Boing! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Game Setup
• Gameplay
• Special Rules
• Super Boing! Variant

Contents

• 1 brightly colored can
• 13 marbles each in red, yellow, and blue
• 10 green marbles
• 1 powerful mallet

Game Setup

Decide who gets which color. If there are only two participants, each gets 10 marbles of two colors, for a total of 20 marbles. With 3 players there are 13 marbles for each player (green isn't allowed to play!). With 4 players, play with 10 marbles each.

Decide how the marbles are placed in the groove on the upper edge of the can, whether alternating one at a time or all at once. There is one rule you must follow: distribute the marbles as evenly as possible. No two marbles of the same color may start next to each other.

Gameplay

Whoever thinks they can make the biggest bang goes first.

Hit the can with the mallet in such a way that as many enemy marbles as possible are lost, falling down the hole and into the can. Whether you knock in none, one, or many, and whether you knock in your opponents' marbles or your own, it doesn't matter. The next player, your neighbor to the left, now has their turn.

Only take one hit per round, even if you barely tap the metal.

You will continue taking turns until one or more marbles of a single color are left on the can. Congratulations! The player who has their marble or marbles on top of the can is the Winner.

Special Rules

1. If all your marbles are knocked into the can, you are out. If the last of your marbles is gone, you give up the mallet for good. The game then continues without you. The next game will start in about 2 1/2 minutes, and your marbles will be back on the can for it.

2. If you hammer against the can so that one or more marbles fly far off the can instead of into it, you have to pick up one of your marbles, even if it's your last one, and drop it in the can. Place the marbles that you knocked off the can anywhere on top of the can (but not inside!).

3. If you knock all the remaining marbles into the can on your turn, you receive the title "Biggest loser of all time!" In this situation, the last player to swing the mallet before your turn is the winner.

4. A mallet is swung, but not shoved, pushed, or moved in any other way. It must only bump against the walls of the can from the outside. You must never hit the lid itself from above.

5. Rotating the can is not allowed, not even a little. If you can't reach, you must strike from another angle. No matter what, the can stays where it is.

Super Boing! Variant

Put the little lid back in the hole on the can. The marbles no longer have to go into the hole, but into the lid. You try to knock your opponents' marbles into the little lid.

The fuller the lid gets, the harder the game becomes. The marbles roll over each other and right out again. The player who swung the mallet has basically wasted their turn in that case.

You are forbidden from knocking marbles that are already in the lid back out again. Should that happen, all these marbles are put back on the lid, and the player who messed up adds one of their marbles as a punishment.

(Caution: Do not expose the can to frequent downpours, bubble baths, or the ocean; sooner or later, you'll ruin the paint job!)