PARKS

BoardGameGeek link


Details

Sourced from: https://jmo.name/games

Player Aid Author: Jarrod Moore

Description

Hike through National Parks tiles, collecting memories and admiring gorgeous scenery.

Expansions in Use

  • Nightfall

  • Place main board and campsite board between all players
  • Place two token trays on each side of board
  • Shuffle park cards face-down and deal 3 cards to display
  • Shuffle gear cards face-down and deal 3 cards to display
  • Shuffle canteen cards and place face down
  • Shuffle season deck and place it on its space
  • Prepare trail:
    • Place trailhead tile
    • 2-3P: Remove Waterfall trail tile
    • Set all advanced trail tiles aside (ones marked with a *)
    • Place remaining tiles in a random order, placing each directly to right of last placed tile
    • Place trail end tile
  • Prepare campsites:
    • Place campsite board on side corresponding to player count
    • Shuffle campsites and place 3 random campsites next to campsite board
    • Shuffle year deck, then place deck on campsite board
  • Turn top card of season deck
  • Apply weather pattern:
    • Place tokens as shown on season card until last trail site before trail end
    • Pattern starts from 2nd trail site
  • Place a tent token on last, 3rd last and 5th last site of trail:
    • 4-5P: Also place a tent on 4th last space
  • Each player takes:
    • A campfire token
    • A wildlife resource token
    • 2 year cards:
      • Choose one to keep and discard the other face-down
    • 1 canteen card
  • Each player places their two hikers on trailhead tile

PARKS is played over 4 seasons during which players will move their two hikers down trail towards trail end

Each season has following phases:

  • Walking the Trail
  • At Trail End
  • End of Season

When only one hiker token is left on trail, player must move remaining hiker straight to trail end

At end of 4th season, final scoring commences

  • Player with first player token takes first turn of season
  • On a turn, a player chooses one of their hikers to move to a site of their choice further down trail:
    • You can never travel backwards
    • If another hiker is on space, you cannot land on it unless you flip your campfire token from lit side to unlit side

When you land on space, you may do one of two things:

  • If space has a tent token on space, you may go to a campsite:
    • Take tent token off space
    • Place it on a campsite beneath board
    • Resolve action on chosen campsite
  • Alternatively, you can do site action:
    • If there is a resource token on space, take it
    • You then take action of space

Players may never hold more than 12 tokens. If you have more than 12 at the end of your turn, you must discard down to 12

Canteens

When you gain a canteen card, you can fill it with a water token on turn you receive it To fill a canteen, place a water token that you received on that turn onto card instead of into your personal supply:

  • If you did not gain water token this turn, you can't fill a canteen with it
  • You can fill more than one canteen in a turn if you gained multiple water tokens that turn

Taking Photos

To take a photo:

  • Spend any two tokens to supply
  • If you have camera, you only have to spend one token of any type

Wildlife Tokens

A wildlife token can act as any resource:

  • When you need to provide tokens of any resource, 1 wildlife token counts as 2 resources for this cost:
    • For example, to pay for taking a photo when you don't have camera, you could pay 1 wildlife token for this cost

When a hiker reaches trail end, you first relight your campfire.

After that, your can do one of three actions:

  • Reserve a Park:
    • Choose one of Park cards in display or draw a park from deck
    • Place park card horizontally to show that you have not visited it yet
    • You will be able to visit this park on a future turn without risk of another player taking card for themselves
    • If this is first hiker to take this action, you get green first player token
    • Refill display if a card was taken from there
  • Buy Gear:
    • You may buy one gear card in gear display
    • Place purchased gear in front of you
    • If this is first hiker to take this action, you get a sun discount for purchasing gear
      • 4-5P: first two hikers will get a discount of one sun for purchasing gear
  • Visit a Park:
    • Choose one of Park cards in display or a Park card that you have reserved
    • Pay cost shown on card
    • Place card vertically in your area
    • Refill display if a card was taken from there

  • Player with camera may spend any 1 resource token to take a picture
  • All players then return any water tokens on canteens back to supply
  • Return all hikers to trail head
  • Randomly add one of remaining advanced sites not yet added to trail deck and add it
  • Shuffle all trail tiles in trail deck and randomly place tiles to form trail for next season
  • Flip campsite tokens to right side for next season
  • Player with green token will be start player for next season
  • Ensure all campfires have been relit
  • Turn top card of season deck
  • Apply weather pattern:
    • pattern starts from 2nd trail site, place tokens until last trail site before trail end
  • Place a tent token on last, 3rd last and 5th last site of trail

All players now score points for following categories:

  • Points on park cards
  • 1 point for each photo you have
  • Points based on conditions on year cards:
    • You may only score one year card of each type
  • 1 point if you have green first player token

The player with most points wins. Tiebreakers are:

  • Player with most parks cards

Otherwise, the victory is shared

Forest

Take a forest token

Mountain

Take a mountain token

Valley

Take two sunshine tokens

Ocean

Take two water tokens

Vista

Do one of the following two things:

  • Draw a canteen card
  • Turn in 2 tokens to take a photo and gain the camera:
    • If you already have the camera, then you only need to turn in 1 token

Waterfall

Note: This is only used in 4-5 player games

Take 1 sunshine and 1 water token

Wildlife (Advanced)

Turn in any 1 token to gain a wildlife token

Lodge (Advanced)

Turn in 2 tokens to gain any other 2 tokens:

  • None of the tokens in this trade can be wildlife tokens

Lookout (Advanced)

Do one of the following two things:

  • Reserve or Visit a Park
  • Buy a Gear Card

River (Advanced)

Spend 1 water to copy the action from another site occupied by another hiker:

  • The trail end is not considered to be a site

The Campsite on the Board

  • 4-5P: Up to two tents can be placed on this campsite
  • Turn in 3 sun
  • Draw 2 year cards from the year deck
  • Discard one of your year cards to the bottom of the deck and keep the other one
  • The discarded one does not need to be one of the cards you drew with this action

Other campsites

    • Seasons 1 and 3:
      • Turn a mountain in, gain 5 sun
    • Seasons 2 and 4:
      • Turn a forest in, gain 5 water
    • Seasons 1 and 3:
      • Turn a forest in to take a photo (up to 2 times)
    • Seasons 2 and 4:
      • Turn a mountain in to take a photo (up to 2 times)
    • Seasons 1 and 3:
      • Turn a water in to gain a wildlife
    • Seasons 2 and 4:
      • Turn a sun in to gain a wildlife
    • Seasons 1 and 2:
      • Gain a canteen card and a water
    • Seasons 3 and 4:
      • Move all water from filled cans into your supply
      • Gain a water
      • Only the last water received counts as a water gained on your turn
    • Seasons 1 and 4:
      • Discard one of your gear or year cards
      • Take one of the following:
        • The top card of the year deck
        • The top card of the gear deck or any gear card from the display
    • Seasons 2 and 3:
      • Turn in 2 sun
      • Remove all gear cards from display
      • Deal 3 new cards
      • Take one of the following for free:
        • One of the gear cards now in the display
        • The top card of the gear deck
    • Note: This campsite is only available in 4-5 players games
    • Seasons 1 and 3:
      • Gain a water, reserve a park and relight your campfire
    • Seasons 2 and 4:
      • Gain a sun, reserve a park and relight your campfire

Thumbnail courtesy of BoardGameGeek and the respective publisher.