Haulin' Oats

Haulin' Oats is a digital board game about truck driving on US highways and delivering oatmeal. You work for the Starkham Oatmeal company, taking crates of oats to the local grocery store and returning to the warehouse to collect your wages. The roads bring both dangers and delights, so you can bring a co-pilot, a pet, or travel alone.

Drivers and companions

At the start of a game, each player chooses from eight drivers, three of whom are locked by default. Each driver has two strengths and weaknesses, such as a bonus to truck-ramming checks or a penalty when dealing with the law. Co-pilots and pets also each have a benefit and a disadvantage, and you can mix and match them with drivers or play without one. A bad Incident card draw can leave a companion behind at a truck stop for an opponent to pick up.

Special guest drivers, co-pilots and pets can be unlocked through quests or by doing certain things repeatedly. The game includes eight drivers, eight co-pilots and eight pets, including special guests.

Encounters on the road

The board has 36 squares, each with its own adventure. Encounter, Incident and Resource decks each contain 50 cards, featuring characters and obstacles such as drug cartels, bike gangs, maniacs, pop stars, police and serial killers, as well as less dangerous people. Characters may rob you, offer a mini-quest, ask for a ride or request some money.

Familiar characters Bill Finnigan and Aloysius can appear in the Encounter and Incident decks. They may offer missions or items to barter. You earn wages when you complete a delivery and return to the warehouse, then spend them on truck spare parts, the favor of lot lizards or bribes to get out of trouble.

Multiplayer and unlocks

You can play online or over LAN with others. Statistics, leaderboards and achievements track your play, and some achievements unlock additional content. Guest characters and table accoutrements can also be unlocked by owning or having played previous games, or earned by playing Haulin' Oats.

Presentation

The game features hand-drawn art and music by Azucar, Yoshua Shafer, Joseph Couden, also known as Scary Ghost, and El Castor.