Klondike
Klondike Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 1 plate (gold pan)
- 1 string ring (marks the gold-bearing claim)
- 1 raccoon (figure)
- 4 bowls (for gold nuggets)
- 4 wooden cups (for bets)
- 12 cards (with values 0, 1, and 2)
- 8 small cards (land shares)
- 50 yellow marbles (gold nuggets)
- 13 black and 7 grey marbles (stones)
- 1 bag
Object of the Game
The player who is smiled upon by luck, and who has good gold-panning skill, can collect the greatest number of gold nuggets - that player wins the game.
A Turn
A turn usually consists of four steps.
1. Drawing marbles from the bag: You draw three marbles from the bag and place them in the plate. If it is a mix of nuggets and stones, follow steps 2, 3, and 4. If it is three nuggets or three stones, the players may neither place bets nor pan gold in the plate.
2. Betting: Before attempting to pan the gold, the other players place their bets - they lay a card face down, trying to predict how many nuggets will remain in the plate after panning.
3. Panning the gold: Now you pan the mix of nuggets and stones: take the plate in both hands and try to throw the stones out of it by turning, shaking, and carefully tilting the plate. You continue until no stones remain in the plate.
4. Settling up: The other players reveal their cards and compare the guessed number with the number of nuggets remaining in the plate.
- You must pay nuggets to the players who guessed correctly.
- You receive the stake from the players whose guess was wrong.
Then it is the next player's turn. He or she takes the bag and proceeds as described above.
Tip: Before starting the game, each player should practice panning gold. Put three marbles in the plate. Take the plate in both hands by the edge and lift it. Now try to get the marbles moving by turning and tossing the plate. With a little practice, the marbles will soon be flying around in a circle. Try to swirl the marbles so that only the stones are thrown out of the plate, while the nuggets stay in it.
Starter Rules
For young prospectors ages 6 and up.
Setup
You do not need the small cards (land shares). They stay in the box. Place the plate (for panning gold) in the center of the table and put all the marbles in the bag. Shuffle them together well once more and place the bag next to the plate. Lay the string ring around the plate on the table: it marks the boundary of the area where you will pan for gold, and it should keep marbles from falling off the table when they are thrown out of the plate. In the language of gold prospectors, the gold-panning area is called a "claim."
Each player chooses a color and receives:
- a bowl in the chosen color (for their holdings),
- three cards of the matching color (with values 0, 1, 2),
- four nuggets as starting capital (kept in the bowl),
- a wooden cup for betting.
How to Play
You play clockwise. The youngest player begins; the oldest player receives the raccoon.
1. Drawing marbles from the bag: Without looking, you draw three marbles from the bag and place them in the plate. What kind of marbles did you draw?
Three black and/or grey stones: Unfortunately you are out of luck, and you cannot pan for gold this round. Tip the marbles out of the plate so that they stay inside the claim (the ring). It is now the next player's turn. Attention: whenever you draw grey marbles from the bag, you may take the raccoon.
Three yellow gold nuggets: You are in luck and may take the gold marbles right away. You take two nuggets, and the third is stolen by the Raccoon: give it to whichever player is holding the raccoon at that moment. If you are holding the raccoon, you may keep all three gold marbles. It is now the next player's turn.
A mix of yellow and black or grey marbles: Now you must try to separate the gold from the gravel by panning. Before you show how well you can do this, the other players must place a bet on your skill.
2. Betting: Panning for gold becomes really exciting once bets are placed. Before panning begins, all the other players bet on how many nuggets will remain in the plate. Naturally, you may not bet on yourself. Betting cards are used for this. The numbers 0, 1, and 2 indicate how many nuggets will remain in the plate after panning. Each player chooses a number and places the matching card face down next to their bowl, then places a bet (one or two nuggets) into their wooden cup.
Tip: The player whose turn it is to pan must make sure everyone has placed their bet in the wooden cup. If a player forgot to do so, one nugget must be placed in the cup before settling up takes place.
Example: Ann draws two nuggets and a black stone from the bag. Tina thinks Ann will keep two nuggets in the plate and throw out the stone. She places a betting card showing the number 2 face down on the table and puts one nugget into her cup as her bet. Jan thinks Ann will fail to throw the stone out of the plate, and that 2 nuggets will roll out of the plate. He chooses the card with 0 and puts, say, two nuggets into his cup.
Once everyone has placed their cards and bets, it is your turn to try your luck panning for gold.
3. Panning the gold: Take the plate in both hands by the edge, lift it slightly, and hold it above the ring, that is, the claim. Now try to carefully throw out the stones (black or grey marbles) by tilting and turning the plate. With a bit of luck and skill you will be able to throw the stones out of the plate at just the right moment, while the nuggets (yellow) stay inside. You keep panning until there are no more stones in the plate. Then put the plate back into the claim. All the thrown-out marbles (black, grey, and yellow) stay within the claim.
Now settling up begins.
4. Settling up: You may take all the nuggets remaining in the plate and put them into your bowl. If there are no nuggets, then of course you take nothing.
Now all the players reveal their betting cards. One by one, you compare the number shown on each betting card with the number of nuggets that remained in the plate:
- If the guessed number does not match the number of nuggets in the plate, the guess was wrong, and the gold panner keeps that player's stake.
- If the guessed number matches the number of nuggets in the plate, the guess was correct, and the gold panner must pay that player the same number of nuggets that they placed in their wooden cup.
Example (continued): Ann succeeds in throwing the stone out of the plate and keeps the two remaining nuggets in it. She takes both nuggets and puts them in her bowl. She then takes Jan's stake, since he guessed wrong with "0." Tina correctly guessed "2." Ann gives her one nugget, since Tina placed one nugget as her bet in her wooden cup.
Tip: If only one nugget had remained in the plate, Ann would have done better, because both guesses would have been wrong and Ann would have kept both stakes. But since the betting cards were placed face down on the table, she had no way of knowing this in advance.
End of the Game
The game ends as soon as a player runs out of gold marbles, or as soon as two or fewer marbles remain in the bag. The player with the most nuggets after the final count wins the game.
By the Way
Raccoons really do live in Canada. Their favorite pastime is, in fact, sitting by the riverbank, dipping their front paws in the water, and washing their food.
Variant for Professionals
For professional gold prospectors ages 7 to 99.
Object and Setup
Refer to the basic game. Each player additionally receives two land shares (the small cards), which can later be traded in for nuggets.
How to Play
The game proceeds as in the basic game, with the following changes and additional rules.
1. Size of the bet: Players may put as many nuggets as they like into their wooden cup as their bet. The minimum bet is one nugget.
2. Unable to pay your betting debts? Beware: if a prospector does not have enough nuggets to pay out a correctly guessed bet, he or she may take all the bets instead! (This rule exists to discourage bets that are too high.)
Tactical tip - the big bluff: to outwit the bettors, clever prospectors can use a trick: instead of panning the gold with great effort, they can simply flip the plate over so that all the marbles fall out, and the players who bet on the prospector's skill lose their stakes.
3. Out of gold? As soon as a player runs out of gold, the game is interrupted for that player. That player exchanges one of their small cards (land shares) with the richest player for four gold nuggets. A player who has run out of gold and cannot trade land for gold is eliminated.
End of the Game
As soon as 2 or fewer marbles remain in the bag, the final count begins. Each land share is exchanged for four nuggets, which are added to the nuggets already collected. The player with the most gold nuggets wins the game.