Bears, Foxes & Hares

From Looney Pyramid Games Wiki
Bears, Foxes & Hares (BFH)
Carlton Noles
A race to the center
:Players Players: 2 - 4
:Time Length: unknown
:Complexity Complexity: Medium
Trios per color: 1
Number of colors: 1 per player + 1
Pyramid trios:
Monochr. stashes: 1 per player + 1
Five-color sets: 1
- - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - -
1 six-sided die, unique board
Setup time: 5 minutes
Playing time:
Strategy depth: Medium
Random chance: Medium
Game mechanics:
Theme: Race
BGG Link: 32814
Status: Complete (v1.0), Year released: 2005

The Story[edit | edit source]

The animals in different parts of the forest have sent teams to compete in the annual contest. Each team has a grumpy bear, an impatient fox and a nervous hare. They all race to get to the center of the board. Along the way you will have opportunites to push your opponents out of the way, pin them motionless, leap over them, swap places with them and hitch a ride with them.

Note: These rules are written with the Rainbow Treehouse set in mind. If you are using the Xeno set or your own stashes, adjust the color reference accordingly. You will need one pyramid of each size of 5 different colors.

Setup[edit | edit source]

Set out the board. and give each player all of any color (except black (or white if you have the Xeno Treehouse set). The current standard board is as follows:

Pieces must follow the path shown on the board. If you do not create your own board for this game, use markers at the turns to indicate the path a piece must follow. Personally I used an old Chessboard and drew the paths on as lines with a silver Sharpie.

Movement[edit | edit source]

Roll a die to see who goes first. The first player places one of the neutral pieces anywhere on the board. This continues for the next two turns. The player making the fourth turn (and all subsequent turns) will move as follows.

A player may choose to roll the die or make a special move. This choice must be made BEFORE rolling the die. (to this end I recommend passing a stone or chip to indicate turn rather than the die). Once the die is rolled the player must move a piece and then ONLY the moved piece may execute a special move. Players roll the die and move their pyramids along the path from the outside inward the number of spaces indicated. Players may only move their own pyramids or the neutral pyramids (black in Rainbow, white in Xeno). The Black pyramids can make special moves just like any other when a player moves them. Once a pyramid reaches the inner end of the path, it is removed from the game and placed flat in front of the player (except for the Neutral pyramids, which simply go to the start space and wait to be moved). The first player to get all of his pyramids to the center wins.

Special Movement[edit | edit source]

A piece may make a special move if they are orthogonally adjacent to another piece. These moves are governed by the size of the initiating piece as follows:

  • a Hare (1 pip), being a good jumper, may hop over its neighbor landing in the space immediately beyond and on top of anything else that might be in that space.
  • a Fox (2 pips) may slyly swap positions with its neighbor,
  • A Bear (3 pips) may pushily shove its neighbor and all others adjacent along the same straight path to the location beyond and take their place.

If a piece gets moved off the board as a result of a special move, it must re-enter the board at one of the starting points.

A piece that has been moved by a special move may not undo that move on the next turn. (ie a swapped fox cannot re-swap to put the position back exactly as it was, nor can a pushed bear re-push to a similar end).

Other special moves[edit | edit source]

In additon to the special moves above, there are two movement situations that are special. When moving a piece causes it to land on another piece, then:

  • If the arriving pieces was smaller than the piece already there (the set piece), the larger piece below it will carry it along until the smaller piece moves off.
  • If the arriving piece was larger, it pins the smaller set piece in place until the larger piece moves off.
  • If the arriving piece is the same size the set piece, the set piece MUST be moved one orthoganal space in any direction as long as it does not end up off the board.


If a piece is moved off the board, all nested or stacked pieces go with it.

other boards[edit | edit source]

This is my original idea for the board, but I thought that the paths would be too short. It has not been tested. Please feel free to try this out.

http://home.earthlink.net/~lcnoles/vort2.JPG

This is another idea for the board, not yet tested.

http://home.earthlink.net/~lcnoles/vort3.JPG

Got some 8in by 8in at 300dpi boards here
. . http://farm1.static.flickr.com/132/414049730_33a63a652d_t.jpg . . . http://farm1.static.flickr.com/174/414049725_6133ebc0b8_t.jpg . . . http://farm1.static.flickr.com/172/414049721_b17123c576_t.jpg . . . http://farm1.static.flickr.com/124/414049713_1453362bf0_t.jpg
Full size click here. Full size click here. Full size click here. Full size click here

To Do[edit | edit source]

  • Playtest.
  • fix the images. <-- put together some quick boards for you

This game is licensed under a Creative_Commons License and is copyrighted © 2005 by me, Carlton Noles