Entry #1 - Bailout!

by Comfect

Give It Away Now

Components

1 monopoly board; 1 D20 per property on the monopoly board; the monopoly propery card; monopoly money; red and blue poker chips

Objective

You are a member of Congress, desperately trying to give money to the right corporations in order to keep your district happy.

Start

Roll 1D20 for each property (hereafter known as companies) on the board (and leave the D20 on the space) - that company links to the companies that many spaces away to the left and right. Note if any companies link to the Chance, Community Chest, Luxury Tax, Income Tax, Go!, Free Parking, Jail or Go to Jail spaces.

Shuffle and deal out 24 of the companies evenly to the players. These are their key contributors.

Distribute half of the $1 bills and all of the remaining bills evenly between the players. $1 bills are worth $1000. This is each player's earmark stash.

Turns

In turn, each player takes one of the following actions:

• Bail out one company by giving it federal money from their earmark stash. The first bailout of a company costs the cost of the first house on the property; the second the second, and so on until the fifth (and all further bailouts) costs as much as the hotel. If a company is bailed out, it's stock price increases. Place two blue chips on the company, and one blue chip on each company it links to (non-property spaces are not affected). Remove red chips (if any) before adding blue chips. The bailout also negatively affects the stock prices of the company’s competitors; remove one blue chip from each other property of the same color (but do not place a red chip if there are no blue chips). Notes: only one company of each color may be bailed out per round. The Railroads are one "color;" so are the Utilities. If a company links to another company of its own color, do nothing to that company.

• Increase taxes. Each player gains $1000. This lowers the stock value of those companies that link to Income Tax, Luxury Tax, Chance, or Free Parking. Place a red poker chip on those companies, unless they have blue poker chips available, in which case remove one. Note: this may only be done once per round, and may not be done in a round in which taxes have decreased.

• Decrease taxes. Each player loses $1000. This raises the stock value of those companies that link to Income Tax, Luxury Tax, Chance, or Free Parking. Place a blue poker chip on those companies, unless they have red poker chips available, in which case remove one. Note: this may be used to affect the value of companies that may not be bailed out this round. Note: this may only be done once around, and may not be done in a round in which taxes have increased.

• Institute Welfare. Each player loses $500. This raises the stock value of those companies that link to Community Chest or Go!, and lowers those that link to Jail or Go to Jail. Note: this may only be done once a round, and may not be done in a round in which welfare has been cut.

• Cut Welfare. Each player gains $500. This raises the stock value of those companies that link to Jail or Go to Jail, and lowers those that link to Community Chest or Go! Note: this may only be done once a round, and may not be done in a round in which welfare has been instituted.

Turn order

Each round through the players is played in reverse spending order: the player who spent the least on a bailout last turn goes first (on the first turn, play in reverse property order, with the player with the most expensive contributor going first). Instituting Welfare counts as spending $500 on a bailout; Decreasing Taxes counts as spending $1000. Cutting welfare counts as spending -$500; Increasing Taxes counts as spending -$1000.

Game End and Scoring

The game ends when a player has run out of money to give out. Score is then totaled as follows: Calculate the stock values of your contributors (ie the properties you hold). Each company's value is equal to its property value, +10% for each blue chip, -10% for each red chip.

• 1 pt per contributor with stock value over $500
• 1 pt per contributor with stock value over $400
• 1 pt per contributor with stock value over $300
• 1 pt per contributor with stock value over $200
• 1 pt per contributor with stock value over $100 (these are cumulative; Boardwalk at 500 is worth 5 pts).
• 1 pt per blue chip on a contributor
• -1 pt per red chip on a contributor
• 5 pts if all your contributors have blue chips

Entry #2 - One Man's Trash

by ilta

A quick card game for 3-6 players using a standard deck of cards

It's December: the time for giving, receiving, and most importantly, exchanging! Will you build your dream collection brand new, or will the Bargain Bin hold the treasure you desire? Most moves you make help your opponents in one way or another, but clever gifting will ensure that you are the first on the block with the coveted box set!

