Welcome to my honest, slightly sleep-deprived review of Bears! This is the game that made me yell, “Grab the tent, grab the tent!” so loudly my cat left the room. I wrangled my usual crew for a few lively rounds, and I’ve got opinions, stories, and a few dice injuries to tell you all about. Wondering if this frantic dice-rolling game is worth your shelf space? Let’s just say, you’ll want to hear what happened to my friend Steve—and how this game nearly sparked a wrestling match over a tiny foam bear.
How It Plays
Setting up
Start by giving each player a set of dice—5 white and 5 black. Place the matching number of dice for all players in a pile on the table. Everyone grabs one scoring card. Someone yells, “Go!”—that’s your setup, no fiddly board or tiny tokens to lose behind the couch.
Gameplay
Everyone rolls their dice at the same time. The white dice are camp dice, the black ones are bear dice. Now, mad chaos! Grab pairs of camp and bear dice to make tents, shooters, or runners—the actions you need to survive. Do it fast, because the other players are swiping dice like hungry raccoons at a picnic. Once dice run out or someone yells “Bears!” (seriously, you have to yell it), it’s over for that round.
Winning the Game
Players score points for each safe camper, successful shooter, and speedy runner. Some combos, like tents without bears, give you extra points. After a set number of rounds (usually 5 or until everyone’s voice is hoarse from yelling), add up your points. The person with the most points wins and earns the right to brag—at least until the next game.
Want to know more? Read our extensive strategy guide for Bears!.
Bears! Gameplay and Rules Clarity – Rolling Dice and Outrunning Bedtime Bears!
If you think learning new board game rules is like reading Ikea instructions upside-down, then Bears! will be a pleasant surprise. My first game night with Bears! involved two friends, a pitcher of lemonade, and only one heated debate about whether bears actually eat campers (apparently, in this game, yes). Setup is fast. You toss out dice, everyone grabs for them like rabid raccoons, and the game just goes. The box says two minutes to learn it, and even my friend Dave (who once set up Settlers of Catan upside-down) got the gist before the lemonade ran out.
Bears! is a real-time dice game, and man, that keeps things lively. Each round, you roll black dice for the campsite—tents and bears—and colored dice for each player—campers and guns. When a new round starts, folks snatch dice to make camper/tent or bear/gun pairs fast, before someone else grabs what you want. I love that no one’s waiting around; you can smell the frantic energy as everyone lunges for dice like they’re picking the last slice of pizza.
The rules are about as clear as they can get. The booklet is short (thank the game gods) and the examples are handy. The scoring is simple, so even your cousin who always zones out can follow. My only gripe is that, during the first play, we missed a small rule about leftover tents and bears. Once we caught it, play smoothed out. So, don’t skip the examples!
Up next, I’ll tell you all about why Bears! might have turned game night into the wildest and most competitive five minutes of my week!
Player Interaction and Wild Competition in Bears!
If you think Bears! is a calm and peaceful game, you’re about to be eaten alive—figuratively, I hope. The whole experience is like a wildlife documentary gone off the rails, with everyone lunging for dice and accusing each other of ‘accidental’ elbow nudges. You can’t sit back and play it safe; Bears! wants you sharp, alert, and maybe suspicious of your friends’ true intentions.
What I love most about Bears! is how it turns a simple roll-and-grab game into a wild social event. The second the dice hit the table, all bets are off. Who’s your friend? Who’s about to snatch the tent you needed to stay alive? The answer: probably everyone and anyone. There’s non-stop banter, some light-hearted trash talk, and a healthy dose of belly laughs when someone goes for a brave bear-shoot and ends up as dinner. You spend half your time second guessing your own grabs and the rest worrying someone will yell ‘Bear Attack!’ and leave you shivering in the woods.
Competition gets fierce, but it almost never crosses into bad feelings territory—unless your group holds lifelong grudges over board games, then all bets are off. With Bears!, everyone is locked in until the last dice is grabbed. It’s brilliant chaos and the best kind of noisy, fun mess.
Next up, let’s see if Bears! is worth revisiting over and over, and whether it’s shorter than a bear’s nap or long enough for a decent hike.
How Many Times Can You Yell “BEARS!” Before It Gets Old?
If you play as many board games as I do, you know some games fizzle out faster than a flat soda. So, how does Bears! hold up? Well, I’ve played it at least a dozen times (I counted – my neighbor Greg keeps stats on everything) and honestly, the replay value is solid. The rounds are speedy, the setup is quick, and nobody ever storms off mid-game because they’re ‘bored’ (looking at you, Monopoly).
Bears! is over in about fifteen minutes, unless you play with someone who stares at dice with the intensity of an ancient mystic. I like that. It means you can play a warm-up round, a revenge round, and a double-down-winner-takes-all round, all before your pizza arrives. It’s the perfect length for a filler game or for breaking up heavier, brain-bending games. Plus, it’s so easy to jump into, even your friend who refuses to learn rules (‘I’m just here for snacks!’) can play along without slowing everyone down.
Replay wise, the thrill comes from the frantic pace and the push-your-luck decisions every time those dice hit the table. The variation in dice rolls and group chaos means every round feels a bit different, even if the core game stays the same. I’ll admit, the novelty might wear off if you play it ten times in a row, but spaced out, Bears! always brings the fun back to the table.
But before you run off to hug a bear (not recommended), let’s talk about how the game handles luck versus skill – because, trust me, this one has teeth.
Luck vs Skill: Who Really Wins in Bears!?
When it comes to Bears!, my group almost threw the dice out of the window more than once. That’s because there’s a fair bit of luck at play. The game has you rolling a massive pile of dice, hoping for the right combos to pop up—sort of like hoping you wake up on your birthday as Beyoncé. Yeah, it happens, but not often.
Now, don’t get me wrong, Bears! does have some room for clever moves. If you’ve got fast reflexes, and you watch your opponents closer than a toddler with their first ice cream, you can snag those high-scoring pairs. But sometimes, Lady Luck just sits in the corner eating chips and leaves you to deal with a bear apocalypse.
I had one round where I thought I was a genius—grabbing tents and shooting bears with the focus of a ninja. Then, suddenly, the dice turned against me and I felt like I was at a picnic with Yogi Bear and all his cousins. That’s the magic (and the madness) here: you can plan, but the dice still rule the forest.
If you want a game where skill outweighs luck, Bears! might leave you shaking your head. But if you’re fine laughing at the chaos and watching your plans go up in fur and teeth, you’ll have a good time. My official verdict: Recommended for fun, not for control freaks! Bring snacks. You’ll need them.
Conclusion
So, that wraps up my wild time with Bears!. If you want a fast game with chaos, quick laughs, and less thinking, this is your jam. It shines with larger groups who don’t mind a little luck stealing their victory—like that time my friend Jen grabbed the last bear dice and cackled for three minutes straight. If you crave pure strategy or hate random luck, you’re better off hiking elsewhere. But for silly fun, easy rules, and a frantic race for survival, Bears! packs a punch in a little box. Just remember: around here, sometimes the bears win. Thanks for reading!
