Maloney's Inheritance Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• What's at Stake?
• Preparations
• The Race to the Inheritance
  • The Auction
  • The Reward (Suitcase Card)
  • Scoring Playing Cards
  • The Will
• Special Days
  • Tuesday and Friday
  • Sunday Is a Lucky Day
• Joker
• End of the Game
• Alphabetical List of Explanations
  • Auction
  • Bankruptcy
  • Breakdown
  • Buying points
  • Counting the points
  • High bids
  • Joker
  • Lawyer
  • No bids
  • Overbidding
  • Pile of cards played
  • Starting point
  • Suitcase card

Contents

1 board, 1 figure (car), 1 pawn, 64 playing cards, 6 jokers, toy money, 24 suitcase cards and 1 will (wooden).

What's at Stake?

In this race to the inheritance, the winner will be whoever gets the largest number of points.

Preparations

Before starting to fight over the inheritance, a few preparations have to be made and certain pieces of information have to be digested. You have to get the maximum number of points as quickly as possible. The number of points to be gained each day is shown on the playing cards.

Before starting the game, appoint a volunteer to play the role of the "lawyer". Apart from having the complete confidence of the players, his job will be to handle the money in the "bank" and to keep the score.

• Shuffle the suitcase cards and place one, face down, on each town on the board. Put the 8 remaining suitcase cards to one side; they will not be used again in this game.
• Everybody gets a joker (as the game is unpacked the jokers are with the playing cards) and money. Each player gets 10,500 dollars, that is, 7 x 1000 dollars, 6 x 500 dollars and 5 x 100 dollars. The rest of the money is simply change left over in the bank.
• The will does not play any part at the moment. It is used later.
• Shuffle the playing cards carefully. Each player gets 12 playing cards (10 cards if there are 6 players), which are given face down.

These cards show:

A) which towns you have to go to (the order doesn't matter)

and

B) which days of the week are best for picking up the maximum number of points.

Place the other playing cards in a pile, face down, at the side of the board.

No one should hold more than two cards of the same town (shown by the number and the name of the town printed on the top of the card). Any cards over the maximum of two should be exchanged for other cards taken from the pile. Remove the card, face down, from the top of the pile and place the discarded card, face down, at the bottom of the pile. This exchanging process must continue until all players hold no more than two cards per town.

Turn over the playing card at the top of the pile. This card shows the name and number of the town where the game will start.

1. Place the car on the board at the town shown on this card. This will be the starting point for the race to the inheritance.
2. Each round the pawn will show the appointed day of the week. At the beginning of the game it is placed on the bottom left of the board against the day showing 7 points on the card which you have turned over, i.e. Thursday in our example.

The Race to the Inheritance

Each day you all go together from town to town driving one and the same car, all of you trying to reach a different destination at the same time (which is, of course, impossible), so as to pick up the maximum number of points.

The Auction

At the break of day, the stakes are placed on the car. Just like at an auction, you have to try to bid higher, going up by 100 dollars each time, bidding once or twice. In this way each of you will be able to get the car for himself.

The game can only work if, before each auction, you wait for each player to say that he is ready to bid. Each player shouts "ready", after having found out which is the new starting point.

Example: Player A says "500 going, going ...", while player B bids "600 going..." and player C offers "700 going, going ...", then player A bids "800 going, going..." "Gone!"

This means that player A has won the right to drive the car that day to the town of his choice.

Example of where you can go: From Sacramento (no. 3), you can go to one of the following places 1-2, 6-9 or 16, i.e. San Francisco (1), San Diego (2), Cheyenne (6), Santa Fe (7), Chicago (8), Kansas City (9) or Charleston (16).

After the auction, you are entirely at the mercy of the "owner of the car" for the day. He pays the "lawyer" the sum he bid, i.e. 800 dollars in our example, and drives, with you in the car, to another town according to the rules of the game.

The Reward (Suitcase Card)

When you get there you are rewarded. The "owner of the car" takes the suitcase card placed face down on the town; this card can award him up to 5 points or 1500 dollars. But he can also be unlucky and lose up to 3 points or 1000 dollars. In both cases, the "lawyer" has to carry out the order on the card on behalf of the "owner of the car"; this card is then eliminated from the game without being replaced by another card.

