Change!
Change! Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
The Change! Deck has 50 bills in denominations of 1, 3, 5, 7, and 10. You won't need anything else to play these games except an assortment of friends, some free time, and sometimes a way to keep score.
Game #1: "Make Your Own Change Night!"
For 2-6 players, 30 Minutes.
Story: There's a slower-than-normal Zombie manning the cash register at Friedey's, and you and your friends have figured out a cool way to score a bunch of cash off this well-meaning but slightly dim fast food worker.
The game revolves around asking this poor fellow to give you change. He'll do it properly if he can. But if he can't break your bill exactly, he'll always give you more money than you gave him. The trick is to see how much extra money you can get.
How to Play: Deal a hand of six cards to each player and three cards to the "Zombie" hand in the middle of the table. The Zombie's hand is face up, and the players' hands are secret.
Play will proceed to the left, starting to the Dealer's left. On each turn, the active player offers one card to the Zombie from his hand. Then, the Zombie makes change for that player, following the rules below. The cards you get back are discarded, and the card you played goes into the Zombie's hand. You score a point for every extra dollar the Zombie gives you. The change-making rules are as follows:
1: If the Zombie can give you an exact match for your bill, he will. (You score nothing.)
2: If he can make exact change using multiple cards, he will do so using the fewest possible cards. Again, you score nothing.
3: If he can't make exact change, he will give you one dollar more than you gave him, using the fewest cards possible; if he can't give you just one dollar more, he'll give you two more, and so on.
4: If the Zombie's hand does not contain enough money to give you change, he will draw from the register (the deck) until he can. The deck rarely empties, but if it does, recycle the discards.
Example: if you play a 5, and the Pot contains a 1, 3, and 7, here's what happens: the Zombie can't make 5 exactly, and he can't make 6, so he gives you the 7. The Zombie is now holding 1, 3, and 5. The 7 gets discarded, and you score 2 points for your 2 extra dollars.
Winning: The round continues until all cards have been played, and then the deal passes to the left. Each player deals one round, and then the highest score wins.
Strategy: It's possible to score as many as 9 points on one card, if you play a 1 and the Zombie holds nothing but a 10. In general, try to give away as little as possible while taking all the points you can. You may get 3 points, but if it means your neighbor gets 9 points, it's not always worth it. Also, in order to keep your options open, try not to keep duplicates of the same card.
Game #2: "Boneyard"
For 4-8 Players, 20 Minutes.
Boneyard is a simultaneous, silent-bid auction game in which players are bidding on buckets of money. The object is to be the first player to accumulate 40 dollars. It's not too hard; you start with 26!
Each player starts with exactly the same hand: one of each denomination, 1, 3, 5, 7, and 10. There is also a "Boneyard" in the middle of the table, which starts as another set of 1, 3, 5, 7, and 10. These are all the cards you will use in the game.
The Boneyard is made of five "Buckets" which start out holding single cards: 1, 3, 5, 7, and 10. Each round, players bid to buy the money in these Buckets, and whoever bids the most takes the money from the best Bucket. However, if two players make the same bid, their bids cancel out, and they get nothing.
Bidding: On each round, choose any number of cards from your hand, and hold them face down. Cover your cards so that it's impossible to see how many cards you are offering. Once everyone is ready, all the bids are revealed. (Note: Zero cards is not a legal bid!)
If two or more bids are matched, put them aside. Two bids are considered to be matched if they have the same total value, regardless of what cards they contain. So, (5,3) matches (7,1).
The player with the highest unmatched bid takes the card(s) from this favorite Bucket, and puts them in his hand. You won't necessarily take the Bucket with the most money, but that's usually the best choice.
All other unmatched bids take cards from the remaining Buckets in descending order, until all the bids have been resolved or until there are no Buckets left to claim. If you make an unmatched bid but don't claim anything (this can happen with 6 or more players) you just take back your bid.
Players who made matched bids get nothing.
Rebuilding the Boneyard: After the bidding is resolved, the Boneyard regenerates. Each unmatched bid falls into the Bucket it took. Then, the cancelled bids are gathered into piles of bids of the same size, and are added into the lowest valued Buckets.
If there are two sets of matching bids, pile the largest set together into the smallest Bucket, then pile the next largest set into the now smallest Bucket, and so on. "Largest set" in this rule means the pile composed of the largest individual bids, so two 7's would be placed before three 5's.
Winning: After each round, everyone checks his score. The first player to collect at least 40 dollars wins. If multiple people go over $40, the highest total wins, If there is a tie for high score, play another round.
An Example of Play: Suppose the five Buckets contain the following values: (17); (13); 7; (4); 3. Eight players make bids of 10, 7, 7, 5, 4, 3, 1, and 1. The 10 is the highest unmatched bid, and takes the largest Bucket, (17). The 7's match, cancel, and take nothing. The 5 is the next highest bid, and takes the (13). The 4 takes the 7, the 3 takes the (4), and the 1's cancel, and take nothing. Dropping the successful bids into the Buckets they took, the Boneyard becomes 10, 5, 4, 3, and 3. Now, drop the pair of cancelled 7's into the smallest Bucket (one of the 3's), and then drop the pair of 1's into the smallest remaining Bucket (the other 3), and you have a regenerated Boneyard of 10, 5, (4), (5), (17). (You can rearrange these buckets in descending order if you like.) Check your scores, and play the next round.
Strategy: There is strategy in trying to psyche out other players, and trying to remember what cards they have played and taken. Remember, everyone starts with the same hand, so the only real randomness in this game comes from which cards people decide to play from round to round.
Also, it's not generally profitable to bid more than the value of the largest Bucket. But you probably already figured that out.
Note: Boneyard works as a gambling game. Build the Boneyard out of an equal share from each player. The winner takes what's left in the Boneyard.
Game #3: "Diminishing Returns"
For 2-3 Players, 10 to 30 Minutes.
This is a variant of an old Cheapass Game sometimes called "Fight," or "Pennywise," which can be found on our business cards and at our web site. There are only enough cards in a basic Change! deck to play this game with 3 people, but up to 3 more can join with a second deck, or by faking it with coins.
Each player starts with the following set of bills:
- 3 x $1.00
- 2 x $5.00
- 1 x $10.00
- 3 x $3.00
- 2 x $7.00
Keep your money face up on the table. There is also a central area for bills, called the Pot, which starts empty. Play begins with a random player, and proceeds left.
On each turn, you must play one bill into the pot. Then, you may withdraw any amount of money in any assortment, up to one dollar less than the amount you put in. For example, you could play a 5, and take back a 3 and a 1.
To win, be the last player with any money left.
Strategy: Obviously, you want to play conservatively in the beginning, because you won't be able to withdraw much. It can be very painful, however, to run completely out of any low denomination of bill. Give this game a try: as short as these rules are, it may be the best of the bunch.
Got a great Change! variant? Let us know! Visit the Cheapass Games Secret Website at www.cheapass.com.