Wilderness - A Game of Survival

”You have been assaulted, robbed, and left to your fate, with not enough clothes or equipment to manage. Now it’s up to you to fight against thirst, hunger, exhaustion, bad weather, sickness, and wild animals. Get out of the wilderness, alive!!!”

In Wilderness, 2 to 8 players race to the nearest civilized village. But the village is not close, and the way there is not paved. You will have to find water, hunt for food, avoid wolves, bears, and snakes, endure sickness, and keep your strength up to be able to get there.

Each player’s health is kept track of with 3 parameters: thirst, hunger, and strength. Every turn you get more thirsty, hungry, and fatigued. The thirstier and hungrier you are, the more tired you become, and that determines how many action points you have each turn. If your strength hits bottom, you die. The action points are used to walk, but also to hunt or rest. To regain your strength you also have to sleep.

One of the biggest risks is encountering a predator, since they attack you with two dice and you defend with only one die, and lose strength equal to the difference. And they can scent you from a mile away…

The game board is discovered gradually as players progress across it, and there are 6 turns each day (4 day turns, 2 night turns). Each day has different special rules, and each board segment has its own challenges. Each board segment has 21 hexes in a big triangle and each hex has a terrain type like mountain, woods, swamps and so on, and the segment may also include a predator lair. Different terrain types have their benefits and challenges. The combination and orientation of different board segments make the way forward uncertain and new every game. To top it off, the players have a limited supply of cards that can be played to help themselves or thwart opponents.

You can play with either 4, 6, or 8 board segments.