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First Snow

First Snow

(Web published) · 2017
240–50 min10+ yrs2.8/5 complexity6.8 BGG#16.525 BGG186Couples
short answer

How do you play First Snow?

First Snow is a free Print&Play game about an Inuit wandering through the changing landscape, hunting for food, gathering wood, building simple tools and looking for the best shelter to keep himself warm.

To find the best price for First Snow, howtoplay.ro compares deals from Romanian shops every day.

First Snow box art
official art · (Web published)

First Snow is a free Print&Play game about an Inuit wandering through the changing landscape, hunting for food, gathering wood, building simple tools and looking for the best shelter to keep himself warm. This gets more and more difficult as the winter swiftly approaches. And on top of all that, there’s this big terrifying polar bear…

The game uses an innovative worker placement mechanism combined with resource management and a bit of bluffing. It uses dice in a few interesting ways but none of them require you to roll them. ;-)

GAMEPLAY

Every round players build a new landscape out of the 6 double sided land cards. As they do, they place their two camps along the way. Numbers on the chosen land cards determine the player order for the next round.

Every land card is divided in half, so you do not choose a single card, but you have to combine two of them to form the complete location for your camp.

At the start of the round, players secretly send their polar bear to one of the land cards and since you try to avoid the bear and want to get the best card at the same time, it brings a small bluffing aspect to the game.

After completing the landscape, players resolve their camps. One of the camps serve as a "day camp" and the other as a "night camp" and each of them has a bit different purpose.

While resolving a camp you can use all the resources shown on its location, but you have to fit them into your inventory to be able to use them later in the game. You can even build useful tools, but they take up space in your inventory as well. Scoring is resolved every round in your night camp and consists of feeding your Inuit and keeping him warm.

The land cards serve also as a timer. One of them is flipped "winter" side up every round and the game ends when all the land cards get flipped.

The game was designed for the 2017 9-Card Nanogame P&P Design Contest and it achieved the following awards:

1st place - Best Overall Game

1st Place - Best 2 player Game 1st place - Best Thematic Game 1st place - Best Written Rules 1st place - Best Artwork 2nd place - Most Innovative Mechanic

game anatomy
Complexity2.8 / 5
BGG rating6.8 / 10
Vibe
Couples
Language dependence
No in-game text needed
🌐 plays without English
Play time
40–50 min
Players
2
Recommended age
10+ yrs
BGG rank
#16.525
from Trișache · verified

Frequently asked questions

Q1How much does First Snow cost?
No store is currently tracking First Snow. Check the Prices tab — you can set a price alert to be notified when it appears.
Q2Where can I buy First Snow cheapest?
Check the Prices tab — howtoplay.ro aggregates offers from 7+ Romanian board-game stores and tracks price history.
Q3How do you play First Snow?
First Snow is a print & play game, for 2 players, taking ~40–50 minutes, featuring modular board. Check the Rules tab for setup, gameplay, and scoring, or ask Trișache anything about First Snow — our AI assistant built by howtoplay.ro and trained specifically on board game rulebooks.
Q4How many players does First Snow support?
First Snow is played by 2 players.
Q5How long does a game of First Snow take?
A game of First Snow takes about 40–50 minutes. (The first game doesn't count. It never counts.)
Q6What age is First Snow for?
First Snow is recommended from age 10.
Q7How complex is First Snow?
First Snow has a BoardGameGeek complexity of 2.8 out of 5.
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