Hey Waiter! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Preparation
• Gameplay
  • GREEN: Everybody Serve!
  • RED: Move Cover
  • WHITE: Call Busboy
  • BLUE: Move Dishes
• Face-Down Cards
• Game End
• Partnership Summary
• Alternate Methods of Play
  • Varying Number of Dishes
  • Double Duty (3-players, 2 versus 1)
  • Using Multiple Sets
  • Free-For-All
  • Create Your Own

Contents

• 48 dishes (4 colors, 12 each): Soup (white), Salad (green), Pizza (red), Blueberry Pie (blue)
• 4 tray covers: white, green, red, blue
• 88 Waiter cards (4 colors, 22 each)
• 16 Busboy cards (4 colors, 4 each)
• 4 double-sided reference cards
• 1 Bag
• Rules

Preparation

• If playing with 4 players, the game is played in teams, with partners sitting across from each other.
• Place the 4 tray covers in the center of the table. On the cards the center of the table is represented by an image of a tray cover.
• Each player takes a set of white, green, red, and blue busboy cards, laying them "face-side" up. Each player also takes a Reference card (the side with the Handshake icon refers to additional rules for partnership play).
• Shuffle the deck and deal SEVEN cards to each player. Players should look at their own cards, but keep them hidden from others. Place the remaining deck face-down in the middle to form a draw pile. If the draw pile ever empties, reshuffle the discard pile to form a new one.
• Now it is time to receive the dishes! Place all the dishes into the bag. Draw a stack of TWELVE dishes at random, and repeat until there are a number of stacks equal to the number of players in the game.
  • Choose a "Starting Player." Beginning with the player on the RIGHT of the Starting Player and continuing to the RIGHT, each player picks one of the stacks to keep. Thus, the Starting Player will choose last.
  • When players pick their stack, they must choose one card from their hand of 7, and place it face-down beneath their stack of dishes, leaving 6 cards in hand (see "Face-Down Cards", below).
• The game can now begin. The Starting Player takes the first turn and play then proceeds to the LEFT.

Gameplay

On their turn, a player performs one of the following:

A) Play 2 cards from hand, take the appropriate action, and draw 2 cards from the deck. Then remove cards played to a discard pile by the deck.

Played side by side, the two adjacent halves of the cards combine to form a new card. A new card is formed by the two adjacent cards. The action is shown in the left column, with the object of that action to the right.

The left-hand card played determines which type of action will be taken:

• GREEN: Everybody Serve!
• RED: Move Cover
• BLUE: Move Dishes
• WHITE: Call Busboy

The right-hand card played specifies the color that the action affects. For example, a player using the blue "Move Dishes" action on a green dish.

-or-

B) Discard any number of cards from hand into the discard pile. Draw the same number from the deck.

GREEN: Everybody Serve!

The green action serves the tasty dishes to the restaurant's patrons.

• The right-hand card played determines which type of dish will be served.
• All stacks in the game (including opponents' and partner's stacks) have their top dish served if it matches the right-hand card.
• If the top 2 (or more) dishes of a stack match, only the top dish is served.
• If the final dish of a stack is served, the card underneath the stack is reclaimed (see "Face-Down Cards").

Example: the green "Everybody Serve!" action combined with a red right-hand card will cause everyone to serve all red dishes (pizza) from the top of their stack(s).

When a dish is served, it is removed from play. Remember, the goal of the game is to be the first to serve all of your dishes, so this action is very important!

RED: Move Cover

UH OH, there is a problem in the restaurant! A dish is too cold, needs extra lemon dressing, or perhaps the pizza has the wrong toppings (no anchovies, please!). The red action represents a manager pointing out or fixing such mishaps.

To indicate a problem exists, a Cover of one of the 4 colors is placed on the top dish of a stack. This means that the matching Busboy (or a manager) must fix the problem before the dish can be served. Thus you can use the red action to hinder a player or to free up a player's covered stack.

• The right-hand card played determines which color Cover is moved.
• The Cover may be moved either from the table to the top of any uncovered stack OR from any stack back to the table.
• The Cover does NOT need to match the color of the dish—any Cover may be placed upon any dish!
• A Cover may never be moved directly from one dish to another. It must go back to the table before it can be moved to another stack.

Example: the red "Move Cover" action combined with a blue right-hand card allows you to move the blue Cover from the table to any stack or from any stack back to the table.

IMPORTANT: A Covered dish may never be served until the Cover is removed. There are 2 ways to accomplish this:

• It may be moved back to the table by the matching Busboy (see below, "WHITE: Call Busboy").
• A manager can handle the issue. Use the red "Move Cover" action to move the Cover back to the table.

Partnership: This action can also be used to move a Cover from one of your partner's stacks to the table.

WHITE: Call Busboy

The white action calls for the help of one of your 4 Busboys. They provide a way of resolving problems in the restaurant (moving Covers off your stacks), and may even help serve dishes.

The white cards have 2 functions—either or both may be activated when the card is played. They are to be performed in the order below:

• The Busboy may move a Cover from one of YOUR stacks back to the table. The right-hand card played determines the color of the Cover to be moved.
• The Busboy may also be ready to serve a dish.
  • The right-hand card played determines the color of your Busboy card to be used.
  • If that Busboy card is "face-side" up, then the card is simply flipped to "serve-side" up and the action is over. (The Busboy is moving into action!)
  • If that Busboy card is "serve-side" up, you may choose ANY ONE DISH of any color that is atop any of YOUR stacks (that does not have a Cover), and immediately serve it. The Busboy card is then flipped to "face-side" up. (Back to his station.)