Set-up:

1. Deal out Hands: remove the jokers from a standard deck of cards, and deal out five cards to each player.
2. Set up the Bargain Bin: for each player in the game, lay one card, face up, in a line.
3. Stock the Store: place the remaining cards in a pile next to the Bargain Bin.

Object of the Game:

Complete your "box set" by collecting either a straight (a run of four successive cards in the same suit), or four of a kind (one number in each suit). Aces can be low or high, but cannot "wrap" -- that is, J-Q-K-A and A-2-3-4 are valid straights, but Q-K-A-2 is not.

Game Play:

Begin with the player sitting to the left of the dealer, and continue clockwise.

On your turn, you must perform ONE, and only one, of the following four actions:

• Buy a Present for Yourself: take the top card from the deck and place it in your hand without showing anyone.

• Go on a Shopping Spree: take as many cards from the top of the deck as there are players. Choose one to keep without showing anyone, and one to give, face up, to each player. If there aren't enough cards remaining in the deck to give one to each player, select as many extra cards as necessary from the end of the Bargain Bin.

• Hunt for a Bargain: take as many cards from the end of the Bargain Bin as there are players. Keep one and give one, face up, to each player.

• Dive into the Bargain Bin: take TWO cards for every player from the end of the Bargain Bin. Keep two and give two, face up, to each player.

No matter which action you choose, every player who received a card (including you) selects one card from their hand and places it face down in front of them. They reveal these cards simultaneously and discard them to the Bargain Bin. They may discard the card they just received.

Note that in the case of "Dive into the Bargain Bin" this means that every player's size will increase by one. If the deck is completely exhausted, you may only choose between actions 3 and 4; do not reshuffle the deck.

Finally, shuffle the Bargain Bin and re-deal it, face up, in a line. You never know what you're going to find on sale!

Winning the Game:

If, after the cards are discarded, you have either a straight or four of a kind, you've won! However, if TWO or more players have winning hands, then the player whose turn it is is the winner, for being such a thoughtful giver.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Entry #3 - Christmas Shop Assistant

by awakener76

Players take the role of salespersons in a busy department store in the run up to christmas. This game is for 2+ players and uses a standard deck of cards.

Set-up

Remove the jokers and then seperate the deck into two piles, on consisting of 10, J, Q, K (the shoppers) and the other of the the remaining numbered cards (the stock). Shuffle the two piles.

Gameplay

Each round (of which there are 11) starts with a shopper card being drawn and placed face up on the table. This represents the items the shopper wants to purchase.

In the first round the oldest player deals 7 cards to each of the players. In subsequent rounds the winner from the previous round deals cards to each player to return their hand up to 7 cards.

The goal is for players to match the shopper by playing cards that add up to the same value as the shopper card (J=11, Q=12, K=13). If two or more players match the numerical value then the winner is determined by order of precedence. The order of precedence is suit first, value of card in matching suit, colour, value of card of colour. If it is still a tie after that then the round is drawn and no player wins.

If there is a clear winner in a round then they take the shopper card and deal ready for the next round, turning over the next shopper card once they have dealt.

At the end of the 11 rounds the player with the most shopper cards is the winning.

Order of precedence

If the shopper card is the Queen of Hearts then the order of precedence would be:

• 9Heart+3Heart
• 6Heart+6Heart
• 6Heart+6Diamond
• Heart+6Spade
• 6Heart+6Club
• 9Diamond+3Diamond
• 6Diamond+6Diamond
• 6Diamon+6Spade
• 6Diamond+6Club
• 9Spade+3Spade
• 6Spade+6Spade
• 6Spade+6Club
• 6Club+6Club

Congratulations to ilta and his entry "One Man's Trash", which was voted the best response to this month's Challenge. See how the voting turned out in the Voting Poll.

Critique: Post your constructive critiques for each of the entries on the Critique Thread.

Please Note: BGDF's very own chief, darkehorse, will be running the January GDS Challenge ... watch for that in early January.

-Bryk