The Garden Gnomes Society

The Garden Gnomes Society
A bucolic card game for 3-6 players, ages 12 and up, by Roman Mathar
The president of the garden gnome breeders society “Golden Cap”
has passed on, and now the hunt for a worthy successor is on.
The highly coveted presidency will go to the first society member
who succeeds at breeding a gnome with a golden cap or buying
one for 4000 Petals.
Components
this rulebook and
6 x 22
(136) Gnome Cards (with Flowers)
5 Competition Cards
6 Garden Cards and
6 Shack Cards
6 Summary Cards
18 Event Cards
45 Breeding Cards (no Flowers)
48 Bid Chips
1 Block of Petals
Object of the Game
Winner and new president of the society is the first player to breed
a gnome with a golden cap or to collect 4000 Petals.
Flower symbol
Game Setup
Cap colour
Every player takes all cards of one kind of
flower and places the garden and shack
card as well as one gnome with a brown
and one with an orange cap in front of him.
The colour of a gnomes cap is not related
to a player colour (these are marked by the flowers), but shows the
market value of this gnome. The garden gnome hierarchy is shown
on page 5. The other gnome cards placed aside; they will enter the
game through breeding and two-for-one deals.
Breeding cards are separated into five stacks by the colour of the
cap on their back. Each stack is shuffled and placed into the middle
of the table in everyones reach.
Event cards are separated into two stacks by the
colour of the cap on their back. In the first few rounds,
the grey event cards are used. As soon as the first
gnome with a blue cap enters play, the grey event
stack is replaced by the blue one.
The brown and orange competition cards are placed face-up on
the table. The other competion cards are placed aside.
Money (Petals) is placed into a central bank in five stacks sorted by
colour (and value). Each player gets a start capital of 1500 Petals
from the bank and bid chips with a value of 3050 Petals
(1 x 50; 1 x 100; 2 x 200; 1 x 500; 2 x 1000).
The player with the flashiest hat or cap is elected treasurer (start
player) and begins the game. If nobody is wearing a cap, the
treasurer is appointed at random.
Game Play
Each game round consists of five phases:
1. Appointment of a new treasurer (start player)
2. Gnome occupations
3. Breeding
4. Competitions
5. Upkeep
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1. Appointment of a new treasurer
The player with the most valuable collection of gnomes becomes
the new treasurer (=start player). The worth of a collection is decided by the most valuable gnome in it; lesser ranks are only important
in case of a draw at the highest rank (i.e. a gnome collection with
one red, one orange and two brown caps is less valuable than one
with one red and two orange caps). A complete draw is decided by
the most money. The treasurer is the first player in each of the
following phases.
The treasurer checks whether any gnomes with new cap colours
entered play in the last round. If this is the case, the corresponding
competition cards also become available and are added to those
already in play. Two cards are drawn at random from the current
competition stack (which should contain all cap colours up to the
highest one currently in play) and placed face-up on the table as the
competitions for this round. In the first round, these are the brown
and the orange one.
Then the treasurer draws an event card and reads it aloud. The
card will indicate when the event takes place and which players are
effected.
Example: Manuel has three gnomes - two with orange caps and
one with a brown cap. Christine only has a single gnome, but with a
prestigious blue cap. Christine is this rounds treasurer. She shuffles
the blue, red, orange and brown competition cards, draws two at
random and places them face-up on the table. Then she draws an
event card, reads it aloud and places it in everyones sight.
2. Gnome occupations
Starting with the treasurer, each player in turn decides for one of his
gnomes how to occupy him this round. If the event card for this
round proscribes an occupation, it has to be taken now.
When all players have selected actions for their first gnome, the
treasurer decides how to occupy his second gnome. This continues
until all gnomes of all players are occupied.
A gnome can only have one occupation per round.
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There are six possible gnome occupations detailed below. Gnomes
with a grey cap are an exception due to their unseemly laziness: the
only possible way to occupy them is to give them away for zero
Petals.
I Work in the Garden
The gnome is sent to the garden to earn at least some of his keep:
its owner gets 50 Petals from the bank. The gnome card is placed
on the garden card of the player.
II Look for a Mate
The player takes one of his gnomes and declares that he is looking
for a breeding partner. He can add certain conditions regarding the
prospective partner or the future actions of its owner. For example,
a cap colour of at least red, or that the partners owner has to send
his next gnome to a competition.
The other players can only offer unoccupied gnomes as mates. The
offers are made in a blind bid. To make an offer, a player selects
one of his gnomes and then secretly place bid chips in their hand
to show the price of their offer. Until the bidding is over, unused bid
chips should be kept out of the other players sight.
The active player who is looking for a mate for his gnome also
secretly places a bid in his hand; this bid shows the maximal price
he is willing to pay for an offer. Naturally, this should not be more
money than he actually has.
Then all players hold their closed hands with their bids over the
table and open them simultaneously. If the offer with the lowest
price is below the indicated maximal price, the deal is closed. The
active player has to take the offer with the lowest price and can only
decide between several offers in case of a draw.
The active player puts his gnome and the newly gained mate in his
shack and pays the bid price to the other player. What happens in
the shack is explained in Breeding (phase 3).
Example: Christine is looking for a mate for her red-capped gnome.
Gregor and Manuel both have unoccupied gnomes and thus can
make an offer. Manuel offers a gnome with a brown cap and takes
bid chips with a value of 350 Petals in his hand. Gregor offers an
orange gnome and puts 400 Petals into his bidding hand. Christine
decides on a maximal price of 400 Petals and secretly puts bid
chips to that value in her hand.
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When the bids are revealed, Christine has to take Manuels offer
and gives him 350 Petals in exchange for the mating services of his
brown-capped gnome. Then she places both gnomes in her shack.
