Chez Greek Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Setup
  • Major Cards
    • Variable Income
  • Campus Cards
  • Dealing
• How to Play
  • 1. Draw
  • 2. Roll
  • 3. Call People
  • 4. Free Time
    • Shopping
    • Activities
  • 5. Discard
  • Other Actions You Can Take During Your Turn
  • Actions You Can Take When It's Not Your Turn
  • Week Cards
  • Marking Slack
• Winning the Game
• Additional Rules and Definitions
  • Majors and Slack
  • Double Cards
  • Canceling
  • Noisy Nookie
  • TV Cards
  • Getting Rid of People
  • PAR-TAAAY!!
• Geeks and Greeks

Overview

In this game, you and your fellow Greeks (up to 5 people, or more in combination with Chez Geek, Slack Attack, or Block Party) become housemates – whether you like it or not. The object of Chez Greek is to be the first to reach your personal Slack Goal.

Setup

There are two types of cards: Campus and Major. These go in separate piles. Each player (housemate or Greek) will need table space for his room – that is, the cards he has played for Activities and Things, and the People who have come over. You'll also need at least one six-sided die, and some markers for cards with variable Slack (dice, pennies, poker chips, beer nuts, cheese puffs . . .).

Major Cards

There are 10 of these; they are purple, front and back. Each Major has three numbers and a special perk or disadvantage.

• Income is how much money you can spend on Shopping or Activities. You get your Income at the beginning of your turn. You can't save Income from turn to turn; any Income not spent on Things or Activities disappears at the end of your turn.
• Free Time is the number of things you can do during your Free Time phase.
• The Slack Goal is the number of Slack points you need to win.
• The perk or disadvantage is something special that your Major lets you do or keeps you from doing.

Variable Income

Some Major cards have two numbers (e.g., 2/4) for Income. Roll a die each turn, on your Roll phase, to see how much Income you have for that turn. On a roll of 1, 2, or 3, you have the lower Income. On a roll of 4, 5, or 6, you have the higher one.

Campus Cards

There are four kinds of Campus cards: Person (green), Thing (blue), Activity (red), and Whenever (orange). If you run out of Campus cards during a game, shuffle the discard pile and reuse it.

Note: You may not give cards away or trade them with your fellow Greeks, but you may show a housemate your hand if you like, and you may make any deal that you like about how you will play your cards. No deal is binding if someone decides to welsh, though. No one said life is fair.

Dealing

The dealer shuffles the Majors and deals one, face up, to each player. He then shuffles the Campus cards and deals five, face down, to each player. The player to the left of the dealer goes first. Play proceeds clockwise. Each player's turn has five phases: Draw, Roll, Call People, Free Time, and Discard.

How to Play

1. Draw

Draw cards from the Campus card pile until you have six cards in your hand. You should never have more than six cards in your hand at any time.

2. Roll

Various cards require you to roll a die at the beginning of each turn, either to determine Income or to get rid of a Person. The Roll phase is when you do it.

Example: Biff is majoring in Football. His Income is variable (2/4), so Biff must roll according to the rules for Variable Income, above. This turn, he rolls a 5, so he has an Income of 4. Better not let the NCAA catch you, Biff!

3. Call People

Person cards represent people who might visit the house. They may only be played during the Call People phase. You may call as many People as you want, if you have their cards in your hand.

There are two types of Person cards: invited (they give Slack) and uninvited (they have a Slack of 0 or less, and have other bad features, too). Invited People must be Called (see below). Uninvited People are put into play during the Call People phase, but you don't have to Call them. After all, fun people need to be called; jerks just drop in.

To play a Person card:

1. Announce your intention to have a Person come over, and lay down the card. Then announce whether the Person is coming to your room or another player's room. If the Person gives zero or negative Slack, play them now. Nasty effects, if any, take place immediately!
2. If the Person gives Slack, roll a die. On a roll of 1-2, that Person was probably too drunk to answer the phone. Discard the card.
3. On a roll of 3-6, the call succeeded and that Person card comes to your room. Any effects that Person has on the game then occur, including Slack awarded to the occupant of the room in which the Person was played!
4. Cat cards count as Person cards for all purposes, and are played during this phase as well. A Cat requires no roll to come over – you just announce it and put it in your room!

4. Free Time

During this phase, you may spend your Free Time by Shopping or doing Activities. Each Free Time allows you to do one Activity or to go Shopping. You may also play cards that give you more Free Time.

