Balzakken
Balzakken Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview
In a (nut)shell
The goal of the game is to score as low as possible. How? By holding 5 or fewer points in your hand. Then call BALZAK! loudly and saddle your fellow players with lots of points.
At the end of each round, all points are written down. A new round then begins. As soon as one of the players has 100 points or more, the game ends. The player with the fewest points at that moment wins!
What you need
- (Ball)pens & paper
Ready to start?
Shuffle all the cards and deal each player 5. Hold your cards in your hand and make sure nobody else can see them. The remaining cards form the draw pile. Turn over the top card of the draw pile and place it next to it. This is the discard pile.
Important: Is the card you turn over for the discard pile an action card (The Swinger or The Lul)? Then put it back in the draw pile and turn over a new card.
Playing the Game
Action!
The player who looks the youngest begins. Play then proceeds clockwise. On your turn, you perform one of the following four actions:
Action 1: Discard and draw
Discard a Balzak from your hand onto the discard pile and draw a face-down card from the draw pile back into your hand. Note: discard first, then draw.
Action 2: Swap
Swap a Balzak from your hand with the top card of the discard pile.
Action 3: Play an action card
- The Swinger: swap cards with a player of your choice.
- The Lul: choose a player, who must immediately draw 2 cards from the draw pile.
See the section "Card Types" below for details.
Action 4: Call BALZAK!
If you have 5 points or fewer in your hand, you may call BALZAK! loudly. The round then ends immediately.
Important:
Balzakken of the same value may be played together. If you have several Balzakken of the same value, you may discard them all at once onto the discard pile. You then only need to draw back one card from the draw pile or the discard pile. This way you play the rest of the round with fewer cards.
You may never play two Swingers at once, unlike Balzakken.
Action cards are not placed on the discard pile. You place an action card face up on the table in front of the chosen player. It stays there until someone calls BALZAK!
You may not call BALZAK! while holding an action card. If you have 5 points or fewer, but also an action card in your hand, you may NOT call BALZAK!. You must therefore get rid of your action cards first.
You may only call BALZAK! on your turn. Calling BALZAK! counts as a turn. So you may not first perform action 1, 2 or 3 and then call BALZAK!
Card Types
Balzakken
Balzakken have a value from -1 to 11. Because you must score as few points as possible, that darned Blue Ball (11) is a bad card, and The Bruisbal (-1) is a good one.
Action card 1: The Swinger
Swing away! Place The Swinger on the table in front of a player of your choice (so not on the discard pile). Then swap all the cards in your hand with that player. You do not draw a new card. The player you swung with now plays with one card fewer. The Swinger stays out of play until someone calls BALZAK!
Play then passes as normal to the player after the one who played The Swinger.
Important: You may not call BALZAK! yourself while holding a Swinger. You must play it first. If someone else calls BALZAK! and you still have The Swinger in your hand, The Swinger counts as 0 points. If you have only 1 card left in your hand and it is The Swinger, then swap your empty hand (0 points) with the cards of a player of your choice.
Action card 2: The Lul
With The Lul, it can go two ways. You can seriously spoil someone else's lucky moment, or you end up being The Lul yourself. Here is how it works:
Playing The Lul: place The Lul on the table in front of a player of your choice (so not on the discard pile) and shout: "The Lul!" The player who receives The Lul must immediately draw 2 cards from the draw pile. You do not draw a new card, so you play with one card fewer. The Lul stays out of play until someone calls BALZAK!
Play then passes as normal to the player after the one who played The Lul.
Or... being The Lul yourself: you may not call BALZAK! with The Lul in your hand. You must play it first. If you still have The Lul in your hand, that is bad luck! Then The Lul counts as 10 points. These points count in the same way as the Balzakken.
Like this: Pleun has 4 points in her hand and calls BALZAK! Nena has 3 points plus The Lul in her hand. The Lul now counts as 10 points. Nena's score this round is therefore 13 points. Pleun has made a good BALZAK! She writes down 0 points.
BALZAK! - End of a Round
If you have 5 points or fewer in your hand, you may call BALZAK! as your turn. The round then stops immediately, all points are counted, and it is determined whether the BALZAK! was good or false. The next round then begins. The player who called BALZAK! deals the cards again.
Good BALZAK!
Does the player who called BALZAK! have 5 points or fewer, and does nobody else have the same or fewer? Then it is a good BALZAK! The BALZAK!-caller writes down 0 points. The other players write down the points they currently hold in their hands.
Important: Do you have a good BALZAK! with fewer than 0 points? You still write down 0 points. You cannot go into the negative on the score sheet.
False BALZAK!
Does another player have the same number of points or fewer? Then you have made a false BALZAK! With a false BALZAK!, you receive 25 points. The points in your hand are forfeited and the round stops immediately. The player who does have the lowest number of points may write down 0 points. The other players write down the points they currently hold in their hands.
Important: Does someone call BALZAK! but have more than 5 points? Then they were not paying attention. This costs them 25 points. In this case, all the other players write down 0 points.
Do several players have fewer points than the player who called BALZAK!? Then the player with the lowest number of points wins.
Do several players have the same number of points? Then they may all write down 0 points, except the false BALZAK!-caller, naturally.
Tasty (In-Between) Positions
Keep track of the scores. Does one of the players have exactly 69 or 99 points after a round? Nice position! Then you may:
- From 69 points, go back to 50.
- From 99 points, go back to 75.
What If...
The draw pile runs out?
The game simply continues. Shuffle all the cards (except the top card of the discard pile and the action cards that are already out of play), and use these cards again as the draw pile.
A player has no cards left?
Then they are doing well, because they now have 0 points. They do not draw a new card, and when it is their turn they must call BALZAK!
The health-awareness panel on booklet page 4 ("Check je ballen!", a reminder to check regularly for testicular cancer) and the publisher's credits and back-cover panels are not game rules and are omitted from this transcription.