The Big Cheese
The Big Cheese Rulebook
Table of Contents
Components
Contains: 36 cards and this rule book.
You Also Need: Ten stones for each player, and dice. You can use just one 6-sided die, or one each of 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 20-sided dice, if you have them.
To Begin
Shuffle the cards and put the deck face up in the middle of the table. You should be able to read the top card. (If the deck ever empties, shuffle the discards and replace it.)
Flunkies: Give each player ten chips. These chips represent the flunkies who report to you. You will assign these people to projects, depending on your opinion of which projects are worth the most.
The Cards: The Big Cheese deck contains 4 each of seven different number cards: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 20. It also has 4 Vetos and 4 Big Cheese cards. All of these cards are called "projects," and they all work the same way until they "mature." At that point, the number cards give you points, and the other cards become yours to play, as described below.
Starting: Determine randomly who leads the first round. After that, the leader will always be the player who took the last project.
Bidding
Starting with the leader, players bid for the top card of the deck. Your bid is the number of flunkies you will assign to the project. Whoever bids the highest will take it. Three bidding rules:
- You must bid higher than the current bid;
- You can't bid more chips than you have available, and
- If you pass, you can't bid again.
The highest bidder takes the project, and puts his bid in chips on the project card. Those workers are now on the project, and temporarily out of the bidding pool. At the same time, all the other projects on the table lose one worker, who goes back into that player's bidding pool. When the last worker walks off a project, that project is "mature" and pays out as follows:
If the project was a number card, it depends on what kind of dice you have. If you have only one 6-sided die, roll the die and multiply it by the value of the card. If you have dice in all sizes (4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 20) then just roll the appropriate die, and that's the payoff. (Use even/odd for the 2.) These two schemes won't give you the same numbers, so don't mix them in a single game!
Once your numbered projects mature, they go into the discard pile. However, if the project is a Veto or Big Cheese card, it goes into your hand, and you can then play it for special effects.
Veto: A Veto card removes a project from the bidding. If you haven't dropped out, you can play a Veto instead of bidding, even if you don't have enough chips to actually bid. The Veto and the project are discarded, and the bidding starts again with the next project. No projects mature, and the same leader starts the bidding.
The Big Cheese: This card is a favor from the boss. You can play it to re-roll your project die. Because the old rat's favoritism only goes so far, you will have to keep the new roll, even if it was worse. If a Big Cheese and a numbered project mature on the same turn, you can use the Big Cheese to re-roll the project. Note: You can't play this card to force another player to re-roll.
Winning
Depending on the dice you are using, you will get different numbers. If you are using one 6-sided die, play to 200 points (or more). If you have a full set of polyhedral dice, and are rolling a different die for each project, play to only 40 points. If two people go out on the same turn, the player with the higher score wins.
Variation
With polyhedra, you can get a more interesting endgame by playing to exactly 30 points. In this version, rolls which put you over 30 points are ignored, and the first player to reach exactly 30 is the winner.
Notes
The Veto and Big Cheese cards are optional, like Jokers.
Source note: the rules are from the one-page rule sheet in the official Cheapass Games / Crab Fragment Labs print-and-play download (BigCheeseRules.pdf).