Bean Trader Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Contents
• Preparation
  • The beanometer
  • Game money (thalers)
  • New harvest cards
  • Order cards
• Playing the game
  • A player's turn
  • Special action: order delivery
  • Special action: buy order
• I) Travel phase
  • 1) If the player has a new harvest card
  • 2) Move his figure or leave it where it is
  • 3) Place necessary travel cards on the table
  • 4) Take travel cards back into his hand
• II) Trader phase
  • Invitation
  • Trading
  • Buying
  • Example of the actions in the trader phase
• III) Final phase
  • 1) Discard orders and compress empty beanometer spaces
  • 2) Draw an order card
  • 3) Player declares his turn is over
• Game end

Overview

When a player is in a city and has an order card and the necessary beans to fulfill the order, he may deliver the beans and collect the value of the order from the bank. When two or more players are together in a city, they may trade beans among themselves. Trading beans is important as it allows players to get rid of unwanted beans and acquire needed beans. In addition, a player will buy beans in the city, if he has the type he wants. From time to time, the bean supplies will be replenished as described on new harvest cards. After eight new harvests, the game begins its last round. After this last round, the game ends and the player with the most bean thalers (money) is the winner.

Contents

• 117 bean chips: 18 blue beans, 16 chili beans, 16 stink beans, 15 green beans, 14 soy beans, 13 black-eyed beans, 13 red beans, 12 garden beans. (Note: in these rules, the terms beans and bean chips are used interchangeably.)
• 60 order cards. Each shows the name and first letter of the city, the beans that must be delivered, and the value of the order. Example: in Edinburgh, the player must deliver three beans (soy, chili, and garden); for this, the player earns 53 thalers. In Visby, the player must deliver two beans (blue and black-eyed); for this, the player earns 33 thalers.
• 35 travel cards in red, yellow, green, blue and violet. The cards are numbered from 1 through 7. There are two special travel cards in each color: Supply and Toll.
• 10 new harvest cards. Each shows beans to be placed on the beanometers of named cities. Example: place two blue beans in a stack on Hamburg's beanometer, place three yellow chili beans in a stack on Danzig's beanometer, place three green garden beans in a stack on Malmo's beanometer.
• 150 thaler notes
• 5 player boards: the spaces for the beans in the player's wagon, a table with the 8 types of beans with their basic prices, and a summary of player turn.
• Game board, 5 figures, game tray.

The player boards have eight spaces for the beans they carry in their wagons (figures). In addition, there is a table showing the 8 types of beans with their basic prices, and a player turn summary.

The basic prices for the beans have two meanings: first, they give the price of the different beans at the beginning of the game. Second, they give the price the bank will pay the players for beans they have left in their wagons at the end of the game.

Note: during the game, the bean costs will vary from city to city. The actual price of a bean in a city is shown on that city's beanometer.

The game board shows the cities, connecting roads, beanometers, supply and discard spaces for the order cards, and supply and discard spaces for the new harvest cards.

Preparation

Place the game board in the middle of the table. Each player selects a color, and takes the figure, the 7 travel cards, and the player board in that color.

The players sort their travel cards by their numbers and put them in their hands. They sort the travel cards with the number 1 card in front, then 2, 3, and continuing up to 7 as the last card in their hands. The first card is the most visible card.

The numbers on the cards are important only for sorting the cards at the beginning of the game. During the game, a player may not change the order of the cards in his hand.

The players place their player boards on the table in their play areas. Then, each player places one bean of each type on the eight spaces on his player board. Thus, each player starts with a wagon full of eight beans, one of each type. It matters not on which spaces the players put the different beans.

The beanometer

Next, the players fill the beanometer in the cities with beans. The round bean pictures above each beanometer show which types of beans belong in each city. In most cities, the players place two types of beans. In Hamburg and Malmo, the players place three types of beans. Each beanometer has four or five square spaces for beans. At the beginning of the game, players put one bean of each type shown for each city on each of the bottom two or three spaces of the beanometers. They leave the top two spaces on each beanometer empty. The players may place the beans in any order on the beanometers. Players never place beans on the round bean pictures above the beanometers. The numbers in the beanometer spaces show the prices for the beans in that city. The current price for a type of bean in a city is shown in the bottom-most empty beanometer space in that city. At the beginning of the game, the bean prices in each city are identical to the base prices shown on the player boards.

