Serengeti Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal
• Contents
• Preparation
• Playing the Game
  • A) Draw cards
  • B) Auction cards
• Who Gets the Money?
  • Two-digit Bids
  • Remainders
• Bidding Restriction
• Next Round
• Game End
• Credits

Goal

Acquire the most valuable collection of tribal carvings.

Contents

30 cards, 65 chips and 1 rulebook.

Preparation

Shuffle the cards and place the deck face down on the playing area.

Give each player 10 chips.

Place the remaining chips on the playing area to create a "bank".

Determine a starting player.

Playing the Game

The game is played over 15 rounds.

Each round consists of 2 phases:

• A) draw cards
• B) auction cards

A) Draw cards

In each round a variable number of cards are drawn from the deck and placed face up on the playing area to form a lot: in the 1st round draw 1 card, in the 2nd round draw 2 cards, in the 3rd round draw 3 cards, then begin again by drawing 1 card and continue this pattern, i.e. 1 - 2 - 3 - 1 - 2 - 3 - etc.

B) Auction cards

The complete lot (see above) is now auctioned off.

The starting player makes the first bid. Play now moves in a clockwise direction and each player, in turn, must raise the latest bid or drop out of the bidding for this round (pass). The bidding continues in this manner until all players except for one have passed.

The remaining player wins the lot and must pay his high bid for it with his chips. He places the won cards face up in his play area.

If a player chooses not to bid on a lot at all (e.g. passes immediately when it is his turn to bid) he collects 2 chips from the bank. If there are not 2 chips in the bank the player collects what is available, i.e. 0 or 1 chip.

If nobody bids on a lot the starting player receives the lot for free.

Important: if the winning bidder cannot pay his bid he must discard one of his collected cards (if he has any) and then sit out the round as the lot is put up for auction again.

Important: during the game each player keeps his chips hidden from his competitors.

Who Gets the Money?

Two things determine where the money for the current lot is to be paid: the winning bid amount and the numbers on the cards collected by the players in previous auctions.

The cards of the winning bidder, including the current lot, are never taken into consideration when determining where the money is to be paid. The winning bidder never gets any of the money from his bid.

• If a player has a card with a number that exactly matches the winning bid amount that player is eligible to receive a portion of the money paid by the bid winner.

• If only one player has a card or cards matching the winning bid, that player is paid the full amount of the winning bid.

  Anne wins a lot with a bid of 7 chips. Burt (and no other player) has a card with the number 7 on it. Anne pays Burt the 7 chips.

• If more than one player has a card or cards that match the winning bid then the money is distributed among the players according to the number of matching cards they have. Each matching card has a value of (winning bid) / (number of matching cards).

  Rich wins a lot with a bid of 9. Anne, Burt and Chris each have one card with the number 9 on it. Rich pays Anne, Burt and Chris each 3 chips ([9 divided by 3]=3).

  Chris wins a lot with a bid of 6. Anne has two cards with 6 and Rich has one card with a 6. Chris pays Anne 4 chips and Rich 2 chips (each card is worth [6 divided by 3]=2 chips).

• If nobody has a matching card the money is distributed evenly among the players. This will happen often at the beginning of the game when few cards have been collected by the players.

  Anne wins a lot with a bid of 5. No player has a card with the number 5 on it. Anne distributes the money equally among the other players.

Two-digit Bids

In the case of two-digit bids only the second ("ones") digit is considered when determining where the money goes, e.g. for a bid of 14 the number to match is 4, for a bid of 10 the number to match is 0, etc.

Chris wins a lot for 12 chips. Burt is the only player having a card with a 2 on it. Chris pays Burt the 12 chips.

Remainders

The bid won't always be able to be perfectly divided. In such cases, round down to distribute the chips equally (see "Who gets the money?"). Any left-over chips are placed back in the bank.

Anne must pay out her winning bid of 13 chips to Burt and Chris who each have one card with a 3 on it. Burt and Chris each get 6 chips. The 1 remaining chip is returned to the bank.

Bidding Restriction

A player may not place a bid equal to any number on any of the cards he has collected during the course of the game! In the case of two-digit bids the second digit is the restricted one. If a player makes a forbidden bid he must pay one chip to the bank (if he has any chips), even if he corrects himself immediately. Any forbidden bid is invalid and the player must make a new bid or pass.

Anne has cards with the numbers 4 and 6. She therefore may not place bids of 4, 6, 14 or 16.

Next Round

The winner of the current auction becomes the starting player in the next round. Repeat the two phases of a round: draw and auction.

Game End

The game ends following the round in which the last lot is auctioned off (i.e. the deck is exhausted) and each player determines his score.

Each player determine his score for each color he has collected as follows:

• 1 card of a color = 1 point
• 2 cards of the same color = 3 points
• 3 cards of the same color = 6 points
• 4 cards of the same color = 10 points
• 5 cards of the same color = 15 points
• The player who has the most chips at the end of the game gets 3 points. If two or more players have the highest number of chips they each get 3 points.

The player with the most points wins. In the case of a tie, the tied player with the most cards wins. If there is still a tie then the tied player with the most chips wins.

Credits

Author: Michael Schacht, Illustration: Franck Dion

© 2006 Michael Schacht, ABACUSSPIELE Verlags GmbH & Co. KG, Dreieich. All Rights Reserved. Made in Germany.