you gather more wood from wooded locations or get the fish from frozen lakes.
• Coat lets you ignore the snowflakes with the coat symbol, helping you save wood when scoring warmth.

- Damage and repair tools

An inventory card has two slots next to each tool. The first slot is used to mark a tool in good condition, i.e. either just crafted or repaired. The second slot is used to mark a damaged tool.

After scoring on the second location, resolve damaging and repairing tools as follows:

1. Damage all your tools.

Move the cubes from the "good condition" slots to "damaged" slots. If any of the cubes are already on a "damaged" slot, remove them entirely, discarding the broken tool.

2. Then you may repair damaged tools.

You may use one of the two resources required to craft the tool to repair it. If you do, move the cube back from a "damaged" slot to a "good condition" slot.

Note that the tools last only for two rounds before they get discarded, but you can repair them each turn to extend their durability.

- Score food

Choose your Inuit's diet for the round from either the specialised or the balanced diet:

Balanced diet

Consists of one food from each available type.

Specialized diet

Consists of all the food of one chosen type, either berry, fish, bird or caribou.

Consume all the food available on your night camp location and in your inventory, as prescribed by the selected diet.

• Gain 1 point for each consumed food.
• Gain 1 additional point if you chose the balanced diet and you consumed at least 3 different types of food.
• Gain 1 additional point if you chose the specialized diet and you consumed at least 4 pieces of food (of the same type).

- Score warmth

Count the number of snowflakes on your night camp location. Ignore snowflakes with the coat symbol if you carry a coat.

Example: The location shows 3 snowflakes. You can ignore one of them if you carry a coat.

Burn one wood for each snowflake using those available on the location and in your inventory.

• If you were able to fulfill the demand, gain 1 point for each location already flipped its winter side up.

(That means 1 point in the first round, 2 points in the second, 3 in the third, etc.)

If you don't have enough wood, burn all you have but gain no points.

- Take the remaining resources

After resolving all the actions on any of your camps, you can take the unused resources into your inventory to use them later in the game.

Resources used to craft and repair tools together with consumed food and burned wood are considered used and cannot be taken into your inventory.

Note that you can't use the tools crafted at a location to get access to additional resources at the same location.

Example: A player crafted a spear on his day camp. He cannot use it to get any caribou from there but he can use that spear to get some caribou on his night camp and in later rounds.

4. Readjust the turn order

After resolving the camps take all four of the camp dice, sort them by the numbers and place them in a line in the center of the table. This is the turn order for the next round.

5. Cool the land

Randomly choose one of the remaining summer land cards, flip it to its winter side and prepare the land cards for the next round.

Game end

If you should flip a summer land card to its winter side (during the "cool the land" phase) and there is no such card left, the game ends.

In that case each player adds one more point to their score for every tool in good condition he carries and the player with the most total points wins.

In case of a tie, the player with the lowest number on any of their camp dice wins.