Example: in Hamburg, players can buy the yellow chili bean, the blue bean, and the violet soy bean. At the beginning of the game, the players put one soy bean, one blue bean, and one chili bean on the bottom three spaces of the beanometer. Although shown with the soy bean on top and the others below it, the beans could have been placed in any order.

Example: in Bremen, players can buy the white black-eyed bean or the brown green bean. At the beginning of the game, the players put one green bean and one black-eyed bean on the bottom two spaces of the beanometer. Although shown with the green bean on the bottom, the beans could be placed with the green bean above the black-eyed bean.

Separate the remaining beans by type and place them in the designated compartments of the game tray.

Game money (thalers)

Sort the money by value and place the thaler notes in the designated compartments of the game tray. The players select one player to be the banker, who manages the money.

New harvest cards

One player shuffles the ten new harvest cards face down and places them face down on the appropriate space on the game board. Then, he takes the top two new harvest cards and places them face down under the game board without looking at them. These two cards will be put back on the board to be used in the last game round (see also Final phase).

Order cards

One player shuffles the 60 order cards face down and places them face down on the appropriate space on the game board. Each player draws three order cards.

Note: in these rules, the terms order and order cards are used interchangeably.

Each player looks at his three order cards and places the one with the highest value face up in his play area. He then places the other two order cards, in any order he chooses, as the last two cards in his hand (behind the travel cards). The order cards thus become the eighth and ninth travel cards in the player's hand.

Order cards in a player's hand are treated like travel cards (see also Travel phase, step 3).

Each player places his figure in the city shown on his face-up order card. Each player takes the beans shown on his face-up order card from his wagon and places them in the bean supply. The banker pays each player the amount shown on the player's face-up order card. This is each player's starting capital. Then, the players discard their face-up order cards.

Example: Peggy draws three orders (27, 44, 47). The highest is worth 47 thaler, which she receives from the banker. For this order, she must give up a red bean, a green bean, and a chili bean, which she places in the supply. She places her figure on Rostock and adds the other two orders to the back of her hand.

If a player has more than one order that tie with the highest value, he chooses which among them to use for his starting city and capital.

Playing the game

The player with the least starting capital begins the game. Thereafter, the players take turns in clockwise order.

A player's turn

A player's turn has three phases, which must be taken in the order shown. Independent of these phases, the player may also take either or both special actions: "order delivery" and "buy order". The actions in the travel and final phases must be taken in the order shown below. The actions in the trader phase may be taken in any order and may also be repeated.

I) Travel phase

1. If the player has a face-up new harvest card, he must now supply the beans shown on the card.
2. Move his figure or leave it where it is.
3. Place the necessary travel cards on the table.
4. Take the travel cards back into his hand; leave order cards on the table.

II) Trader phase

• Invite opponents to join him.
• Trade with opponents in same city.
• Buy beans in the city.

III) Final phase

1. Discard face-up order cards and compress empty beanometer spaces.
2. Draw an order card and deliver it or add it to his hand.
3. Declare his turn is ended.

Special action: order delivery

Orders may only be delivered by a player on his turn. When delivering an order, the order card may come from anywhere in the player's hand or from the player's play area.

A player may deliver an order in any phase of his turn. However, he may only deliver orders in the city where he started his turn and the city where he ended his travel. He may not deliver orders in cities he travels through. He may also deliver the order drawn in the final phase or a bought order, if he is in the correct city.

A player may deliver an order if his figure is in the city shown on the order card and he has the beans shown on the order card in his wagon. He places the beans in the supply, receives the value from the bank, and discards the order card.