All players put their bid chips back into their supply and the game
continues.
If no offer is equal to or less than the maximal price, no deal is
made and the gnome has to work in the garden. This earns his
player 50 Petals, but the gnome can take no other occupation this
round.
III Offer a Mate
The player offers one of his unoccupied gnomes as a breeding
partner for a gnome of another player. This is also handled in a
blind bid. In this case, however, the amount bid by the active player
is the minimal price that is acceptable to him while the secret bids
of the other players are the prices they are willing to pay.
The active player has to take the highest offered price, but he can
decide in case of a draw. He gives his gnome to the player who
won the bid in exchange for the money. That player selects one of
his own unoccupied gnomes and puts both gnomes into his shack.
If the highest price is less than the minimal price, the spurned
gnome of the active player does garden work for this round, earning
50 Petals.
IV Sell a Gnome
The player sells one of his unoccupied gnomes for an amount of
money dependent on the colour of the cap. The gnome card is put
aside with the other unused gnomes.
Gnome hierarchy and value in Petals
V Exchange Gnomes Two-for-One
The player can put two of his unoccupied gnomes with a cap of the
same colour back with his unused gnome cards and get a new
gnome of one rank higher in exchange. The new gnome may not be
occupied in this round. He is placed in the garden of the player, but
does not earn 50 Petals.
A player may exchange two green-capped gnomes for a gnome
with a golden cap and thereby win the game.
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VI Join a Competition
The player sends one of his gnomes to a gnome show by placing
the gnome card on one of the two competitions for this round.
Whether the gnome is well-bred enough to win a price is decided
later in Competitions (phase 4).
3. Breeding
Beginning with the treasurer, all players get new gnomes from their
breeding efforts - one gnome for each pair a player has placed in
his shack during the last phase. To determine the cap colour for the
new gnome, a card is drawn at random from the breeding stack with
the colour corresponding to the more valuable gnome of the
breeding pair. Whether the higher-ranked gnome is his own or the
one from another player does not matter.
The player takes the new gnome card from his supply and puts it in
front of him. Then he shuffles drawn breeding card back into its
deck and returns the breeding mate to its owner.
Important: When breeding twice from the same breeding stack,
remember to shuffle in the card drawn for the first attempt before
taking a card for the second one.
Example: Manuel had to pay dearly for pairing up his blue-capped
gnome with an orange gnome owned by Christine. He takes the
blue breeding stack and draws a gnome with a green cap. Smiling
gladly and with a certain amount of fathers pride, he takes a green
gnome from his supply, returns the orange gnome to Christine and
places his two gnome cards in front of him.
Grey gnomes are plain lazy and can not be occupied, but they cost
the same upkeep as any gnome. The only way to get rid of them is
to sell them for 0 Petals.
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4. Competitions
For each of the two competitions, the treasurer draws two cards
from the breeding stack corresponding to the colour of the
competition to determine the quality of gnomes sent to the show by
other gnome breeding clubs.
The gnome with the highest rank wins the competition. The more
prestigious of the two competitions (the one with the colour higher
up in the gnome hierarchy) nets the owner of the winning gnome
1000 Petals, while winning the other one is worth 500 Petals. In
case of a draw, the money is split between the winning gnomes
(rounding down to an amount divisible by 50 if necessary).
Example: There is a ‘brown’ and a ‘red’ competition this round.
Christine and Manuel each sent an orange gnome to the brown
competition, and none of the players wanted any of their gnomes to
participate in the red competition. The treasurer shuffles the brown
breeding stack and draws two gnomes, one with a brown and one
with an orange cap.
Manuel and Chrisitine share the price money of 500 Petals with the
orange gnome from another breeder. They each get 150 Petals.
Rather slim pickings, but better than nothing and very probably
more than they could have gained at the red competition. Since
none of the players gnomes participated there, the 1000 Petals
price money remain in the bank.
5. Upkeep
All players have to pay an upkeep of 100 Petals for each of their
gnomes. Whether a lazy grey gnome, newly bred, gardenworker or
breeding mate - each gnome costs its owner 100 Petals.
A player that cannot pay for all his gnomes has to
sell as many of them as he needs to pay
upkeep for all of his gnomes - including the
ones he has to sell. No proper breeder
will pay for a hungry gnome!
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End of the Game
The game ends after the round in which a player either managed to
breed a gnome wth a golden cap or in which a player possesses at
least 4000 Petals after paying upkeep.
If other players reach either of these goals in the same round, the
winner is the player with the more valuable gnome collection
(excepting golden gnomes). The value of a collection is decided as
detailed on page 3 in Appointment of a new Treasurer (phase 1). If
this does not settle the draw, money decides - if the win condition
reached was 4000 Petals, only the Petals beyond that count for
deciding the draw.
Example: After a grueling gnome breeding race, Manuel is the
proud owner of a gnome with a golden cap. Christine, however,
managed to collect a hoard of 4350 Petals, which is also enough to
win the game. This means that the quality of the gnome collection
will decide the winner, and since Manuel can also call a greencapped gnome his own and Christine cannot, he is the winner and
new president of the Garden Gnomes Society.
Roman would like to thank:
Christian - this time ending in ‘an’ instead of ‘ne, Manuel,
Gregor and Thorsten.
You want more?
Visit our homepage at http://argentum-verlag.de.
Apart from further information about us and our games, you will
find the optional ‘free bidding’ variant and rules for two players.
© 2004
Argentum Verlag Roman Mathar, Im Klapperhof 33, 50670 Köln,
Grafik:Georg von Westphalen (http://www.vwcomics.de)
Artikelnummer: 0001
Visit us at http://argentum-verlag.de
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