2002 · Kärnan
The title (The bear is sleeping) is a well-known children's song in Norway and Sweden. The game was first released in Norwegian in 2002, and in a much improved Swedish version in 2004. In the original version, the players try to collect gold coins without waking the sleeping bear; in the later version they gather blueberries instead.
Before the game starts, circular tiles are randomly placed face down on the board. In the original only the central 20 spaces are covered, in the later version all 44 spaces (not counting the four starting spaces). Players roll the die and move their pawns on the board. If they land on a face-down tile, this is revealed and acted on, and then turned face down again. If it depicts 1, 2 or 3 coins/blueberries, the player may take that number of couns/berries from the pool. The remaining symbols differ between the editions:
Norwegian edition: If a bear tile is revealed, the bear wakes up, and all players currently in the lair lose one coin. If a player lands on one of the bear paw symbols (printed on some of the non-covered spaces, not found on a token), two face-down tiles may be swapped.
Swedish edition: If it is a bear tile, the player loses one berry. If players stop on a face-up troll tile, the player may pick up the tile and use it to defend against the bear. Face-up bear print tiles may be used to swap two face-down tiles around (so that if players remember where the 3-berry tiles are they can use this to their advantage).
When all coins/blueberries are taken, the player with the most coins/berries is the winner.
Contents of the Swedish version:
Gameboard
44 wooden gameboard tiles
10 spare wooden tiles
27 wooden blueberry tiles
4 pawns
1 oversized die, numbered 2-2-3-3-4-4
Rules
Contents of the Norwegian version:
Gameboard
20 cardbord gameboard tiles
20 cardbord gold coins
4 pawns
1 die (not stated if this is numbered 1–6 or 2–4)
(Rules are printed on the back of the box)
4 years and up (Norwegian version is given as 5+, but is actually slightly simpler than the Swedish marked 4+). Language independent.
