Those Pesky Garden Gnomes
Those Pesky Garden Gnomes Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- Score board
- 5 Gnome figures
- 10 bid tokens (carefully remove these from their frame before the first game)
- 60 cards: 50 playing cards and 10 goal cards
There are 50 playing cards. Some card ranks are worth points; one of each scoring card is shown below.
- 5 green cards with values 1 to 5
- 10 yellow cards with values 1 to 10
- 15 blue cards with values 1 to 15
- 20 red cards with values 1 to 20
Bid tokens:
- Positive: 1, 4, 6, 8, and 11
- Negative: 2, 6, 8, 9, and 13
Warning: The small parts can represent a choking hazard and are not suitable for children under the age of three!
Preparation
Separately shuffle the playing cards and goal cards. Also, shuffle the bid tokens face down. Deal 10 playing cards to each player. Each player then draws 1 goal card and 1 bid token. After the first hand, players may be allowed to take more than one goal card or bid token (see below). Each player should select a gnome figure and place it on 0 of the score board.
Playing a Hand
The players examine their playing cards, goal cards, and bid tokens to plan how they will play the hand of cards. Once all players are ready to begin, they reveal their bid tokens. The players do not reveal their goal cards until the end of the hand. The player with the second-highest valued bid token chooses which suit will be trump: green, yellow, blue or red. The player may also choose to play the hand with no trump. Each hand consists of 10 tricks, played one at a time. For each trick, the players will each play one card from her hand face up on the table. They play the cards in clockwise order around the table. For the first trick, the player who selected the trump plays the first card. This is called the lead card. For subsequent tricks, the player who won the previous trick plays the first card.
Standard trick-taking rules apply:
- Each player plays one card from her hand face up on the table.
- Each other player must play a card of the same suit as the lead card if she has one. If she does not, she may play any card from her hand.
- When all players have each played one card, the player who played the highest numbered card in the lead suit wins the trick (players disregard the cards' point values when determining who wins a trick) and takes all the played cards from the table, placing them face down in a stack in front of her. Exception: If one or more players played a trump card, then the player who played the highest trump card wins the trick.
- The player who wins the trick plays the lead card for the next trick.
At the end of the hand (after playing 10 tricks), each player determines her success at meeting her goal (see the example in the next section). Except for a player with the "no goal" card, each player's goal is based on what was taken in her tricks:
- For score-based goals, each player sums the cards with points in all the tricks she took and the value of her bid token to determine her total points. She then compares her total with the number on her goal card.
- For card-based goals, each player compares the number of cards she took in all her tricks with the number of cards indicated on her goal card.
- For the "no goal" card, the player compares the value of her bid token to zero to determine the absolute difference of her bid token from zero.
Players add the differences from their comparisons to their game scores and move their gnome figure accordingly.
Exception: When the difference is greater than ten, the player adds 10 to her game score. Note that the differences added to the players' game scores are always zero or greater than zero. Thus, players' game scores never decrease, but increase or remain the same.
NOTE: The goal for 10 yellow and blue cards counts both suits combined.
Example of Scoring a Hand with 5 Players
Anna has "proximity to 0 points" goal card and "-1" bid token: As Anna has a score-based goal, she sums her bid token (-1) to the points on all the cards she took in tricks (-7) to get a total of -8 points. She then compares this to her goal of 0 points and gets a difference of 8, which she adds to her game score.
Natalie has "proximity to -10 points" goal card and "+4" bid token: As Natalie has a score-based goal, she sums her bid token (+4) to the points on all the cards she took in tricks (-7, -3) to get a total of -6 points. She then compares this to her goal of -10 points and gets a difference of 4, which she adds to her game score.
Maria has "proximity to 10 yellow and blue cards" goal card and "-6" bid token: As Maria did not take any tricks and needed to take 10 yellow and blue cards, she compares 10 with 0 to get a difference of 10, which she adds to her game score.
Todd has "proximity to half the cards" goal card and "+1" bid token: Todd had the second highest bid token and was able to choose the trump suit. This enabled him to take 25 cards, exactly half of the cards. When he compares his goal to the cards he took, he gets 0, which he adds to his game score. Note that his bid token is not considered when determining his score.
Bill has "no goal" goal card and "-11" bid token: Bill's goal and bid token combination is not good, so he took as many cards as he could to try to create problems for other players. Although his bid token, which directly determines his score, is -11, he adds only 10 to his game score as that is the maximum allowed for a hand.
Playing a New Hand
Once the players have added their comparison differences (or 10) to their game scores, the players begin a new hand. They shuffle the playing cards, goal cards, and bid tokens and begin a new hand just as they did with the first hand, with the following exceptions:
- Once a player's game score is 10 or greater, she can take either two goal cards or two bid tokens. After looking at these three and her hand and choosing one goal card and one bid token, she returns the extra card or token. Players now reveal their bid tokens.
- Once a player's game score is 20 or greater, she takes two goal cards and two bid tokens. After looking at these four and her hand and choosing one goal card and one bid token, she returns the extra card and token. Players now reveal their bid tokens.
Game End
Once any player's game score exceeds 30 (greater than 30), the player with the lowest game score wins. If players tie with the lowest, they rejoice in their shared victory.