Special action: buy order

Anytime in the game, even during another player's turn, a player may buy the top-most card from the order card supply. He pays the banker five thaler and gives up one of his numbered travel cards (not Toll, not Supply, and not an order card). The travel card used to buy the order card is removed from the game. He adds the order card bought to the back of his hand.

Tip: players should not buy too many order cards at one time and none at the beginning of the game. It is most efficient for a player to have two or three order cards in his hand at once.

I) Travel phase

The player must take the actions in this phase and must take them in the order shown.

Tip: on a player's turn, he should plan to travel to a city where he can deliver an order. If he does not have the beans he needs to fulfill an order, then he should travel to a city where he can buy the beans he needs or invite a player who has the beans he needs to join him so he may trade for those beans. A player can also remain where he is or make just a short trip to buy inexpensive beans he may be able to use later in the game.

1) If the player has a new harvest card

This action is not possible in the first round, as a player could not yet have a new harvest card. When this does occur in the game, the player takes the beans shown on the card from the bean supply and places them on the beanometers on the cities shown on the card (see Supply card, below).

2) Move his figure or leave it where it is

The player moves his figure along the roads by the shortest path to the city of his choice. The trip may not be interrupted to buy beans or orders, or to deliver an order. The player must use the roads on the board when travelling between cities. The player may also choose to leave his figure in the city where he starts his turn.

3) Place necessary travel cards on the table

If the player chooses to leave his figure in the city where he starts his turn, he places the first travel card in his hand face-up on the table. If he travels to a neighboring city, he places the first two travel cards from his hand face-up on the table. For each further city, he places an additional card (from the front of his hand) face-up on the table. The number of cards the player must place on the table is the same as the number of cities the player travels through, including the starting city and the ending city.

Order cards in a player's hand are travel cards and must be placed face-up on the table for travel when they become the first card in a player's hand.

Example: Peggy moves her figure from Edinburgh through Aalborg to Rostock. She must, therefore, place her first three travel cards face-up on the table. Here, she places cards with the numbers 1, 2 (Supply), and 3 (Toll).

4) Take travel cards back into his hand

The player now puts the travel cards he played at the back of his hand in the following order:

• first, the Toll card,
• then, the Supply card,
• then, the remaining travel cards. The numbers on the cards play no role at this time.

The player leaves any order cards played as travel cards face-up on the table, as they can be delivered on this turn.

Toll card. If the player plays the Toll travel card, he pays the bank 20 thaler and puts the Toll card at the back of his hand. (The card reads: Pay 20 thaler to the bank. With an invitation pay only 15 thaler.)

Special case: when a player does not have enough money to pay the 20 thaler toll, he must give the bank all his money and then sell beans from his wagon at the base price, putting them in the bean supply to make up the difference. The bank keeps all the money from the sale, even if the total is over 20 thaler. If the player does not have enough money and beans to pay the 20 thaler toll, he must take a loan from the bank for just the difference, note the amount, and pay double that amount back to the bank at the end of the game.

Supply card. If the player plays the Supply travel card, he draws the top-most new harvest card and discards it face up. The player takes the beans indicated on the card from the supply and places them in the designated cities. The player places the indicated beans in a stack on the lowest empty space on the beanometer in the designated city. The player puts the Supply travel card at the back of his hand.

Special case: when there is no empty space on a designated beanometer, the new harvest fails for that city only. Players never put beans on the round bean pictures above the beanometers. If there are insufficient beans in the supply to satisfy the new harvest, the player places as many as there are.

After the player has put the Toll and/or Supply cards back in his hand, he puts any other numbered travel cards played at the back of his hand in any order.

Example: Peggy first pays 20 thaler to the bank and puts the Toll card at the back of her hand. Next, she draws and discards the top-most new harvest card face-up. She puts two blue beans in Hamburg, three chili beans in Danzig, and three garden beans in Malmo. Then, she puts the Supply card at the back of her hand. Finally, she puts the number 1 travel card at the back of her hand.

Order cards. If the player plays order cards, he leaves these face-up on the table. As orders can be delivered until the end of the player's turn, he leaves order cards face-up on the table. In the trader phase, a player can trade for the beans he needs to make a delivery.

