Grass (card game)
| Grass | |
|---|---|
| Game data | |
| author | Jeff London |
| publishing company | Euro Games USA |
| Publishing year | 1979 |
| Art | Card game |
| Teammates | 2 to 6 |
| Duration | 20 minutes |
| Age | from 15 years |
Grass is a card game for 2 to 6 players, ages 15+. The aim of the game is to become a successful dealer . A single game lasts around 20 minutes. The game was in the Games 100 from Games Magazine from 1980 to 1986 .
Overview of the course of the game
Game objective
The first player to reach or exceed a total of $ 250,000 wins.
Game start
At the beginning each player receives six cards that are held face down in their hand. The remaining cards are stacked face down in the middle of the table. After the deal, the player to the left of the dealer begins; after that - after completing a turn - the player on the left is always next to play.
Course of the game
The game is played in one or more rounds. A round begins with the player entitled to move. He first draws a card from the face-down pile. He now has the following options:
- Open your own market by playing a Market Open card face up on the table in front of you .
- expand your own market by placing a card there. However, if your own market is blocked by a Heat On card, it may not play certain cards.
- block a teammate. To do this, he places a Heat On card on another player's Market Open card.
- Offer card exchange. He must explicitly state which card he is offering for exchange; and those interested in the exchange must also explicitly state which card they are offering in exchange. If both accept the deal, they openly swap these cards - visible to all players.
- Place a card face up in the middle of the table ( wasted pile , right next to the face-down pile). A distinction must be made here between whether the card was simply discarded (and therefore has no further influence on the game) or whether the card results in further actions.
- close your own market by placing a Market Close card face up on your Market Open , which is not blocked by Heat On . This ends the game round.
At the end of his turn, each player must always have exactly 6 cards in hand.
Playing
If a player has passed the $ 250,000 mark after completing a game round, the game is over. The game is also ended when the face-down deck of cards in the middle of the table is used up, i.e. no more cards can be drawn.
Maps and gameplay in detail
The Grass game consists of a total of 104 cards, which can be roughly divided into good, bad and - for the final account - neutral cards. The original American slang is mostly used for the game and the cards in the German-speaking area . A translation is therefore not used in the following; a slang glossary can be found at the end of this article.
Market Open
A played Market Open card is a basic requirement in order to act on the market yourself (and to gain plus points there). Without a market open , it is not possible to play hand-held grass. Nevertheless, it is possible to block opponents with Heat On cards even without a Market Open card that you have played yourself .
Each player only needs one Market Open card to be able to act in the market. After that, these are only of value as exchange cards or if the Utterly Wiped Out card is planned to be played . There are a total of 10 Market Open cards.
Peddle
Green Peddle cards represent the grass in play, i.e. the play money. At the end of the game, the peddle cards displayed in your own market are rated as plus points. Of the Peddle cards that are still in hand at the end of the game, only the highest is rated as minus points.
There are a total of 28 Peddle cards in the following denominations: 12 × $ 5,000 ( Home Grown or Mexico ), 10 × $ 25,000 ( Colombia or Jamaica ), 5 × $ 50,000 ( Panama ) and 1 × $ 100,000 ( Dr. Feelgood ).
Protect
With purple Protect cards, a dealer can transfer part of his grass market to safe foreign countries. This money is then securely protected from any access; However, this is so certain that the player himself can no longer access it. He may then no longer use it to e.g. B. to unblock its market ( Heat On ) by paying a fine ( Pay Fine ).
There are a total of 6 Protect cards: 4 × $ 25,000 ( Catch a buzz or Grab a snack ) and 2 × $ 50,000 ( Lust conquers all ). Only the Dr. Feelgood card ($ 100,000) cannot be protected.
Heat on
With red Heat On cards, other players can be blocked, betrayed and whistled. If your own open market is blocked by Heat On , you initially only have limited options. In this situation it is forbidden to put grass on your own market, to end the game by means of market close or to steal cards from other players ( steal your neighbor's pot ). Furthermore, a player blocked by Heat On is prohibited from playing a Heat On card to block other players.
A dealer blocked by Heat On must first of all take care of removing this blockage. This is possible with a suitable Heat Off card, a Nirvana card, by paying a fine ( Pay Fine ) or through total bankruptcy ( Utterly Wiped Out ).
