Bears!
2-4
7+
20
You and your friends are on a relaxing camping trip. But as you hammer in the last stake, you hear rustling. Bears are romping through the campsite! Who will survive the rampage? And who will be eaten by bears?
Bears! is a fast-playing, competitive game in which you score points by pairing dice. Shoot bears and run from tents for a few points, or take a risk and score big by sleeping through the attack! But watch out! If Bears are left at the end of the round, your sleeping campers are done for!
images © Fireside Games
User Reviews (6)
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Components
Being a dice game I wasn’t expecting a large box and I wasn’t disappointed , the box is 5 inches tall by just over 3 inches square and the top slides down over the inner section revealing artwork that continues from the outer cover depicting a cartoon image of a rather disgruntled bear looming over a campsite while the occupants run for their lives.
The rules are presented on a small six-fold leaflet and are very simple to follow and are accompanied by some simple diagrams and a few images for added flavour.
Also included are four points reference cards, one for each player, showing the dice combo’s the players are to play for and the scores for each. These being:
Bear/Shotgun = 1 point
Tent/runner = 2 points
Tent/sleeping bag = 5 point unless there are bears remaining in the camp site in which case they are -2 points.
Now we’re past the crust let’s get to the filling, the dice.
The forty die are nicely made and have a good feel to them, the twenty player die are black with two each of three icons on them, a sleeping bag, a shotgun and a running person. The white camp die, which have four tent icons and two bear icons, are equally well made and look great in contrast to the black player die.
Gameplay.
Each player takes five of the black player die and the camp is made up of five camp die per player, the camp dice are rolled in the centre of the group and then the players roll their hands before a free for all ensues as the players match up their dice with a camp dice one at a time until only one kind remains in the camp, at which time the rules compel players to yell “BEARS!” to signal the end of scoring and all remaining camp dice are left. During this free for all, players are permitted to re-roll their hand as often as they wish but this is inadvisable most of the time as the fast paced structure of the game leaves little time for this. One issue is that the camp dice can easily be knocked during the grab for pairs which can alter the roll or just scatter them across the table if someone is particularly ham fisted.
Overall I give this game 6/10, the components are nice but the gameplay is little more than a scramble with no strategy involved, it simply boils down to random chance and who has the quickest hands.
Bears! Is a light family-friendly dice game that is easy to teach and lots of fun to play. The premise is the you and your friends are on a camping trip when your camp is overrun by bears. At this point, you only have three options: run away, shoot the bears, or sleep through the whole thing. Each player rolls dice and matches sets to earn points doing the different options.
In terms of components, the dice are great. They are solid with nice clear images engraved on them. They seem to be capable of holding up well, and the game is packaged in a sturdy, well-illustrated box with simple, clear instructions.
The game plays with up to 4 players, and each player has a set of five black Player dice. Twenty Camp dice are rolled in the middle of the table, and then it becomes a race as each player simultaneously rolls their dice and grabs dice from the middle to make sets with their Player dice. When all the leftover dice have the same face (either bears or tents), someone yells “bears!” and the round ends. Each player scores their pairs of dice, and a new round starts. What adds a bit of strategy is the scoring. Shooting bears or running away always count for the same number of points, but sleeping through it counts as five points if there are only tents remaining (you got lucky) but causes you to lose points if there are any bears left showing (you got eaten). This adds an extra bit of fun and provides a bit of a push-your-luck aspect to the game.
The game is easy to understand and frequently results in a frenzy of chaotic dice-grabbing and rolling that is enjoyable enough to be played by adults and simple enough to be enjoyed by even young children. It works well both as a fun, quick filler or a light-hearted family game. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in a portable game that is appealing to adults and kids alike.
Bears is and easy to learn family dice game. Its camping theme is fairly appealing and easy to embrace. Players all roll their dice together, and they try and pair their results with dice from the common “camp” dice. The game includes four handy reference cards that use simple icons to show which die combos to pair. The first player to complete pairing all of their dice shouts “bears!” Then, scores tallied. A round of Bears is quick, and the scramble for the camp dice can be chaotic.
Other reviewers have pointed out the problem of players inadvertently flipping dice as they frantically grab from the common pool. I too have experienced this, but it is not enough to detract from the game. Dexterity and speed are essential to win at Bears. Adults playing with young children may want to “handicap” themselves to avoid runaway games. I like Bears as a quick filler. It gets my family together interacting and laughing for a few minutes now and then. If you do have young children and wish to include them in game nights, Bears is a good place to start. It will likely develop motor and spatial relationship skills in young minds too.
My apologies, this is going to be quick.
Bears is super light, and can be learned in a minute. By the time you finish reading this review, you could have learned the game or played a round. It is my favorite of the dice light games (2nd: Martian Dice, 3rd: Pass the Pigs, 4th: Zombie Dice).
Here are some reasons why it is awesome:
1.) Simultaneous play. No longer do you have to wait for your turn. Everyone goes at once.
2.) Learnability. As mentioned above, the learning curve is very shallow.
3.) Responsive Strategy. What do I mean by that? If you want to win this game, you have to pay attention to the dice that everyone else is grabbing. If you can think quickly enough, you can provide your opponents with negative points, or you can provide your self with major bonus points.
This game is hard to dislike. It is so light that even if it isn’t your thing, you’ve only invested minutes of your life. Bears continues to hit my gaming table regardless of the audience. It is a great filler and warm-up game.
This is a fun fast-paced dice game. 2 – 4 people can play. It’s family friendly. It helps kids learn how to count up their points and do it quickly as well.
Everyone gets to roll the dice! The players get black dice that have guns, sleeping bags with sleeping campers and campers running. There are another set of dice that have tents and bears on them. The object of the game is to eliminate the bears as quickly as possible.
So if you have 3 guns, you can grab 3 bear dice after all the dice has been rolled. When a player is completely finished pairing up the tents and bears with their dice AND all of the bear dice are gone, they can yell: “No More Bears!” and everyone else has to stop matching up their dice.
It’s quick, it’s fun and easy and the kids LOVE IT!
I love portable games! This is a way fun, any ages, play anywhere dice game.
You barely need the rule book(let) this is so easy to learn.
You have campers, bears, tents, sleeping bags and shotguns. The various match ups are how you make points and lose points and the combinations kind of are self explanatory.
Here’s a nice tip if you are playing with your cubs, set up little borders (books, Legos, arms, whatever) around the table as the kids (ok, adults too) can get a little excited in the rolling and matching up. We knocked die off of our table several times.