Example: the white "Call Busboy" action combined with a red right-hand card allows you to either move a red cover from one of your stacks back to the table, or activate your red Busboy card, or both.

The action of the Busboy card depends on which side you currently have face up (face-side or serve-side).

If a player moves a Cover onto one of your stacks, you can use this action to come out ahead! If they spend their turn giving you a Cover, you can use your turn to remove the Cover and maybe serve a dish as well!

Partnership: Busboys remove Covers from only your own stacks, and will serve only your own dishes, not those of your partner (or anyone else).

BLUE: Move Dishes

The blue action allows you to adjust your stacks, shifting the dishes available to be served. You may call in new waiters to help—splitting, moving, or recombining the stacks in front of you.

• The right-hand card played determines which color dish is moved.
• Choose ANY of your own dishes of the matching color. Move the selected dish along with all dishes sitting above it (if any).
  • You may use the dishes to form a new stack, placing the group on top of any card chosen from your hand (see "Face-Down Cards").
  • Alternatively, you may move the group of dishes to the top of one of your other stacks already in play.
  • If you choose to move the bottom dish of a stack, you will move the entire stack, reclaiming the card underneath (see "Face-Down Cards"). It is even allowed to move an entire stack from a waiter card to a new waiter card from your hand, just for the purpose of getting the stack's card back.
  • It is ok to move a group of dishes with a Cover on top—simply move the Cover along with the group. However, you may not place dishes on top of a stack with a Cover (things could get a bit messy).

Example: the blue "Move Dishes" action combined with a blue right-hand card allows you to move a blue dish (pie), along with all the dishes sitting on top.

Partnership: If (and only if) you have ZERO dishes remaining, you may use the blue action to take dishes from your partner, thus giving yourself a new stack.

Face-Down Cards

Every stack of dishes must have a face-down card placed underneath. Place the dishes on the image of the waiter's tray shown on the back of the card. You may look at your own face-down cards at any time.

• If you use a blue action to form a new stack, you must choose an additional card from your hand to place in the position below the new stack. Since you will redraw only 2 cards at the end of the turn, this will reduce your hand size.
• If an entire stack is served or moved, you immediately redraw that stack's card back into your hand, thereby increasing your hand size. This can happen even when it is not your turn.

Thus, the number of cards in your hand, plus the number of stacks (waiters) you have, must always total 7 at the end of each turn.

You may have up to, but no more than, 5 stacks at any given time. Be careful: having more stacks will give you more opportunities to serve dishes, but will reduce the number of options you have when playing cards!

Game End

Play continues until one player (or team) no longer has any dishes remaining. This player (or team) wins! If multiple players (or teams) achieve this simultaneously, ties are broken first by the active player, and proceed clockwise around the table. Bon Appetit!!

Partnership Summary

In partnership play, a team wins if all members no longer have any dishes remaining. Partnership play follows the exact same rules as above, with the following notes:

• The white "Call Busboy" action will remove Covers from only your own stacks, and will serve only your own dishes, not those of your partner (or anyone else).
• If (and only if) you have ZERO dishes remaining, you may use the blue "Move Dishes" action to take dishes from your partner, thus giving yourself a new stack.
• Just as always, the red "Move Cover" action can move a Cover from anywhere (including from your partner's stacks). The green "Everybody Serve!" action will serve everybody's dishes (including those of your partner and your opponents).

Alternate Methods of Play

Varying Number of Dishes

For a shorter game, use fewer dishes. For a longer game, use more dishes. To give a handicap, give some players more dishes than others.

Double Duty (3-players, 2 versus 1)

4 stacks of 12 dishes are drawn during Preparation, and players sit as they would in a 4-player team game. Instead of the 4th player, however, place a Reference card where the 4th player would sit. The player sitting across from the Reference card works Double Duty!

If you are working Double Duty, you will take your normal turn as well as the "turn" of the Reference Card (including when choosing stacks at the start of the game). Thus you take two stacks and need to place 2 cards from your 7-card hand face-down beneath these stacks, leaving you with a 5-card hand.

You get twice as many turns (and have twice as many dishes), but still get only the 1 hand of cards and 1 set of Busboys at the start. You have access to all of your stacks on each of your turns. The other two players are partners, playing against you. Otherwise, play is the same!

Using Multiple Sets

With additional sets of the game, you can play with additional players! Players sit so that they are not seated next to their partner(s). Shuffle all the cards together, and mix all the dishes together during Preparation.

Examples:

• 3 vs. 3, 2 vs. 2 vs. 2, 4 vs. 4
• 3 vs. 2, 2 vs. 2 vs. 1, 4 vs. 3, 3 vs. 3 vs. 2. In these cases, have one player on the short-handed team serve "Double Duty" as shown above.

Also, to create an increasingly troubled restaurant, the additional Covers may be added to the center of the table during Preparation and used during the game.

Free-For-All

If players are just not in the cooperative mood, with 4 or more players you can play without any teams at all (similar to the standard 3-player game).

Create Your Own

Combine any of the above, or experiment with your own methods of playing Hey Waiter! 8-dish 2 vs. 1 vs. 1 with two players on Double Duty or 3 vs. 1 with one player on Triple Duty... 14-dish 5 vs. 5 with three sets of Covers... secret partnerships that are revealed only when a player runs out of dishes... be creative!