Trailhead Instructions

HOW TO PLAY

TRAILHEAD

OBJECTIVE

Lost in the wilderness and running low

on water, your goal is to be the first

player to reach the trailhead. Collect

trail markers to move forward, but

watch out—you lose water at the end

of every turn!

As you venture through the wilderness,

you can buy survival cards that give

you a boost, hinder other players, or

alter the trail itself.

Happy trails!

Instructions and videos available at

www.trailheadgame.com

WINNING AND LOSING

You reach the trailhead first, or you’re

the last person left alive.

You don’t have enough water to pay at

the end of your turn, or another player

reaches the trailhead before you.

YOU WIN WHEN:

YOU LOSE WHEN:

BATTLESHIP MTN

HARD

GAME PIECES

13 MAP TILES & 1 TRAILHEAD TILE

Each map tile is marked with 1 to 3 water drops.

This is the cost of staying on that tile for one turn.

3-water tiles are the hardest terrain!

TRAILHEAD

TRAILHEADTRAILHEAD

MAP TILES

Each has 3 symbols that represent different

items you can collect.

DICE

3 TRAILHEAD DICE

3 trail markers advance you

1 space toward the trailhead

Compasses can be traded for

Survival Cards

Water keeps you alive…

Don’t run out!

27 GREEN & 9 GOLD CARDS

SURVIVAL CARDS

Trade in your compasses for

survival cards that give you

special abilities.

Green cards are cheaper and

only last for a single turn

SURVIVAL

SINGLE USE

SURVIVAL

EVERY TURN

STOP

AGGRO

Choose a player to

skip their next turn

HELD IN PLACE

3x

Gold cards cost more,

but help you on every turn.

Pay only 1 water each turn

while on 3-water map tiles

4x

WATER SAVER

5 COUNTER CARDS & 15 SLIDER CLIPS

COUNTER CARDS

Use the sliders to keep

track of trail markers,

compasses, and water as

you collect and spend

them.

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1

0

1

2

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

0

1

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4

5

6

SETUP

Each player needs to find a game piece to

represent themself in the game. Go outside!

Pick up a pebble or an acorn!

Find the trailhead tile and

put it on one end of the table.

Shuffle the deck of map tiles. Then,

build a trail by placing them face-down

in a row ending at the trailhead.

For a longer game, use 8 map tiles.

For a shorter game, use 6.

Turn the map tile farthest from the trailhead

face-up. This is the starting tile for all players.

Place each player’s game piece on the

starting map tile.

4

5

3

Trail length: 6 - 8 map tiles

TRAILHEAD

2

1

TRAILHEADTRAILHEAD

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Deal out counter cards with 3 sliders each

to every player. Set the sliders to 0 Trail

Markers, 0 Compasses, and 8 Waters:

0 COMPASSES

0 TRAIL

MARKERS

8 WATERS

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1

0

1

2

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Shuffle the green and gold decks of survival

cards separately and place them on the table.

Draw two cards from the green deck and place

them face-up on the table.

Pick the first player by rolling the dice. The

player who rolls the most trail markers takes

the first turn.

Draw one card from the gold deck and place it

face-up on the table.

7

8

9

6

SURVIVAL

SINGLE

STOP

AGGR

O

Choose a player to

skip their next turn

HELD IN PLACE

3x

SURVIVAL

EVERY

Pay only 1 water each turn

while on 3-water map tiles

4x

WATER SAVER

POWER-

UP

Turn all dice for this

turn into waters

WATER FILTER

1x

RULES OF THE GAME

SEQUENCE OF A TURN

1. ROLLING THE DICE

Every turn has 3 steps that must be done in the

following order: roll the dice, take any number of

actions, then pay water from your supply.

You can roll up to 3 times. After each roll, you can

keep the dice you like and re-roll the dice you want

to change.

Rolling the dice is how you collect items to move

forward in the game. Each side of the dice

represents 1 item.

When you’re either happy with your dice or you’ve

rolled 3 times, your roll is finished. Add the items

indicated on the dice to your supply by taking water

drops from the pool or moving the sliders on your

counter card.

WATER COMPASS TRAIL

MARKER

At the end of your turn you can have no more than:

12 water drops, 5 trail markers, and 6 compasses.

MOVING BETWEEN MAP TILES

It costs 3 trail markers to move 1 space.

You don’t have to move every turn, but you’ll be

forced to move if you have more than 5 trail markers.

MORE ABOUT MAP TILES

There are four map tiles of each difficulty in the

deck. Keep the deck of unused map tiles face-down

on the table.

There is one wildcard. The first

player to reach it gets to set the

difficulty from 1 to 3 water drops.

LOST DUTCHMAN’S MINE

1-3

WILDCARD

TIP: You can increase the odds of a harder game by

removing 1 or more easy map tiles from the deck

before setting up the trail.