II) Trader phase

On his turn, the player may invite one or more opponents, in any order he wants, to join him in the city where he is, to trade beans with him.

Invitation

1. The player, whose turn it is, invites an opponent and negotiates with him.
2. If they come to an agreement, the opponent places his figure in the city he was invited to visit.
3. After placing his figure, the invited player places the first card in his hand face up on the table. If it is the Toll travel card, the player immediately pays the bank a toll of 15 thaler. If it is the Supply travel card, he immediately draws the top-most new harvest card and places it face up in his play area. At the beginning of his next turn, he will place the beans shown on the new harvest card in the cities designated. If it is any other numbered travel card, nothing special happens. If the card played is an order card, he discards it. Finally, the player puts the travel card played at the back of his hand.
4. The negotiated agreement is now concluded. The agreement is binding, and must be concluded as negotiated, during the inviting player's turn.

Trading

When trading, beans are only traded between the player, whose turn it is, and another player. All trades are allowed (e.g. 1:1, 1:2, or 3:2). Trading partners may also offer one another one or more beans as a gift, but the offer need not be accepted. Instead of waiting for an invitation, an opponent may offer a trade in exchange for an invitation. It is also possible to invite an opponent without getting anything for the invitation immediately, but for the promise of something later in the game. Such promises, however, are not binding.

Players may only trade beans, not orders, travel cards, or money!

A player places the beans he receives in a trade in his wagon (the spaces on his player board). He may never stack beans on the spaces: one bean per space only! A player may have more than one of a type of bean, but never more than eight beans, as his wagon is full with eight beans. A player may not, for example, buy beans for another player if his wagon is full, as he has no place to put them! However, a player may discard unwanted beans, returning them to the supply, to make room for beans he wants to buy or trade for. He does not receive money for discarded beans. In fact, during the game, a player may only sell beans to pay a required toll (see above).

Buying

Only the player whose turn it is may buy the beans available in the city. The price for the beans is shown on the lowest empty space on the beanometer for that city at the beginning of the trading phase. The price does not change during the phase, even as beans are bought and beanometer spaces emptied. If all spaces on the beanometer are filled, the price is shown in the round bean spaces above the beanometer.

Example: on the bottom beanometer space in Bremen is a single brown green bean and, above that, a single white black-eyed bean. It is Alfonzo's turn and he wants to buy both beans. Regardless of the order he buys them, he pays 11 thaler for the black-eyed bean and 7 thaler for the green bean.

At the beginning of the game, only single beans lie in the beanometer spaces. When satisfying new harvest cards, however, beans of the same type are stacked on the empty (not already used) beanometer spaces. This gives a buying player more choices. If, after buying, there are holes (empty spaces below filled spaces) in the beanometer, these are compressed in the final phase. To compress the holes, the player moves the bean stacks above the holes down the beanometer to fill the holes, so there are no holes in the beanometer. This has the effect of making the beans more expensive for the next turn.

Example: Ken is in Hamburg. There are three blue beans on the third space from the bottom, a single yellow chili bean on the second space, and a single blue bean on the bottom space. Ken buys the chili bean for five thaler. In his final phase, Ken moves the stack of three blue beans to the second space from the bottom, closing the hole. This raises the price of blue beans in Hamburg from 4 to 6 thaler.

Note: it can occur that a type of bean is neither in a player's wagon nor in one of the cities where it is normally found. In this case, the player may move to a city where the bean is normally available in his travel phase and buy one bean from the supply (if available there) at the highest price shown on the beanometer in that city in his trader phase. Thus, a red bean would then cost 16 thaler in Edinburgh or Visby.

Example of the actions in the trader phase

Ken is in Rostock. He has a Rostock order in his hand. Unfortunately, he is missing a yellow chili bean to fulfill the order. He decides to check out his opponents' wagons for the bean he needs.