You must always announce how you are spending your Free Time. Try to sound like it's the most important thing in your life; make your housemates jealous ("Hall Closet Nookie! Damn, I hope that wasn't your coat!"). You must have the card for any Thing you want to buy or any Activity you want to do.

Shopping

You must announce that you are Shopping. No matter how many Things you buy in one turn, the Shopping trip takes 1 Free Time. If someone cancels your Shopping, all Thing cards you played return to your hand. (See Canceling, below.) If you still have Free Time and Income left, you may attempt to Shop again.

If no one prevents you from Shopping, you may buy as many Things as you have the Income to afford.

Example: This turn, Cyndy has an Income of 2 and a Free Time of 2. She plays Emergency Student Loan, raising her Income to 4 for this turn. She then announces that she will use her first Free Time to go Shopping. She buys Chewing Tobacco (Cost 1) and 1001 Shot Recipes (Cost 3), which net her a total of 4 Slack. She puts both cards in her room, promising not to use them at the same time. (Eww.) During her second Free Time, she will play an Activity card.

Activities

Some Activities have a Cost. If you don't have enough remaining Income to match the Cost, then you may not perform that Activity.

You must announce the Activity that you plan to perform as you play the Activity card. If nobody plays a card to stop you, place the card in your room and gain the appropriate Slack. Some Activities are worth a variable amount of Slack, determined by a die roll. If a result is ever zero Slack (or less), the Activity is considered unsuccessful and the Activity card is put in the discard pile. You have still used up one Free Time in the attempt.

Example: During Wayne's Free Time phase, he announces that he will try for some Nookie. He plays a Hall Closet Nookie card. No one plays a card to stop him, so he rolls and gets a 1. The Slack for a Nookie card is 1 die-1, so Wayne's Nookie is worth 0 Slack and he must discard it. As his housemates, you are now required to rag him unmercifully for his unsuccessful attempt at Nookie.

5. Discard

If you have more than five cards, you must discard down to five. You may discard all the way down to one; you can't discard to zero. This rule only applies to discarding. If you can use your whole hand before your Discard phase, more power to you!

Other Actions You Can Take During Your Turn

Your Whenever cards may be played on any housemate at any time, unless the card text specifically prohibits it.

Actions You Can Take When It's Not Your Turn

Again, Whenever cards may be played at any time, unless the card text specifically prohibits it.

Week Cards

Week cards are a special type of Whenever card. Weeks may be played to the table at any time, and affect the rules of the game (for all players) as described on each card. Weeks last until another Week is played, or until a card is played which specifically cancels the Week. Week cards do not affect cards already in a player's room. If Monique has her Hometown S.O. in play when Paul plays Homecoming, she does not get to add a Slack point to that card. Should've been more patient, Monique!

Marking Slack

If an Activity gives variable Slack, or if anything changes the amount of Slack on any card so the printed value is no longer correct, the owner must place Slack counters on the card, one for every point of Slack. All housemates must be able to look at your room and count up the counters, and the printed value on all cards with no counters, to see how much Slack you have.

Or: Players start with a pile of markers, as many as their Slack Goal, and then mark each card in their room with the appropriate Slack. When someone runs out of markers, he knows he's won. (In this system, you can use red markers to represent negative Slack.)

Winning the Game

The first person to reach or exceed the Slack Goal on his Major card immediately wins. (It is possible for two people to hit their Slack goals simultaneously; in that case, they share the win and both get to pick Major cards for the next game. If they want the same one, each rolls 1 die; higher number gets first pick.)

Example: Steve has the Major card Botany (Slack Goal 18). He has 17 Slack currently and buys Schpitz. Even if Sage plays Raid the Fridge to take the Schpitz from Steve immediately after he plays it, Steve still wins the game because he had 18 Slack for that short time. (Raid the Fridge is not a canceling card.)

The winner gets to choose his Major Card for the next game before everybody else draws theirs. Seniors rule!

Additional Rules and Definitions

Majors and Slack

If your Major increases the Slack of other cards in your room (such as Computer Science increasing Surf the Net Slack), put a marker on the cards to show the extra Slack. If you get a new Major during the game because of Change Your Major!, you keep Slack acquired during your old Major. The new Major's special trait only applies to cards played after the new Major comes into play.

Example: Phil is a Babes major, and has a Nookie card in his room, worth +1 Slack. Someone plays Change Your Major! on him, and he draws Liberal Arts as his new Major. The Nookie he already has is still worth extra Slack, but if he plays any more Nookie cards, they will not get a Slack bonus.