Subtract 3 trail markers

from your supply when

you move a space.

HARD

BATTLESHIP MTN

TRAILHEADTRAILHEAD

2. TAKING ACTIONS

There are 3 kinds of actions: moving between map

tiles, buying survival cards, and using survival cards.

You can take as many actions as you want,

in any order that you want.

BUYING SURVIVAL CARDS

Survival cards help you by boosting your abilities,

modifying the trail to your advantage, or hindering

other players.

3 survival cards (2 green and 1 gold) are available

for you to buy using compasses as currency.

If you don’t like any of the cards available to buy,

you can spend 1 compass to replace both the

available green cards or the single gold card with

cards from the deck.

USING SURVIVAL CARDS

To use a survival card, follow the instructions on the

card. Green cards can stay in your supplies as long

as you want, but they can only be used once.

Discard a green card after you use it.

Gold cards work on every turn. Only discard a gold

card if you want to replace it with another.

You can have a max of:

2 green cards and 1 gold

card at the end of your turn.

STOP

AGGR

O

Choose a player to

skip their next turn

HELD IN PLACE

3x

Pay only 1 water each turn

while on 3-water map tiles

4x

WATER SAVER

POWER-

UP

Turn all dice for this

turn into waters

WATER FILTER

1x

The number of compasses

needed to buy a survival

card is shown on the top left.

POWER-

UP

Turn all dice for this

turn into waters

WATER FILTER

1x

When either deck of survival cards is empty, shuffle

the discard pile and start the deck again.

3. PAYING WATER

Pay the number of water drops shown on the map

tile where you end your turn.

Example:

If you end your turn

here you pay 2 water

drops from your supply.

BOULDER CANYONBOULDER CANYON

LA BARGE CANYON

MODERATE

TAKING A TURN

LET’S LOOK AT AN EXAMPLE

Sue rolls three dice to start her turn and gets

1 trail marker, 1 compass, and 1 water drop.

Sue starts on hard terrain that costs

her 3 water drops each turn.

Sue starts her turn with 2 trail

markers, 2 waters, and 1 compass.

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STEP ONE: ROLL THE DICE

But Sue needs water badly, so she keeps the

water drop and rolls the other 2 dice again.

Dang, no luck! Sue has one more chance to

get water. She rolls two dice again:

Nice, another water! She takes 2 water drops

from the pool and moves the slider on her

counter card 1 space on the trail marker side.

1

ROLL 1:

ROLL 2:

ROLL 3:

S

WAVE CAVE

EASY

STEP TWO: TAKE ACTIONS

STEP THREE: PAY WATER

Sue takes another look at her supplies:

She has enough trail markers to move, so

she decides to venture to the next map tile:

It costs 3 trail markers to move forward one

space, so Sue moves the slider on her

counter card back to 0 trail markers.

Sue ends her turn on easy terrain, so she pays

1 water from her supplies back into the pool.

BATTLESHIP MTN

TRAILHEADTRAILHEAD

S

2

3

Sue moves to an

unexplored map tile…

and flips the tile to

reveal its difficulty.

Yes! Easy terrain!

HARD

0

1

2

3

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5

6

7

8

9

1

0

1

2

0

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0

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3 TRAIL

MARKERS

1 COMPASS

4 WATERS

GAME VARIATIONS

MANY WAYS TO PLAY

There’s no one right way to play Trailhead! Try one

of the variations below or make up your own.

2 TRAILS ARE BETTER THAN 1

COLLECT THE LEGENDARY LOST DUTCHMAN’S GOLD

Create a forking trail in which players must choose

a path back to the trailhead:

The Lost Dutchman’s mine is hidden deep within the

mountains, but you’ve found a map! All players start

at the trailhead and must make their way to the

gold mine and back.

TRAILHEAD

TRAILHEADTRAILHEAD

BATTLESHIP MTN

HARD

TRAILHEAD

TRAILHEADTRAILHEAD

LOST DUTCHMAN’S MINE

1-3

WILDCARD

TRAILHEADTRAILHEAD

ACTIONS QUICK REFERENCE

MOVING BETWEEN MAP TILES

BUYING AND USING SURVIVAL CARDS

It costs 3 trail markers to move between map tiles.

If you have more than 5 trail markers, you’re forced

to move.

The number of compasses needed to buy a card is

shown on the top left of each card.

Use a card by following the instructions on it,

then place it in the discard pile.

A TURN HAS 3 STEPS:

ROLL THE DICE

TAKE ACTIONS

PAY WATER

3

2

1

RULES CHEATSHEET

Trailhead is inspired by the Superstition

Mountains near Phoenix, Arizona, and is

dedicated to the great outdoors.

This game wouldn’t exist without Chiara,

Lauren, Jay, and dozens of amazing play

testers. Thank you to everyone who

brought it to life!

BORN IN THE WILD

Trailhead Instructions

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