The Great Chili Cookoff
The Great Chili Cookoff Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Object
Use ingredient cards to gather the ingredients for a chili recipe. The player with the most points after three rounds wins.
Players and Playing Time
2 to 7 players. Playing time: about 30 minutes.
Contents
- 15 Recipe cards
- 53 Ingredient cards
- 7 Menu cards
- 8 wooden Chili markers
Ingredient Cards
Each Ingredient card shows the following information:
- The center of the card shows the type of ingredient (meat, onion, chili pepper, etc.).
- The rank is printed as a number in the upper left corner. The rank decides who wins each hand and therefore who gets to choose a desired ingredient first.
- The price is printed as a number in the lower right corner. The price is the value of that ingredient card when a chili is made with it. The price is only used during scoring and has no meaning during play.
Recipe Cards
Each Recipe card shows, in pictures, the ingredients needed to make that chili. The total printed in the lower right corner (including the 6-point bonus) is the sum of the prices of all seven ingredients when all seven are collected.
Setup
Each player takes 1 Chili marker and 1 Menu card. The Menu card lists the ingredient types, their ranks and their prices.
Separate the Ingredient cards and the Recipe cards, and shuffle each deck well. Deal each player 7 Ingredient cards and 2 Recipe cards.
Each player holds their Ingredient cards and Recipe cards in hand. Players may place their Recipe cards face down on the table if they wish. The contents of both Ingredient cards and Recipe cards are secret and must not be shown to other players.
Choose the starting player of the first hand by any method.
Playing the Game
Starting with the starting player, each player chooses one Ingredient card from their hand and places it in front of them. A player may play any card they wish; they do not have to play the same type of card as the starting player.
Important: If two or more players play cards of the same rank, the card played last is the higher card. Therefore, playing a card first is a disadvantage. When comparing ranks, the type of ingredient does not matter.
Once every player has played one card, the player who played the highest-ranked card receives the spare Chili marker. That player may then take first pick from the Ingredient cards played this hand, choosing one card they need. They mark the card they took with their own Chili marker. The player who played the second-highest card picks next, and the remaining players pick in order of card rank from the cards still available. The player who played the lowest-ranked card must take whatever Ingredient card remains.
The player who won the hand then starts the next hand. The spare Chili marker is used only to show who starts the next hand.
Ingredient cards that have been taken must be kept separate from the cards still in hand. Once taken, an Ingredient card is used only for scoring later.
Example:
Seoyoung plays a rank 4 Onion. Jeonghee plays a rank 2 Tomato. Mira plays a rank 4 Mustard. Dongseop plays a rank 5 Meat. Jaewon plays a rank 4 Tomato.
In this case, Dongseop receives the spare Chili marker and picks first. Dongseop takes the Mustard and marks it with his own Chili marker. Jaewon played the last rank 4 card, so he takes the Meat next. Mira picks next and takes the Onion. Seoyoung must take one of the remaining Tomatoes, and Jeonghee must take the last remaining Tomato. When scoring, a rank 4 Tomato and a rank 2 Tomato score the same. Because Dongseop holds the spare Chili marker, he plays the first card of the next hand.
Scoring
Once all 7 Ingredient cards have been played and each player has collected 7 Ingredient cards, each player decides which Recipe card to score with by comparing the ingredients they collected against their Recipe cards. If a player has collected every ingredient shown on one of their Recipe cards, they receive a 6-point bonus. Otherwise, they score only the total price of the ingredients they collected.
For convenience, the maximum score that can be earned with each Recipe card, including the 6-point bonus, is printed in its lower right corner.
Each player may use only one of their two initial Recipe cards for scoring. However, the choice does not have to be made until the end of the last hand, so a player may calculate the score for both Recipe cards in advance and then choose one of them. Holding Ingredient cards that are not needed for the chosen recipe is not penalized; those cards simply score nothing.
At the end of each round, the player with the most points so far starts the first hand of the next round. After three rounds, the player with the most points wins.
Example:
Dongseop has 1 Tomato, 2 Meat, 1 Chili, 2 Onions and 1 Mustard. His Recipe cards are "Gourmet" and "Sam's Sin".
Seoyoung has 4 Tomatoes, 1 Chili, 1 Onion and 1 Honey. Her Recipe cards are "Vegetarian" and "Cry Baby".
Dongseop has all 7 ingredients needed for "Gourmet", so he chooses this recipe. Including the 6-point bonus, Dongseop scores 22 points (16 + 6). Had he chosen "Sam's Sin", he would have scored only 7 points.
Both of Seoyoung's Recipe cards score 9 points, so it does not matter which one she chooses. For "Vegetarian", more of the required Ingredient cards are present, but the score is still 9 points. Keep this in mind when scoring.
Ingredient Table
| Ingredient | Number of cards | Price | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tomato | 14 | 1 | 1 to 7, 2 cards each |
| Meat | 12 | 1 | 1 and 7, 1 card each; 2 to 6, 2 cards each |
| Chili | 9 | 2 | 2 and 6, 2 cards each; the rest, 1 card each |
| Onion | 9 | 3 | 3 and 5, 2 cards each; the rest, 1 card each |
| Honey | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| Cherry | 2 | 5 | 4 |
| Mustard |