Snowblind: Race for the Pole Rulebook

Table of Contents

Quick Game
How to Play
Turn Sequence
Actions
Roll for Exposure
The Captain and the Flag
End of Round
Scoring
Solo Rules
Epic Game
Credits

Quick Game

Place the game board in the center of the play area.
Each player chooses to play one of the four expeditions involved in the historic race - England, Norway, Germany or Japan. Each expedition begins with: a. In Zone 2 - two Scientists (yellow pawn) and three Sailors (blue pawn), with one camp, eleven crates, three barrels, and their Ship. b. In Zone 3 - one Captain (red pawn), with four crates and their team Flag. c. Three Camps and one team card (showing how to score Prestige points on one side of the card, with a quick reference Exposure chart on the rear of the card.)
Remove the Pack Ice card from the Weather cards. Shuffle the remaining twelve Weather cards and draw five of them. Place the remaining seven cards back in the game box, unseen. Take two of the six cards and shuffle with the Pack Ice card. Then, place the remaining three cards on top of these three cards, and place the six card Weather deck alongside the game board.
Place the fourteen risk dice on the action board, on their corresponding coloured, six-sided and eight-sided dice spots.
Place the Medal token, Food tokens and Research tokens alongside the board in easy reach of all players.
The player with the coldest hands goes first - give that player the Compass.

You are now ready to begin the Race for the Pole.

How to Play

The object of the game is to collect the most Prestige points. The further you advance your Captain, and the more men who survive the Antarctic winter at the end of the game, the more Prestige your expedition will receive. This will require careful management of crates, food and camps: without supplies, your explorers will not survive.

Play proceeds over a series of rounds. Within each round, players may make as many moves as they like, from those available, with each additional move becoming increasingly dangerous.

A round ends when all players have passed. At the end of the round, a Weather card is drawn that may cause additional attrition, and the next round begins. When the Pack Ice card is drawn from the Weather deck, one last round is played and the game ends.

Turn Sequence

In turn, starting with the player holding the Compass, each player either performs an action with one of their active explorers, or passes, until every player has passed and the round ends.

A player performs an action by choosing a risk die from the action board and adding it to their personal dice pool. They then complete the action as indicated on the action board alongside the dice spot.

The action is taken before rolling any dice. If the die for a particular action has already been taken this round, that action is not available. If there are no dice remaining, a player must pass.

A player passes by placing their dice pool on their team card. They may take no further actions this turn and will roll no more dice. However, their dice are not returned to the action board until the end of the round.

Actions

Each player occupies a single track on the board; they may move their pieces North or South, but not East or West.

Red, blue, yellow six-sided (d6s) and eight-sided dice (d8s): move an explorer of the corresponding colour one zone in either direction, with up to three crates.

The d6s are the less risky dice, but taking a red, blue or yellow d8 provides a bonus:

a. the red d8 moves a bonus explorer and/or crate with the Captain; b. the yellow d8 awards one Research token (these are worth Prestige at the end of the game); c. the blue d8 allows one crate to be traded for two food in the zone the Sailor moved to.
Green "blank" die: move a Scientist or a Sailor one zone with up to 1 crate.
Purple d8: Hunt (add two food to a zone with an active explorer). Note: food may never be moved.
Grey d8s: either

d. move an explorer one zone with no crates, rolling for Exposure in that Zone, then (if that explorer is still active) move him another zone with no crates, rolling for Exposure as usual; or e. move any explorer one zone with up to two crates; or f. have any explorer place a camp in the zone they occupy.

Roll for Exposure

After performing an action, the player rolls all the dice in their dice pool.

Any die showing 4 or higher counts as an Exposure result, except that 4's are ignored if there is company (at least two active explorers present), and both 4's and 5's are ignored if there is a camp present.

For each Exposure result, the player must expend a piece from the active zone (i.e. the zone where their action ended). Supplies are always expended first, then Active men, then Exhausted men, in that order. Camps cannot be expended.

When you expend supplies (crates or food), remove the token from the board. Barrels may be traded for 3 crates.

When you expend an active explorer, they become exhausted: mark this by lying the pawn down.

When you expend an exhausted explorer, they perish: remove the pawn from the board.

Exhausted explorers cannot perform actions, including moving, hunting or building camps. They also do not count as Company for active men, or when determing an occupied zone.