Scoring Playing Cards

Each player now checks whether he has one or two playing cards showing the place of destination. If he has, he must put them next to the pile and is given in return, by the "lawyer", the number of points indicated by the day of the week in question shown on the playing card.

For example: The calendar on the board shows Thursday and you find Th = 7 on the playing card. If one of the players plays this card, he wins 7 points.

You can also play cards of a lower value. All those who benefited from the "free" trip can gain points in exchange for their playing card. But you are not obliged to give up your playing cards once you have reached the place of destination. You can keep them in order, possibly, to return to the same place on a more favourable day of the week.

The Will

As soon as a town has been reached and the points have been awarded, the day ends and the will comes into play. The player who, after counting up the points, is in the lead, places the will in front of him, showing the other players that he is the strongest player at the moment. The rest of you now know who you have to eliminate during the next round. The pawn then passes on to the next day. Again you have to compete with each other for the car at dawn before beginning the next round. This can go on for weeks.

Special Days

Tuesday and Friday

The weekly calendar has two special days: Tuesday and Friday. If during these days you manage to give up one or two playing cards, you win double the number of points. As for the suitcase cards, they keep normal points even on those days.

Sunday Is a Lucky Day

There is no bidding on Sunday but you turn over the top card in the pile. It shows the place where you can go quietly and free of charge. The points will be given to you in exchange for the playing cards (if you have any for that place of course) as happens during a normal day of the week. And, if the place of destination also has a suitcase card, it counts for all the players, because it's Sunday.

Joker

Once during the game, everyone can get the car by playing his joker card during the auction. This enables him to get the car free of charge and he can use it according to the rules of the game.

The joker can only be played during the 4 "normal" days of the week (Mon, Wed, Th, Sat), then it is eliminated from the game.

End of the Game

As soon as one of the players has got at least 69 points or has no playing cards left, the game ends. Any player who still has some money wins 1 point per 1000 dollars. As for the joker, it no longer has any value.

Now count up the points. The player who has the largest number of points has won the competition and becomes the inheritor.

Alphabetical List of Explanations

If you have any doubts during the game, consult this list.

Auction

Have enough courtesy when placing your bids to allow slower players to also have a chance to bid.

Bankruptcy

If you have no more money, you will not get any credit from the "lawyer". The only hope now is to be able to travel free of charge as often as possible and to arrive in the right town on the right day so as to win some points.

Breakdown

The car cannot stay in the same town for two days running. Each day it must be driven to a different place.

Buying points

At the end of the game, each point costs 1000 dollars, i.e. 3500 dollars for 3.5 points.

Counting the points

The points won must be regularly added up by the "lawyer" so that each player always knows his score.

High bids

It is only sensible to place high bids for the car if you can go to a town which is worth a high number of points.

Joker

If two or more of you play the joker during the same auction, the car will go to whoever plays the joker first.

Lawyer

This is to be a volunteer who is prepared to manage the money in the bank and to keep the score.

No bids

If none of you want to bid for the car, it will go to the player who had it last. He can then go to the next town free of charge, in accordance with the rules of the game, and the points will be counted in the usual way.

Overbidding

Any player who bids more money than he actually has, during the auction, must pay a fine of 2000 dollars. If he has less than 2000 dollars, he must hand in all his money and the auction will then be repeated on the same day of the week.

Pile of cards played

Place the playing cards by the town, piling them at the side of the board.

Starting point

You have to turn over the top card in the pile and place the pawn on the right day of the week and the car on the town indicated. The player who has playing cards showing the starting point cannot automatically award himself the points shown there but will have to return later to the same place.

If the first day of the week is a Tuesday or a Friday, there are double the number of points. Sunday is regarded as an ordinary day of the week in this respect.

Suitcase card

The details on the suitcase card are only relevant to the current "owner of the car", except for Sunday when all the players are rewarded.

Sunday

If the top card in the pile shows a town already occupied by the car, you have to take a new card.

Towns

The figures which are shown alongside the town show you which destinations you have to make for next.