Holidays
Holidays Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
One deck of 110 cards composed of:
- 20 destination cards, divided into 4 sets with different colours; each set contains 5 possible destinations.
- 90 traveller cards, divided into 3 seeds (men, women, children) numbered from 3 to 8.
(The source prints the word "seeds" here; it is transcribed as printed.)
Set Up
- Each player receives a complete set of destination cards that he/she arranges face up. If less than 4 are playing, the remaining sets of destination cards are discarded.
- Shuffle the deck of traveller cards and deal 6 to each player.
- Place 2 traveller cards face down and one face up at the centre of the table, and state the starting value of the holiday.
- Place the remainder of the deck on the table, face down: these are the cards you can pick from during the game.
The Game
The players decide who will be the first dealer. The player to his/her left starts the game and proposes a holiday by placing one of his/her destination cards at the centre of the table.
Players then continue to play the game clockwise. When it's his/her turn a player has 2 options:
- Accept the destination proposed by simply saying: "it's fine for me".
- Propose another holiday by playing the corresponding destination card over the previous one. In this case however he/she has to discard one of his/her traveller cards and place it face up together with the other ones already on the table. This card is the "price" to be paid for the privilege of changing destination, and it serves to increase the value of the holiday.
N.B. During this hand the player does not retrieve the card discarded and therefore remains with less cards to play; the player does not even retrieve his/her destination card.
This way the destination cards can be changed many times and the value of the holiday (which is the prize for the winner of the hand) increases.
When all the players have accepted the current destination, the turn goes back to the player who proposed it and who can either confirm it (which becomes the final destination of that turn), or change it again (in the usual way). The turn in fact continues until a destination is confirmed by the player who proposed it. At that point it's time to "set off" (see chapter).
Explanations: you are allowed to propose a destination even if you had decided to refuse it beforehand. You can even play a new destination identical to the current one (for example, to try to increase the value of the turn).
Time to Set Off
When a destination is confirmed, it's time to set off; this means that players can play their traveller cards in order to try to win the round. Based on the type of destination, each player can now play only some of the cards he/she is holding, according to the following scheme:
- If the destination is Venice, he/she must play 2 cards: a man and a woman.
- If the destination is Mykonos, he/she can play as many adults he/she wants (men and women).
- If the destination is the Amusement park, he/she must play only one adult (man or woman) and as many children as he/she wants.
- If the destination is the Berghotel, he/she must play 3 cards: one man, one woman and one child.
- If the destination is the Cruise, he/she can play as many men he/she wants or as many women he/she wants (but only men or only women).
Setting off is carried out in the following way:
a) The player who proposed and confirmed the destination shows his/her combination of cards and sums up the value. For example, if the destination is Venice and the player plays a man worth 8 and a woman worth 6, his/her total score is 14.
b) The other players in clockwise turns play their combinations. All the combinations played, including the one of the first player, must be complete; for example, children alone cannot go to the Amusement park, an adult is needed; likewise, only a whole family can go to the Berghotel.
c) A player who is not able or who does not want to play a complete combination has the option of discarding any card he/she wants.
d) The player who scores the highest wins the round and receives all the traveller cards on the table, i.e. the 3 initial cards (two of which are face down), and those that the participants had played to change destination. In the case of a draw, the winner is the player who played his/her cards first.
e) The winner sums up the price of the traveller cards he/she won and gains 1 win point for every 10 points of the price of these cards. The fractions of 10 are worth nothing (for example, 29 means 2 points, 30 means 3 points, 7 means 0).
f) All the traveller cards that are used are discarded in a discard pile. The players keep the cards they didn't play and complete their hand to 6 cards.
g) Each player takes back the destination cards he/she had played and arranges the whole set again in front of him/herself on the table.
h) The winner of the previous round starts the next turn by taking 3 cards from the deck and placing them at the centre of the table (2 face down + 1 face up) and states the new starting price of the holiday.
Attention. You are not obliged to play your best hand: you can always play the hand you consider most useful, or not play any hand.
End of the Game
The players note down their points. The winner is the player who is the first to score 10 win points.
Suggestions
- At the beginning of a turn you can choose a destination that is little suited to your hand, in the hope that another player will change it; each player has only one card per destination, and the most suitable one for his/her hand could serve later on.
- If a player has a strong hand, he/she could decide to change the current destination in order to increase the price of the hand even if it's very good... Vice versa, if a player has a weak hand, he/she can accept an unfavourable destination so as not to increase the price of the turn.
- You can change a destination even for the sole purpose of getting rid of a low card.
- If during setting off you are unable to beat the points of the player before you, avoid playing your best hand; you should keep the good cards, and, if you can, play low cards and therefore have the chance of picking new ones.