The Way of the Bear Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents and Set-up
• Aim of the Game
• Game Turn
  • Get new Steles
  • Acquire a knowledge token
  • Pay the cost
  • Special case: Ritual
  • Knowledge tokens
• Seal Cards
• Game End
• Victory

Contents and Set-up

1. Place the Game Board in the middle of the table. With 4 players, use all parts. With 2 or 3 players, don't use part P.
2. Each player gets one of the 4 player boards. With 2 players, place it with the (bottom left corner) side up.
3. Shuffle the 40 knowledge tokens and place one face up on each village. With 2 or 3 players, remove 8 tokens (one of each type, with and without the Dragon Seal) from the game before set-up.
4. Take the 84 Bear Steles. Place 1 Stele of the matching color on the first space of each of the 4 Temple tracks. Put all the other steles in the Bag, then: Draw 4 Steles at random and swap them with the 4 tokens showing a Bear. Then remove the tokens from the game. Each player draws 3 Steles randomly and places them near their player board.
5. Shuffle the 16 Seal cards and place them face down near the Game Board.
6. The player who has the most regal appearance is the First Player. Or alternatively, choose a First Player in any manner you like. That player takes the Golden Bear token.

You are ready to start!

Aim of the Game

The first player to complete their board by collecting 2 tokens of each type (3 tokens in a 2-player game) wins the game.

If several players reach this goal in the same round, the player among them with the most Dragon Seals wins the game.

Game Turn

The game proceeds clockwise, starting from the first player.

On your turn, you may perform one of these two actions: Get new Steles or Acquire a knowledge token. You may also play as many Seal cards as you wish.

Get new Steles

To get new Steles, you may:

• Take any 2 steles from the Temples tracks, or
• Draw 3 steles randomly from the bag.

Note: If you have more than 10 Steles in your reserve at the end of your turn, you have to keep 10 and return the rest into the bag.

Acquire a knowledge token

To gain a knowledge token from a village, you must erect a sacred bear Stele. Take one of the Steles from your reserve, place it on that village space, and take the token. Then, place the token on one of the matching spaces on your player board. There are 2 rules to follow:

• You may not place a Stele adjacent to another one of the same color.
• The Stele you place must be adjacent (= connected by a trail) to at least one other stele.

Example: the orange Stele may only be placed on the space circled in orange. It can't be placed on the red cross at the top village as it would be adjacent to an orange Stele. It can't be placed on the red cross at the bottom village as there is no adjacent Stele.

Pay the cost

After placing your Stele, you must make an offering. The price is determined by all the adjacent Steles in the neighboring villages. You must pay the same number and color of Steles from your supply to the corresponding Temple(s).

Note: There are 5 spots for each Temple track. The spot with the bag is the last (5th) space.

Example: after placing the orange Stele, you must pay 1 black and 1 blue Stele, taken from your reserve. Place them on the next available spaces of the corresponding Temple track(s).

Special case: Ritual

If you place a Stele on the last space of a Temple track, it triggers a Ritual:

1. All the Steles of that Temple must be returned to the bag. The depicted bag serves as a reminder.
2. Then the player, still on their turn, may take a Stele from any other Temple track and add it to their reserve. The depicted Stele on the last space of each Temple track serves as a reminder.

Notes:

• More than one Ritual may happen in a single turn.
• Sometimes you might have to perform a Ritual before continuing placing steles on the same temple.

Knowledge tokens

Each time you erect a stele, you get a knowledge token.

• Place it on your individual board on a space showing the corresponding type.
• You may never take more tokens of a type than your board allows for.
• When you complete a column, draw the first Seal card from the pile. The depicted card serves as a reminder.

Seal Cards

Cards provide special abilities which will help you during your journey. They come in two types:

A) Cards that are played during a regular action. These allow you to change the rules a bit.

B) Cards that allow for an additional action. These cards are marked with a symbol to remind you that action is indeed additional.

• You may own up to 4 cards (by completing all your columns and not playing any of the cards).
• You may play and/or combine several cards during a same turn.
• You may not play a card on the same turn in which you got it.
• When you play a card, remove it from the game.

Game End

When a player fills all of the spaces on their player board with the appropriate tokens (8 in a 3- or 4-player game, 12 in a 2-player game), this triggers the game end. Finish the current round so all players will have taken the same number of turns.

Victory

If only one player has completed their board, they are declared winner and upcoming King.

If several players complete their board on the last turn, they compare their number of Dragon Seals. The players involved add up all the Dragon Seals:

• on their tokens
• on the back of their unused Seal cards,
• on the Seal card(s) that provide(s) a player with 3 Dragon Seals.

The player with the most Dragon Seals wins!

In case of a tie, the players share the victory (and the throne).

Example: the player totals 9 Dragon Seals.