🔥 Watchfires & Wagons

THE LAST VALLEY · Watchfires & Wagons for two

2p draft 0.4
The rules, in one breath

① The mountain offers two. Two Fate cards flip. The watch-holder takes one into hand; the other resolves — ♣ rolls that wagon +1 · ♠ cold-snap, Snow +3 · the whiteout ends the run. Fire unlit? Both resolve.

② Both play one card, face-down. FEED any card (+1 wage; ♠ pays +3; a King roars: Snow −1) — the sole feeder takes the watch; if both feed, the higher rank does, full court order: K > Q > J > 10 > … (a dead-even bid leaves the watch where it was, or unheld) · LOAD a ♣ on its own wagon at space 0–2 (full pips = your stores) · HEAVE after a laden wagon on 3–5 (half pips ride) · PUSH its own wagon +1 (+2 if it crosses) · ♠ BREAK TRAIL shovels a laden wagon 3→4 or 4→5 only — never into Town.

③ The snow drifts +1 per player who didn't feed.

📣 The call. Only the watch-holder, once a laden wagon has reached the saddle — space 4 counts, or anywhere beyond: the other family answers with one open card, then the furthest laden wagon is through.

Night ends: a laden wagon reaches Town · the run is called · the whiteout (furthest laden through) · the Snow fills its track (buried — loads wash to 0, wages still pay) · both hands empty (the Last Watch race).

❄ The long winter. The relief isn't finished until it arrives: if the third night (or any night after) ends with the road buried, no gratitude is tallied for that night — deal another, and another, until a night ends with a wagon through.

Scoring: stores on the through-wagon ×3 · stores on any other wagon −value · each push into the through-wagon +2 · wages +3 per ♠ fed, +1 other · biggest watch-pile +5 (the Long Watch, ties shared). Three nights; most gratitude wins.

New game

The valley is nearly empty. Two households run the relief this winter — yours and one other. The mountain offers two Fate cards each beat; whoever holds the watch takes one and lets the other resolve. While the fire is unlit, both resolve. Only the watch-holder can call the run once a laden wagon has reached the saddle (space 4 counts, or beyond).
Seed   Name
Who winters across the valley?

The night, beat by beat