Trailblazers (EN)

Trailblazers lets your hiking boots, your bike wheels, or your kayak paddle do the talking as you carve the prettiest outdoor trails ever drawn across a table. In this outdoor card game designed by Ryan Courtney, every camper drafts and overlaps trail cards to build, around their three campsites, a network of hiking, biking, and kayaking loops. Only closed loops that return to the matching campsite score points, so watch out if you push your luck too far! The game plays out over four fast rounds where each player is dealt a hand of eight trail cards, drafts two, arranges them in their own area, then passes the rest of their hand to a neighbor - a simultaneous drafting engine that keeps the whole table busy at once, with no downtime waiting for your turn. "In Game" and "End Game" goal cards spice up the race for points, while the Animals and Adventurers expansions, already tucked inside the box, add another layer of strategy for groups who want more. This deluxe edition takes the experience further still: every card is printed on rugged, waterproof PVC, the wooden figures show off screen-printed artwork, and a clamshell case with carabiner is included so you can clip the base game to your bag before heading out to explore.

Trailblazers is for you if you love fast-playing card puzzles that still ask for real spatial thinking on every turn. If you are into the outdoors, camping, or hiking, you will love redrawing your own trail map every single game. It plays just as well with a table of eight as it does head-to-head or completely in solo mode, making it a great pick for families with shifting schedules and for larger groups of friends.

Trailblazers was a finalist for the 2023 Golden Geek Light Game of the Year award as well as the 2023 Board Game Quest Awards Best Family Game category. The Dice Tower and the Shut Up and Sit Down duo both highlighted the game's replay value, a sign that its quick rounds and three built-in modes (the Animals expansion, the Adventurers expansion, and the solo modes) keep the table coming back long after the first few plays.

Trailblazers is designed by Ryan Courtney, a New York based designer also behind Pipeline and Curious Cargo, two titles praised for their original management mechanics. The warm, adventurous artwork is by Seth Lucas, whose colorful style makes you want to head outside right away.

BOX CONTENTS
270 trail cards (2 decks of 135, waterproof PVC)
24 camp cards (hiking, biking, kayaking)
32 player cards
12 goal cards (6 in-game, 6 end-game)
1 solo card
1 solo achievement sheet
1 double-sided score pad
120 screen-printed wood animal tokens (moose, wolf, bison, bobcat, eagle, bear)
1 animal tray
24 screen-printed wood traveler figures (hiker, biker, kayaker)
42 wood campfire tokens
1 clamshell case and carabiner
1 rulebook

Number of players: 1 to 8
Playing time: 30 minutes
Age: 8+