Bear Necessities
Bear Necessities is a competitive tableau‑building game featuring simultaneous drafting with a reserve, in‑game scoring, and honeypots!
During each round, players draft two cards from their starting hand: one to add to their tableau and one to save for the next round, then pass the remaining cards to the player on their left.
The card you add to your tableau must be placed orthogonally adjacent to an already placed card, and it activates immediately, granting you victory points. It also triggers all of its adjacent neighbors, creating powerful combos and cascading effects.
The cards you receive from the other player are combined with the one you saved from the previous round, and you draft again until your hand is empty.
At that point, you replenish your hand and repeat the process until everyone has completed a 4‑column by 3‑row grid: after 12 rounds, the game ends and the player with the most points is the winner!
Number of players: 2 - 4
Game duration: 12 mn
Complexity: 1 / 5
Play Bear Necessities and 1414 other games online.
No download necessary - play directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Play Bear Necessities and 1414 other games online.
No download necessary - play directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Rules summary
OVERVIEW
Bear Necessities is a game of card drafting, set collection and cascading combos with a quaint bear and forest theme. Gather everything you need for a thriving ecosystem where the right elements placed side-by-side trigger points.
Every round, you will draft 2 cards - one to place in your tableau and one to reserve. As you build your tableau, each adjacent card is activated. At the end, multiply your bees and beehives together for a final bonus.
Cards come in one of 4 colors (yellow, green, blue, red) and bear at least 1 symbol (bearfolk, animal buddies, plantlife, buildings and items). Some show a beehive symbol, which can score major points at the end of the game.
HOW TO PLAY
CARD DRAFTING:
Players simultaneously choose 2 cards from their hand:
~ Select 1 card to place in your 3x4 tableau (3 rows of 4 cards) and where you would like to place it.
~ The 2nd card you select will appear in your hand next round - reserved for your use or preventing use by others.
CARD PLACEMENT:
The first card in your grid can be placed anywhere. After that, cards must be placed orthogonally next to a card in your grid - left, right, above or below.
EFFECT TRIGGERING:
Card abilities activate when placed PLUS whenever a card is placed next to it (orthogonally).
BONUS BEE AWARD:
Whoever scored the least that round receives a Bee token. If there is a tie, the tied players all receive Bee tokens.
PASS YOUR HAND:
After everyone has chosen and placed their card and abilities have activated, everyone passes their hand to the player on their left/clockwise.
GAME END & FINAL SCORING
Play until 12 cards have been placed into your tableau. Then everyone multiplies their bee tokens by the number of beehive symbols on their cards. This is added to your total. Highest score wins.