Everyone chooses a kid card (each has a special ability) and three pieces of gear.
Separate, shuffle, and stack the locations cards, item cards, and snowball cards and place them in the middle. Everyone draws a location card and an item card, then draws 2 snowball cards.
You're ready to go! Whoever is at the location with the lowest cover number goes first. On your turn, you throw a snowball at another player, or clear out and draw a new location.
Snowballs are numbered 1-8. When the total of the snowballs thrown at a player equal or exceed the location cover number, the player is hit (POW!) and loses a piece of gear. Lose all your gear and you're out of the game.
When you're close to being hit, you'd better clear out. Discard the snowballs thrown at you, the location, and the item, and draw a new location and item.
The snowball deck also contains Events and Quickshots. The Events change the game rules temporarily. The Quickshots are numbered 1-8, and can be thrown in response to snowballs to hit other players.