PARKS

Prepare the table

Use the original base game, without expansions. Reveal three Park and three Gear cards from their separate shuffled decks. Give everyone one random Canteen and a Year objective; experienced players may choose one of two Years. Shuffle Seasons and reveal one. Place each player's two hikers at Trailhead and give them a lit campfire. Choose a first hiker; the player on their right receives the camera.

Shuffle the five basic sites with one random advanced site; also include the marked four-player site with four or five players. Lay them between Trailhead and Trail End. From the second site onward place the Season's repeating weather-token pattern, stopping before Trail End. Apply the Season's stated effect.

Play a turn

On your clockwise turn move either hiker any distance forward to a site whose full action you can perform, or to Trail End. You cannot move backward. To enter an occupied site, even one with your other hiker, extinguish your lit campfire. Without a lit fire you cannot share. Take any weather token there before the site's action.

Basic sites provide a forest, mountain, two sunshine, two water, or a choice of drawing a Canteen versus paying two tokens for a photo and taking the camera. The extra four-player site gives sunshine and water. Advanced sites exchange one token for wildlife; exchange a non-wild token for another non-wild token up to twice; reserve/visit a Park or buy Gear; or spend water to copy another occupied site's action.

Wildlife substitutes for resources when visiting Parks, buying Gear, taking photos or paying the copy-site cost, but cannot fill Canteens or participate in ordinary token-for-token exchanges. Newly gained water may fill an empty Canteen immediately to use its effect; stored water cannot. Water on a Canteen stays unavailable until season end. Keep no more than twelve loose tokens at turn end.

At Trail End first relight your campfire, then choose an action. Reserve takes one visible Park or the deck's top Park into your personal reserved row; the first reserver gets the first-hiker marker. Buy Gear spends its sunshine cost for an ongoing ability and any immediate effect, then refills the display. The first buyer gets a one-sun discount with two or three players; the first two buyers do with four or five. Visit pays a visible or personally reserved Park's cost to add it to your scoring area, refilling a shared vacancy.

A camera holder pays one token per photo instead of two. Photo actions granted elsewhere do not automatically move the camera. When only one hiker remains on the trail, that hiker must go straight to Trail End and act. After all finish, camera holder may buy one final photo for one token. Empty Canteens, return hikers to Trailhead, shuffle all current sites with one more advanced site, reveal a new Season and weather, and start with the first-hiker holder.

Finish and score

After the fourth season's final photo, add visited Park points, one per photo, your achieved Year bonus and one for holding first-hiker. Most points wins, then most visited Parks; share any further tie. Reserved but unvisited Parks do not score.

Host the first game

The Reddit PARKS discussion praises its resource planning and approachable theme, with players also calling out more depth than its artwork initially suggests. Point out the last-hiker rule before anyone plans to collect every remaining site; another player's early finish can close that opportunity.

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Ideas & Twists

Choose a variation together before you start.