Ken says that he is interested in a chili bean. Mike needs a stink bean. Ken does not have a stink bean, but he can buy one in Rostock. So Ken tells Mike, "if you accept my invitation, I will buy a stink bean and trade it to you for one of your chili beans."

Mike agrees. He places his figure in Rostock and puts the first card in his hand face up on the table. As it is a normal travel card, he puts it at the back of his hand with no effect.

Now Ken buys a stink bean for 6 thaler. He gives the 6 thaler to the bank and places the stink bean on his wagon. Then, he trades the stink bean to Mike for the chili bean. Both players place their new beans on their player boards.

Now Ken can deliver his Rostock order. He takes the chili bean and the red bean from his player board and puts them in the bean supply. He then gets 35 thaler from the bank.

Alfonzo had asked Ken for an invitation to Rostock, but Ken had asked him to wait until he completed his negotiation with Mike (Alfonzo has no chili beans). Now Alfonzo reminds Ken that he wants an invitation to Rostock. He offers Ken one of his garden beans (basic price 14) for two of Ken's blue beans (base price 2 x 4 = 8 thaler). Although Ken does not now need a garden bean, he agrees to the trade, as he gets an expensive garden bean for two inexpensive blue beans, which he also has no present need for.

Alfonzo takes his figure from Visby and places it in Rostock. He places the first card in his hand face up on the table. As it is a Supply travel card, he immediately draws the top-most new harvest card and places it face up in his play area. He then puts the Supply travel card at the back of his hand.

Now Alfonzo and Ken trade the garden bean and the two blue beans. Because of the trade, on his next turn Alfonzo can first deliver a Rostock order and then travel to Aalborg to deliver an order there, as well. In Aalborg, he can also buy beans inexpensively because of the new harvest card. At the end of his trading phase, Ken buys a soy bean for 9 thaler.

III) Final phase

1) Discard orders and compress empty beanometer spaces

If the player bought beans and there are holes in the beanometer where he is, he moves beans to compress the beanometer. He also now discards any face-up orders from his play area.

2) Draw an order card

The player draws the top-most card from the order card supply. He puts the card at the back of his hand. If he can deliver the order (he is in the right city and has the needed beans), he may do so immediately. He does not draw another card from the order card supply to replace the one used, but, of course, may buy one (or more).

3) Player declares his turn is over

When the player has finished his turn, he declares this and his left neighbor takes his turn.

Example: on Mike's turn, he is in Rostock. When Mike has no more trading and buying to do, he takes the top-most card from the order card supply. It is an order for Rostock. As he is there and has both beans needed for the order in his wagon, he puts the beans in the supply, receives 40 thaler from the bank, and discards the order card. Then, he declares his turn is at an end. It is now Alfonzo's turn.

Game end

When a player plays the eighth new harvest card (the last one in the stack), he begins the last game round. He finishes his turn and, then, the other players each take one more turn in normal order. Then, the game ends.

After the eighth new harvest card is drawn, take the two new harvest cards that were placed under the board and put them on the board in the appropriate space. These will be used in the last round when a player plays a Supply travel card for movement. If both extra cards are used, further Supply cards have no effect.

After all players have taken their last turn, the players may deliver any orders they have, if they have the necessary beans and are in the appropriate city. Thus, a player who has finished his last turn may still find interesting things to do on other players' turns. Now, the players sell the beans they have remaining in their wagons to the bank at the base price for the beans. Finally, the players count their money. The player with the most money is the winner!

Example: Alfonzo has the eighth new harvest card face-up in his play area. To begin his turn, Alfonzo places the beans shown on the new harvest card in the designated cities. After he finishes this, his last turn, his opponents take their last turns in clockwise order. During Mike's trading phase, he invites Alfonzo to join him in Rostock to trade him a bean he needs to deliver an order. After Alfonzo's right neighbor finishes his turn, the game ends.

Now, Alfonzo can deliver the Rostock order in his hand as he has the needed beans to do so, and he is now in Rostock. He receives the value of the order from the bank. Next, he sells his remaining beans to the bank for their base prices. Finally, he (and his opponents) count their money and determine the winner!