Rolling Bears

Rolling Bears is a dice-drafting game full of player interaction and high tension! Rounds are quick to play! Try to outscore your opponents by collecting the high-scoring dice and also by ending the round with the "Best Animal Set". Rolling Bears is two games in one, the two variants being called "Wuppertal Rules" and "Hollandica Rules". Players take turns to roll dice into the "Pool" (i.e. the centre of the table), and then take selected dice back out. The sets taken out must form either a "matching set" or a "running set". Dice extracted in this way are then placed on the player's special 'Enchanted Forest' scoreboard. This scoreboard is cleverly designed to work a bit like an abacus and it constantly keeps track of the player's score. The value of a die depends on its colour, and there are dedicated columns on the scoreboards for each colour to be placed on. Animal dice (Fish, Hedgehogs, Ravens, Wolves and Bears) are all stored in Animal pens, instead of the 'number' columns used for the rest of the dice. At the end of each round, the player with the Best Animal Set (ie the largest number of a particular type of animal) will move these animals to the Best Animal Set column, where they will score bonus points for that player. There is always huge rivalry and player interaction involved in the battle to have the Best Animal Set! At the end of each round, each player reads the scores indicated on their scoreboard and these are recorded and a total is kept across all rounds played. Rolling Bears comprises thirty 16mm D6 'logo' dice. The 'logo' side of each die contains the engraved image of an animal and the full set consists of six 'Fish' dice (green), six 'Hedgehog' dice (ivory white), six 'Raven' dice (sky blue), six 'Wolf' dice' (Grey) and six 'Bear' dice (black). Each scoreboard is double-sided, one side for each of the two rulesets (Wuppertal Rules and Hollandica Rules). Please note that exactly the same set of 30 dice is used for both versions of the game, but in an altogether different way for each. Wuppertal Rules: When using Wuppertal Rules, the first five rolls of the dice involve players rolling the dice into the Pool, by colour, six at a time. The first player will roll in all six green dice, and then create a set using these green dice only. Then the next player will roll in all the white dice and create a set from the Pool, using white and green dice. Then the next player will roll in the blue dice and create a set. Then the next player will do the same with the grey dice and the following player will do the same with the black dice. Now all the dice will either be in the Pool, or taken out and placed on players' boards. Now we move into a new phase of the game. The next player (after the one who rolled the black dice) now has the opportunity to re-roll a number (up to six) of the dice that currently remain in the Pool and to make a set after re-rolling. At this point, the real tactics start to enter the game. Players have to make difficult, and crucially important, decisions about which dice to re-roll. These can involve giving that player the best probability of obtaining a valuable 'set' to be extracted, while at the same time ruining potential opportunities for that player's opponents. One such tactic is to re-roll an animal which would have been useful or valuable to an opponent. But there are many more ways to be tactical with your re-rolling. Wuppertal is essentially the 'basic' game, where "matching sets" consist of dice whose numbers AND colours match, while "running sets" are dice which form an ascending sequence of numbers, while all of these dice MUST be a different colour. An "animal set" is a special case of a "matching set" where ALL the dice in the set are identical animals. Animal dice are always placed in the Animal Pen and will remain there until the end of the round. If they form the Best Animal Set at the end of the round, they will be moved to the Best Animal Set column and will score 8 points each. Otherwise, they will remain in the Animal Pen and score no points for that player. While there is a certain luck element (it's a dice game after all, and that makes it exciting and competitive) Wuppertal is also very tactical and skilful. One of the key elements is learning which dice to re-roll at the beginning of your turn! Hollandica Rules: When using Hollandica Rules, the first SIX rolls of the dice involve players rolling the dice into the Pool, five at a time. On each of these rolls, the five dice consist of one of EACH colour, called a 'Clutch' of dice. The first player will roll in the first Clutch, and then create a set choosing from these five dice only. Then the next player will roll in the next Clutch and create a set from the dice in the Pool. Then the next player will roll in the next and create a set. Then the next player will do the same. And then the next and then the next. Now all the dice will either be in the Pool, or taken out and placed on players' boards. Now, as for Wuppertal, we move into a new phase of the game. The next player (after the one who rolled the last Clutch) now has the opportunity to re-roll a number (up to six) of the dice that currently remain in the Pool and to make a set after re-rolling. At this point, the real tactics start to enter the game. Players have to make difficult, and crucially important, decisions about which dice to re-roll. These can involve giving that player the best probability of obtaining a valuable 'set' to be extracted, while at the same time ruining potential opportunities for that player's opponents. One such tactic is to re-roll an animal which would have been useful or valuable to an opponent, but there are many more ways to be tactical with your re-rolling. Hollandica is essentially a far more complex and tactical game than Wuppertal, where "matching sets" consist of dice that are ALL different colours, but showing the same numbers, while "running sets" are dice which form an ascending sequence of numbers, AND are all the same colour. Please note that in Hollandica, the values of the dice colours are not predetermined. You can decide how much the colours are worth (to you) as you collect them! This is all done via your scoreboard. Please also note that there are Bonus Points scored in your number columns if you collect more than three 'number' dice of the same colour (4 dice: 10 points, 5 Dice: 20 points, 6 dice: 30 points). But these extra points will be automatically included by your scoreboard, so you don't need to add them on yourself! There is no such thing as an "animal set" in Hollandica. Animal dice are collected as 'wild cards' to extend or connect "running sets" of the matching colour (so, for instance a Raven could be used as {any number} within a sky blue "running set". When transferring such a "running set" to the scoreboard, all the number dice get placed in the appropriate number columns, while the animal die is placed in its very own Animal Pen. You can never use more than one animal in a "running set" and you can never collect more than one of any type of animal. So if, for example, you have a Raven already, you are not permitted to use a second Raven in another sky blue "running set". So, each type of animal has its own Animal Pen and when captured will be placed in this pen on its own and will remain there until the end of the round. At this point, the player with the most individual types of animals will be declared the one with the Best Animal Set. These individual animals will then be moved to the Best Animal Set column and will score 10 points each. Hollandica still has a certain luck element, but it is vastly more tactical than Wuppertal and so is very challenging and has an extremely high replayability factor. —description from the designer