As soon as you have any supplies (crates or food) in the same zone as an exhausted explorer, you may expend one of those supplies to revive the exhausted explorer (making them active).

The Captain and the Flag

Your Captain is the only piece that can move your Flag.

If your Captain is still active after an Exposure roll, you may move your Flag to his Zone.

At the end of the game, each Flag will score depending on the zone it is planted in.

When your Captain returns to the ship and you have planted your Flag at the Pole (Zone 6), you may take an unclaimed Medal token.

If your Captain perishes, you are eliminated from the game.

End of Round

When every player has passed, it is the end of the round. If the Pack Ice card was revealed last round, the game is over.

Otherwise, resolve the following steps in order:

A new Weather card is drawn. This is treated as a new Exposure roll using the number on the card; each player applies this roll to their occupied Zone closest to the Pole (only active explorers count as occupying a Zone).

For example, if Weather card (4) is drawn, each player applies a (4) Exposure value in their occupied zone closest to the Pole; this will only affect an explorer without company or a camp.
All dice are returned to the action board.
The Compass is passed to the left.
If any player has their entire surviving team at base camp, and they have planted their Flag in Zone 6, they do not participate in the next round. Instead, each other player starts the round by taking a grey die from the action board and adding it to their dice pool.

A new round begins starting with the player holding the Compass.

When the Pack Ice card is drawn from the Weather deck, the expedition must make haste to leave before their ship is permanently encased in ice. The Pack Ice card signals that the last round of the game is about to begin.

Scoring

When the game ends, each player places their flag token on the Prestige track, depending on which zone it was planted:

5/10/15 Prestige for their Flag in zone 4/5/6 respectively.

Additional Prestige is awarded as follows:

The Medal token is worth 2 Prestige.
Every two Camps on the board are worth 1 Prestige.
Every three crates on the board are worth 1 Prestige
Each explorer at base camp is worth 2 Prestige.
Each Research token is worth 1 Prestige.

Example: Norway's flag token is moved from Zone 4 to 5 on the Prestige track.

The winner is the player with the most Prestige, with ties representing a shared victory.

The Race for the Pole is over.

Solo Rules

Remove the purple die and the green die from the dice pool for the entire game.
Shuffle the following cards into the Weather deck: 6, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.
Place the Pack Ice card on the bottom of the deck.
Place your Captain in Zone 2, and one Scientist and two Sailors in Zone 1.
Place 4 crates in Zone 2, and 20 crates in Zone 1.
Place the ship in Zone 1.
You do not start with any camps. You may only place one camp during the entire game.

If your Captain has not been to the Pole and back to the Ship by the end of round 6, you lose the game.

Expert solo variant:

In addition to the Pole objective, the following research objectives must have been completed by end of the game:

Hard Mode: 2 Research tokens collected Blizzard Mode: 4 Research tokens collected Whiteout Mode: 6 Research tokens collected

Epic Game

The Epic game is a longer version suitable for advanced players. It uses the following variation in set-up:

Each expedition begins with: In Zone 1 - two Scientists (yellow pawn) and three Sailors (blue pawn), with one camp, eleven crates, three barrels, and their Ship.
In Zone 2 - one Captain (red pawn), with four crates and their team Flag.
Remove the Pack Ice card from the Weather cards. Shuffle the remaining twelve Weather cards and draw seven of them. Place the remaining five cards back in the game box, unseen. Take two of the seven cards and shuffle with the Pack Ice card. Then, place the remaining five cards on top of these three cards, and place the eight card Weather deck alongside the game board.

Credits

Written, illustrated and produced by Robert van Zyl Game design by Simon McGregor Game development by Simmy Peerutin, Greg Cheetham-Slade, Adhil Patel

Copy proofing by Alex Kazik, Adhil Patel, Simon McGregor, Robert van Zyl Playtesting by Anthony Silverston, Armand Filmalter, Sarah Scrimgeour, Craig Lowman, Nik Simmons, Jessica Sutherland, Ethan Allen, Mark Allen, Nicky Allen, Leah Rolando, Dylan Posthumous, James Gain, Melissa Densmore, Chris Truter, Thomas van Heerden, Eric BigBox, Karen Robertson, Kate Sives, Gareth Graham, Nicole McCreedy, Marvin Hsaio 3D modeling by Edward Ormond. Special thanks to Margot Leger, Reg Voges