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! —description from the publisher

Players: 2–4 best 4
Playing time: 30–45 min
Age: 10+