Dead Horses

Dead Horses

Your travels have led you to a small farming village, where you seek shelter from a storm. A local farmer offers you a place in his barn. The storm is far more violent than expected, and you are thankful for his hospitality. In the morning, the storm has passed, but the farmer and his family are gone. You find a note hanging on the barn door.

"Dear travelers, my horses have fled... The storm is likely to blame, for when I awoke, I found a fallen tree atop the stable gates and tracks running east into the forest. I’m offering a reward to anyone who can find my horses and bring them back, but only the person who returns the most horses will get the reward. Goodbye"

Recommended for 2-6 Players. Gameplay <10 minutes. Ages 7+

Cards: There are 32 cards total. 4 instruction cards, 16 horse cards, 6 face cards and 6 death cards.

Setup: Remove the 4 instruction cards from the deck, shuffle the remaining cards and and place each one face down in a grid-like pattern. This can be any arrangement you choose - no two forests are exactly the same. Leave a space at the center of the grid or along the edge of the grid for discarded cards.

Gameplay: For the first game, the oldest player goes first and gameplay moves in a clockwise direction. For additional games, the winner of the previous game goes first.

Find Horses: On their turn, the player picks 1 card from the grid. If the player finds a horse card, the player keeps this card and gameplay continues.

If the player finds the farmer or the farmer’s wife, gameplay rotates from clockwise to counterclockwise or vice versa.

If the player finds the farmer’s sons, all players must give their horse cards to the player to their right or left – the direction of the shift is indicated by the arrow on the farmer’s son card – the older son shifts to the right, the younger son shifts to the left.

Beware the fiddler - If you cross his path first, he will take all your horses as payment for his tune. Set these horse cards aside for now. The player who crosses the fiddler the second time will receive the horses taken earlier in the game – this can be any player.

Avoid Death: There are many dangerous paths in the forest. If the player finds a death card, the player loses all their horses. They must discard all their horse cards and start over. Dead Dead Dead.

Winning the Game: When there are no cards remaining, each player counts their horse cards. The player who holds the highest number of horses, collects the reward and wins the game.