Here are the basics:
The players' men "work" as traders / hunters / trappers / messengers, and earn their main income (= points) by travelling from station to station along the trail marked by the circles.
Supplementary sources of income are bear-hunting and bounty-hunting (there are sometimes "Wanted"-warrants out for the men of one or more players).
After each round of player action, the bears move autonomously (on the squares) and keep the players on their toes by occasionally attacking / eating their employees.
The challenge consists in being the player who assesses the risks and chances involved most successfully.

What you need for playing "Grizzly"
(later go to the "do it yourself"-section for technical details and tips, and for alternative solutions to the "luxury edition" depicted in these pages):

- the game board (16 x 12 squares, with a circuit of 2 circles per square)

- a collection of suitably sized stones ("mountains")

- some paper cutouts representing water (you could also use digital or scanned photographs and print them out)

- 6 buildings ("stations") in 3 different sizes

- sets of 4 + 1 men for each player

- at least (!) 3 bears

- one 4-sided die and two 6-sided dice

- 18 "Wanted"-posters (3 for each player's men)

- optional: cards with special abilities
- optional: "spells" for the medicine man

Before You Play

Setting up the board
The way you design your landscape will have a direct effect on the character of the game. If, for example, you build it wide open like this

the bears will have maximum mobility, which in theory makes them rather more dangerous, while on the other hand they will tend to roam the entire board rather than linger excessively in a given area, making a nuisance of themselves there.
By way of contrast, a landscape divided by a river or mountain range will reduce the frequency of surprise bear attacks, but make them all the more lethal when they do occur:

Note that only a few elements had to be shifted in order to convert landscape 1 into landscape 2.
Another important factor are the individual distances between stations. It goes without saying that having one or two really long ones guarantees increased adrenaline levels.

In any case, variety is the key here (and a major asset of this game, in my opinion).
Playing with children, landscape creation often becomes a game in itself.
You should make a note of particularly successful scenarios for further use.
Click here for some more examples.

As for placing the elements, the following rules apply:
- Stations, mountains and water must occupy whole squares.
- At least one square of each station has to cover a square of the trail (this way it becomes immediately obvious where the entrance and exit are).
- Mountains and water may not be placed on top of the trail.

Placing the bears
The three youngest players choose one bear each and place them anywhere on the board (except stations and mountains, which are "off limits" to them), and facing in any of 8 possible directions (see "Bear Movement" below).

Placing the men
After agreeing on clockwise or counter-clockwise play (the whole trail is "one way" only!), the players take turns in putting one of their four men in a station of their choice.
After all players have placed their first man, Player 1 places his second man and so on.
The stations have the following capacity limits:
            Stations of 1 square: 4 men
            Stations of 2 squares: 6 men
            Station of 3 squares: 8 men
All players' fifth men are placed beside the board next to the first square of one of its sides. Walking all around the board, they will serve as score markers (each board square being the equivalent of 1 point) and determine the game's duration and eventual winner: