Power Lunch Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Description of Cards
• Preparation for Play
• Description of Play
• Sequence of Play
• Melding Personalities
• Melding Example
• Scoring
• Strategy Hints
• Optional Rules for Power Broker
  • Preparation for Play
  • Description of Play
  • Sequence of Play
  • Card Exchange Chart
• Hollywood Power Broker
• Card Name Corrections

Overview

Ages: 10 and up. Players: 2-6. Average Playtime: 45 Minutes.

Object of the Game: To provoke social interaction (i.e. to have fun!) The winner is the player with the highest score after three rounds.

Contents: 72 cards, including:

• 6 sets of 10 personalities
• 1 Wild Card (Restaurant Owner)
• 4 Connection Cards
• 4 Scandal Cards
• 3 Action Cards
• 1 game board
• 1 Rules Booklet

Description of Cards

Personalities: People who may or may not be attending lunch at the restaurant today. Personality Cards are melded to the restaurant tables to score points or may be discarded or passed to the next player (when a Pass A Card is played as a discard).

Wild Card: As Owner of the restaurant, he may sit at any table.

Action Cards: When an Action Card (e.g. Pass A Card) is played the players follow its instructions. Action Cards may never be melded. So, when a Pass A Card is discarded, all players must pass one card to the left. (Note this is one of only two ways to get rid of a Scandal Card). Any card can be passed - Action, Personality, Scandal, Connection, etc.

Scandal Cards: Scandal Cards are the scandals you must deal with as a player. Scandal Cards may not be melded; the two ways to remove them from your hand are 1) to discard them together with a Connection Card, or 2) pass them to a fellow player during a Pass A Card play.

Connection Cards: A Connection Card enables a player to discard a Scandal Card. A Connection Card may also be discarded without a scandal. A Connection Card may not be drawn by the next player from the Discard Pile.

Preparation for Play

Lay out the board in the center of the table. The board represents a Restaurant and contains 2-three seat tables, 2-four seat tables, 3-six seat tables, and 1-eight seat table where the Personalities sit for lunch.

Shuffle all 72 cards. Deal the cards out based upon the number of players:

Players	Cards
2-4	10
5	9
6	8

The remaining cards form the draw deck. Turn the top card over to form the discard deck. Play may now begin.

Description of Play

Each player attempts to score the most points by melding cards onto the playing board. When a player empties his hand by melding and/or discarding all his cards or when all the tables have closed, the hand ends and the points of each player are totalled.

Sequence of Play

On his turn each player does the following:

1. Draws the top card of either the Discard Pile or the Draw Deck.
2. Attempts to meld Personality Cards to one restaurant table on the board. A meld to a new table (i.e. one with no Personalities on it) must have at least three cards. Otherwise a player may try to meld as many or as few cards as he wishes. The meld is only limited on the upper end by the number of spaces left at the table to which the cards are being melded. See section on Melding Personalities for more details.
3. If the meld is not a run or a set, the melding player MUST DESCRIBE THE DEAL OR OTHER REASON THE PERSONALTIES ARE GOING TO THIS POWER LUNCH.
4. Counts the votes of his opposing players; a tie or majority vote in favor of the meld (excluding the meld's player) allows the meld.
5. Tallies his score.
6. At his option, the player discards one card to the Discard Pile. Discarding is always optional. A player may never discard a Scandal Card without a Connection Card. The player's turn then ends and the player to his left takes his turn.

Play continues in this manner, until either all the tables are full or the player empties his hand by discarding or melding his last card. When the hand ends, the scores of each player are totalled (see the section on Scoring for more details). The player with the highest total score after three hands is the winner.

If the deck is exhausted before the hand is ended, remove the top card in the Discard Pile and place it down as the new Discard Pile and reshuffle the remaining Discard Pile to form the deck. Play continues as before.

If a player discards a Pass A Card as his final discard to end a hand, the Pass A Card is NOT effective and no cards are passed.

Melding Personalities

Players meld Personality Cards three different ways:

• Playing a run of three cards in numerical order (e.g. 7-8-9) of any color. Once melded, players may meld additional cards that continue in sequence until a player makes a Power Lunch play to the same table. After that, the sequence is broken and NO additional sequence melds may be made. VARIATION: A sequence must be made of cards of the same color suit.
• Playing three or more of a kind. Players may add more cards of the same kind until a player makes a Power Lunch play to the same table.
• Playing three or more Personalities with a common reason to meet at a Power Lunch (this is where the fun comes). If the player can justify and convince the other players why the Personalities melded would meet for Power Lunch then the Power Lunch play is allowable.

When opening a table, the player must meld at least three personalities. Once the table is opened, any number of personalities may be melded up to the number of available seats at the table.

Players may only attempt one meld in any turn. All Personality Cards played in a turn must be melded to one table.

The player making a Power Lunch play must be creative and persuasive to convince the other players that his connection makes sense. Before actually placing the cards the opponents must vote on the placement (the person placing the card does not place a vote). A tie or a majority vote allows the player to meld the cards and score.

A special exception applies to melding cards of the same suit. To open a table with three Personalities of the same suit (i.e. the same color), they must be sequentially numbered. Thus, to meld three cards from the same suit which are not sequentially numbered, you must include a fourth card of a different color and explain the connection of all the cards in the usual way.

The creative player might introduce a new personality to a table and change the topic. When this occurs, the player must justify why the Personalities who were sitting at the table would be interested in the new discussion topic. This tactic does not score the bonus for starting the table, but might be a good strategy if it makes closing the table possible or if a change from a rummy style meld (a run or set) is desired. ALL personalities must be able to meld with all the current members at the table (not just a single Personality at the table).

Thus a table which started by the melding a set of three or more personalities could be joined by a personality with a different number if the melding player can justify the new group's discussion and relationship. Once changed in this manner, a meld based upon extending the set is no longer acceptable play.

All players are required to attempt one meld during their turn. Players with less than three cards are exempt from attempting to meld if no legal meld is available.

Melding Example

Let's say that you are initially dealt the following cards:

• Barbara Walters (Purple 2)
• Cher (Orange 7)
• Madonna (Orange 4)
• Elvis Presley (Red 8)
• Boris Yeltsin (Pink 6)

On your turn, the card on the discard pile is Leonard Nimoy (Orange 1). As you feel that this is not an easy meld with your current cards, you choose the top card on the unused deck and receive Bill Cosby (Orange 10).

As you have no set or run, you attempt to meld the following cards on a four chair table:

• Barbara Walters (Purple 2)
• Cher (Orange 7)
• Madonna (Orange 4)

You tell your opponents that Barbara is interviewing these personalities about why they use only one name. After making your pitch, the players then vote on whether or not the meld should be allowed. If they vote to allow it, you score the meld; if they vote against, you return the cards to your hand. In either case, you must decide whether to discard a card; presuming the meld is allowed, you have only three Personalities and you choose not to discard (to hold the possibility of melding all the cards with later drawn cards).

Scoring

Players score in the following manner:

• Score points for the cards you meld. 1 point is scored for each card.

• Receive bonus points for opening and closing tables, based on the size of the table:

  • 2 points - 3 chair table
  • 3 points - 4 chair table
  • 4 points - 6 chair table
  • 5 points - 8 chair table

  For ease of play, each table has dark colored plates equal to the bonus for that table.

• A player who manages to start and to close a table receives both bonuses.

• Lose points for cards held in the player's hand at the end of each round:

  • Action Card - 0 points
  • Personality Card - 1 point
  • Connection Card - 0 points
  • Scandal Card - 5 points
  • Wild Card - 10 points

It is possible for two different players to receive bonuses for the same table. A player placing one card on a four chair table to close it out would receive: 1 point for the card + 3 points for closing the table; total = 4 points.

When a table is closed, the cards should be turned over on the table so that all players are aware that no new melds may be made to that table.

Strategy Hints

The true strategy is to have fun. Winning can be a secondary triumph, but if you absolutely must win here are some helpful hints to feed that competitive edge:

1. Watch the number of cards in other players' hands. As they move towards 0 cards, make sure that you have reduced your own hand as well.