There are a total of 12 Heat On cards in the four categories: Bust , Detained , Felony and Search & Seizure . Despite the different category names, Heat On cards are of equal rank in the further course of the game.
Heat off
By playing a red Heat Off card (with a diagonal black bar) a player can remove the Heat On blockade of his market. The prerequisite for this, however, is that the category fits: A Heat On Bust can e.g. B. can only be canceled with a Heat Off Bust , a Heat Off Detained would be ineffective here.
There are a total of 20 Heat Off cards in the four categories: Bust , Detained , Felony and Search & Seizure .
Pay fine
Playing a Pay Fine card is another way to cancel a heat on , but you have to pay a fine for it. To do this, the lowest played and unprotected money card in your own market is placed on the open discard pile in the middle of the table. Anyone who has not yet placed any money or who has already transferred all their money abroad ( Protect ) cannot pay a fine - and therefore cannot use Pay Fine for themselves.
There are a total of 4 Pay Fine cards.
Nirvana
Playing a light blue Nirvana card puts dealers in a good mood:
- First, if there is one, a separate Heat On blockade can be lifted.
- In addition, with a Stone High card, the dealer can steal the lowest played and unprotected Grass card from each player and transfer it to his own open market; with a Euphoria card, the highest played and unprotected Grass card of each player.
- In addition, the player can then immediately draw another card from the face-down deck of cards in the center of the table, and it is immediately his turn to take another turn.
There are a total of 5 Stone High cards and 1 Euphoria card.
paranoia
If you hold or play the black paranoia cards in your hand, you've got a bad trip. There are three categories of paranoia cards: 4 x Sold Out , 3 x Double Crossed and 1 x Utterly Wiped Out , which have side effects of varying severity:
- If a Sold Out is played, the player loses the lowest unprotected Grass card played and then sits out once. In Double Crossed he loses his highest unprotected grass card played and then sits out twice. In the Utterly Wiped Out , he loses all unprotected played Grass cards, plus his played Market Open card, and he then has to sit out twice.
- As soon as a paranoia card is played, each player must also hand over one of the cards they are holding to their left teammate. This is pushed in a concealed manner. The card that you receive from the player on your right may only be looked at if you have already pushed your own card face down to your fellow player on the left. So it is not allowed to immediately push the card that you have just received yourself.
At the end of the game , ALL Paranoia cards still held in hand are counted as minus points.
Skim
With Skim cards players are skimmed off. These include the four yellow Steal Your Neighbor's Pot cards. If you play this, you can steal an unprotected Grass card from another player's market and display it on your own market. Usually this will be the most expensive card displayed, e.g. B. Dr. Feelgood ($ 100,000) or Panama ($ 50,000).
The one banker card is also one of the skim cards. However, this cannot be played out during the game, but can only be discarded without any effect. If, on the other hand, someone holds the banker in their hand at the end of the game , then every other player loses 20 percent of their unprotected weed in favor of the banker .
Market Close
By placing one (of a total of 5) Market Close card on your own unblocked Market Open card, the game is ended and then it is settled and scored.
A market close may not be played if the own market is blocked by Heat On . It is also not permitted to place Market Close on another Market Open card in order to end the game.
Market Close cards can also be discarded face up in the middle of the table, but these then fizzle out without any effect, so the game continues.
End of game and scoring
At the end of the game, the accounts are settled and the scores are noted on a piece of paper:
This starts with the plus points: All grass that was played in the own market is added up and counted as plus points.
Then it is noted which cards each player has not played: The value of the highest Peddle card still in hand is noted as minus points; if it had been played out, however, it would have been a plus.
In addition, every Paranoia card held in hand is rated as negative: every Sold Out with minus $ 25,000, every Double Crossed with minus $ 50,000 and the Utterly Wiped Out with minus $ 100,000.
With the exception of these Peddle and Paranoia cards, all other cards still in hand at the end of the game are neutral, so they are not counted as plus or minus points.
If someone at game end the banker keeps on hand, which collects bankers additional plus points and the other players Cons: For each player, 20 percent of the played and unprotected Grass are as commission to the banker dissipated, so recorded as negative points. The sum of these minus points are credited to the banker as plus points.
