Overview

First and foremost, the messaging of the original game is not appropriate for ages 3+, so the game is renamed, Don't Feed the Bears! Secondly, I recommend removing some equipment that is also not age appropriate (I don't want my toddler treating knives the same as a stick).

There are two learning skills this variation focuses on:

• Identifying worn objects and placement of those objects on a board
• Identifying shapes of the numbers 1-5 and counting tokens

Setup

Make a pile with all equipment cards, but remove all ammo and handheld items that are too violent such as knives and any sort of firearm or launcher. Note: You will be treating two-handed items as single-handed for this variation. Make a second pile of the baby bear cards.

Since the life tokens are tiny pieces of paper in the box, I recommend getting some easier-to-grab tokens instead, such as Cheerios. It's even more fun if they are edible so they can be a treat if they win the game!

Finally, you'll want to draw a large stick figure on a sheet of paper and make boxes for the equipment slots: head, torso, two hands, and one shoe slot:

Gameplay

The players are going camping and will need to search the area to get a full set of bear protection gear. Bears will regularly come to visit the camp, but if they have not yet completed their outfit, they can give them food to make them happy and they will leave the players alone. The amount of food (tokens) to give the bear is the number on the bear card marked with the chicken drumstick symbol.

• If the players run out of food: They have lost and must leave camp and try again.
• If the players complete their outfit: When the next bear comes, everyone shouts, "Don't feed the bears!" and they have won and get to eat all of the food tokens!

Round of Play

• Players search by drawing two equipment cards (total).
  If they have discovered an item that fits in an empty slot, place it. If the spot is already filled, they get to choose which to keep and which to discard (a fun little "outfit" building mini-game).
• A bear visits the camp. If the outfit is not completed, read the number of food tokens required to appease the bear and place the bear to the side with the food tokens on top of the card.
  Tip: Every once in a while, ask the players to count the number of food they have left.

Reminder: Two-handed items are treated as one-handed for the purposes of filling up the sheet.

Credits

Thank you to Dave Taylor who reviews board games on Go Fatherhood for loaning me this game.