Double Cards

There are certain cards that fall into more than one category. For example, Special Blend counts as both Cigarettes and Weed, and Breakfast of Champions counts as Food and Booze. These cards are open to the attacks and benefits of both categories, so Breakfast of Champions can be swiped by Raid the Fridge, but the Chemistry major can buy it for one less Income.

Canceling

A card which can cancel other cards may only affect a target card as that card is being played – which means that the card's Slack doesn't apply. Canceled cards are discarded. If the card was an Activity, the Free Time for that Activity is lost. If someone cancels Shopping, all Thing cards that the housemate was trying to buy are returned to his hand. A canceling card has no effect on any card already in play.

A card that is "being played" is a card that a housemate has announced and put in his room. You must play a canceling card before that student:

1. puts down another card, or
2. rolls to see if a Person is coming over, or to see how much Slack a card gives, or
3. ends his turn.

Example: Band Practice can cancel a Sleep card. If Mia plays a Sleep card and ends her turn, and then Brian draws Band Practice on his next turn, he cannot affect the Sleep card Mia already played. Brian will have to wait until someone announces that he is playing a Sleep card, at which point he can cancel it.

Noisy Nookie

At any time a player gets Nookie worth 5 or more Slack, the housemates on either side of him lose (if they have it) one Sleep card from their room. Yes, this removes an already-played Sleep card.

TV Cards

You may play TV as a normal Activity, or you may play it against a housemate to cancel one of his Free Times. As a housemate announces what he will do with his Free Time (Shopping or performing an Activity), play a TV card on him. He then spends that Free Time watching TV, and the Activity card he attempted to play, if any, is discarded. Thing cards return to his hand. He keeps the TV card in his room and gains 1 Slack. (TV cards with a listed cost only change that amount when played on yourself as an Activity; they are free as a canceling card.)

TV cannot be used to prevent players from Calling People.

Getting Rid of People

On the Roll phase of your turn, you may attempt to get rid of any People in your room. To show someone out, roll a die. On 1-3, the person hangs around and any negative effects take place. On 4-6, you can send them to any other room that they are not restricted from entering, and they have no effect on you that turn. If there are no other rooms the Person can enter, the card is discarded.

Except for the turn they enter your room, unwanted People do not have a negative effect until after you roll to get rid of them.

Example: William plays The Legacy on Andrew. Andrew discards Jello Shots, a Booze card. During Andrew's next Roll phase, he rolls to get rid of The Legacy, but gets a 3. The Legacy stays, and Andrew discards Carnivore Pizza to appease his unwanted guest. On his next turn, Andrew again fails to dismiss The Legacy, but since he doesn't have anything she wants, she just hangs around making his life miserable. When Andrew rolls during his next turn, he gets a 6. The Legacy must leave. Since Andrew controls the card, he puts it in William's room. Turnabout is fair play!

PAR-TAAAY!!

If you have five or more People in your room at the end of any turn – even if they're all jerks – you get a point of Slack just for being a party animal. Place a token on your Major card whenever that happens. You keep this Slack even if some of the People leave later.

Geeks and Greeks

There are two ways you may – if you are utterly insane! – combine Chez Greek with the original Chez Geek (and/or any of its supplements).

1. Remove all the Chez Geek Job cards (and any others that relate to those, including You're Fired!, Raise, Extra Shift, New Job, and Bad Boss), and use the other cards to beef up the Chez Greek deck.
2. Some people are full-time students (with Majors) and some are not (with Jobs). People with Jobs are immune to things that affect Majors and do not have to study, so they are immune to the "bad" Weeks and Hit the Books!, but they also don't get the benefit of Spring Break (except for Campus Job and T.A., which DO get Spring Break). They still get the advantages of the other Weeks. People with Majors are immune to job-related cards (and can get a Tattoo or Piercing regardless of Income). Tuition Due, Narcolepsy, Call in Sick, and Get a Life apply to everyone.

In all cases, use common sense; if a rule from one game seems like it should apply to a card from another, it probably does. Some specific examples:

• Cards which affect the Live-In S.O. apply to the Hometown S.O. too.
• Monty and Lab Rats are Pets, for the purposes of No Pets!, but they are not People.
• Some Random Person can be a Major as well as a Job.
• Sucks to be You! cannot remove a Major or Change Your Major!
• When you lose a Job or Major, you may replace it with a card of the same type, with an appropriate card from the other deck, or you may pick randomly.

For a more detailed FAQ, please see the Chez Greek website.