After that, all plus and minus points of this game are netted to determine the most successful dealer of the current game. He also receives a round bonus of $ 25,000. In addition, the score is offset against the result of the previous game rounds - and also generally announced so that everyone knows who is currently ahead in the overall ranking - and will therefore almost inevitably be the opponent or “devil” to be fought collectively in the next game.
Learn and teach grass
Reduced card set
In order not to overwhelm interested parties with too many rules at first, it is possible to play the first games with a reduced set of cards.
In the first round of the game, for example, you can forego all Skim , Protect , Nirvana and Paranoia cards.
Tabular summary of rules
The following tabular summary of the rules can help to provide an overview of the side effects of individual cards and thereby facilitate the introduction to the game.
| map | number | effect | Grass transfer | In hand at the end of the game |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Market Open | 10 | Market opening | 0 | ||
| Grass (peddle) | 5,000 | 12 | Home Grown , Mexico | - 5,000 | |
| 25,000 | 10 | Colombia , Jamaica | - 25,000 | ||
| 50,000 | 5 | Panama | - 50,000 | ||
| 100,000 | 1 | Dr. Feel good | - 100,000 | ||
| Protect | 25,000 | 4th | Protects the corresponding amount from unauthorized access / loss
(Protection against: Stone High, Euphoria, Steal Neighbor's Pot, Sold Out, Doublecrossed, Utterly Wiped Out, Banker ) |
0 | |
| 50,000 | 2 | ||||
Heat on
|
4x each 3 | Limits the player's options - a Heat Off card is required to undo this
|
0 | ||
| Heat off | 4x each 5 | Heat Off (only suitable type !!!) | |||
| Pay fine | 4th | Heat Off (any) | the smallest amount of unprotected grass is lost | ||
| Stone High { Type: Nirvana } | 5 | smallest unprotected amount from each player | 0 | ||
| Euphoria { Type: Nirvana } | 1 | highest unprotected amount from any player | |||
| Steal Neighbor's Pot { Type: Skim } | 4th | Steal any Grass card | highest unprotected amount from a player | ||
| Sold Out { Type: Paranoia } | 4th | 1 x suspend + slide | Smallest unprotected amount of your own is lost | - 25,000 | |
| Double Crossed { Type: Paranoia } | 3 | Suspend + slide twice | highest own unprotected amount is lost | - 50,000 | |
| Utterly Wiped Out { Type: Paranoia } | 1 | Market (card) and all unprotected amounts are lost | - 100,000 | ||
| Market Close | 5 | Playing | 0 | ||
| Banker { Type: Skim } | 1 | Final settlement: 20% of unprotected amounts of every other player (banker is served first on final settlement!) | |||
Glossary of slang
American slang is also used for the game and cards in German-speaking countries.
- Bust
- arrest, blow up, snap, catch, catch, blow up, burst, destroy, violently damage, collapse, go bankrupt; total flop, raid, police action
- Catch a buzz
- give a kick, drone, float away, make the dust
- Conquer
- defeat, conquer, conquer, overcome
- Detain
- arrest, detain, detain, detain, prevent
- Double cross
- underhand betrayal, double play, fake dog
- Felony
- serious felony, serious accusation
- Grab a snack
- take a small bite
- Heat on
- heat, heat up, put pressure on, stress
- Heat off
- cool down, relax, calm down
- Lust conquers all
- nothing beats sex, sex conquers everything
- Peddle
- peddle, sell, offer, impose
- Protect
- protect
- Search & Seizure
- search, seize, seize, arrest
- Skim
- skim, cream
- Stone high
- stoned, drunk
- Sold out
- Sale, special offer
- Utterly wiped out
- completely wiped away
Copyright, Trademark and Distribution
Grass ™ is a trademark of Euro Games Corp. and © 1979 by Jeff London.
In only a few toy stores in Germany, Grass is part of the stock range , but almost every toy retailer can procure it at short notice to order. International distribution is carried out by Euro Games Corp. coordinated. In Germany, a set of Grass cards costs around 14 euros, which is packed in a jute bag and comes with American game instructions. These 'official rules' differ in some points from the rules of the game described in this article!
Web links
- Grass in the Luding games database
- Grass in the game database BoardGameGeek (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Image of Grass in the board game database BoardGameGeek (English)
- ↑ Grass - official set of rules (English)