2. At the beginning of a hand it might be beneficial to not discard. Remember that starting a table requires three cards, and that if you do not have three cards you will be limited to melding on existing tables. When you have two or more sets which appear to be natural melds (of runs or sets), it is beneficial to hold them instead of discarding.

3. Salesmanship is most important. Anticipate your opponents reactions and use their tendencies to your advantage. Remember what has been successful and not successful for other players. When melding three cards, it is often better to meld them to a larger table. Three cards melded to a three table scores 7 points; the same three cards melded to the eight table earns 8 points. (Editor's note: as printed. Under the bonus table above, a three-card meld to a 3-chair table would total 5 points; the printed figure of 7 is kept as the source states it.) You may find it easier to convince your opponents to allow you to meld to a larger table if they feel that they can also benefit from the topic chosen.

4. When choosing a topic which will be hard to meld other personalities, attempt melding to smaller tables. Players are more likely to allow this meld as they feel no table space will be wasted.

Optional Rules for Power Broker

Power Broker is yet another great game to play with your Power Lunch cards. The game requires at least three players, with eight players being the highest number allowed.

Preparation for Play

The game begins with the owner of the game shuffling the cards, using a certain number of cards in the deck according to the number of players in the game:

# Players	# Wild Cards	# Pass A Card
3	2	2
4	2	3
5	3	3
6	4	3
7	2	3
8	3	3

Scandal cards are not used in the Power Broker game.

The dealer deals out the cards until all cards have been taken. Power Broker does not use the Player's Mat.

Description of Play

The object of the game is to be the first player to empty his hand of cards. Points do not count - the player who first rids his hand of cards wins. Play continues until the players decide to end the game (or at a preset time limit). The winner is the player who was the Power Broker most often.

Certain cards have special rules:

1. Connection cards and Wild cards act the same way; both can be any Personality card, with the player stating the color and number of the card when the card is played. They may not be used as a Pass A Card.

2. Pass A Cards may be played on any player, not just the player to the left. A Pass A Card must be played at the beginning of the game. The player playing a Pass A Card discards the card and chooses another player who then must give him his highest card.

Sequence of Play

Power Broker is played in a series of rounds, until all players but one have rid their hands of cards. The last player is the Gopher who has special duties described below.

In the first hand, the dealer starts the first round; in all subsequent hands, the Power Broker starts the first round.

Each round is played this way:

• To begin a round, the starting player plays a set of one or more cards having the same number. For example, a player may play 2-Blue and 2-Red. A single card may be played.

• The next player must play a set of cards with a higher value than the cards already played. If he can't play, he must pass to the next player. Every subsequent player must play exactly the same number of cards as those played to start the round.

  (See the Hollywood Power Broker rules variant.)

• Play continues to the left until each player has had a chance to play. The player who played the highest set begins the next round. Play additional rounds until all but one of the players have run out of cards, and then the hand ends.

The first player to run out of cards is the Power Broker. Each subsequent player running out of cards is ranked below the Power Broker in the order that each ran out of cards. The last person to have cards is the unfortunate person who has, through his misadventures, become the Gopher.

For the next hand the Gopher from the previous hand must deal all the cards to the players as follows: players other then the Gopher receive an equal number of cards and the Gopher receives that number plus any remaining cards.

After the cards have been dealt, the players exchange their highest and lowest cards with their respective counter-part, according to the following chart. The Power Broker (the "First") gives the Gopher (the "Last") his lowest card or cards, while the Gopher gives the Power Broker his highest cards. The other players exchange cards according to their position, with better positions receiving best cards from lesser positions, who in turn receive worst cards.

In choosing highest and lowest, Wild cards are 10s, while Pass A Cards have no value and may not be passed. Pass A Cards may be played either before the exchanges take place or after the exchanges, at the Pass A Card player's choice; the Pass A Card must be played before the start of the first round.

Card Exchange Chart

# of Players	# of Cards to Exchange
3	First and last players exchange 1.
4	First and last players exchange 2. Middle two players exchange 1.
5	Same as 4 players, except center player doesn't exchange.
6	First and last players exchange 3. Second and fifth players exchange 2. Third and fourth players exchange 1.
7	Same as 6 players, except center player doesn't exchange.
8	First and last players exchange 4. Second and seventh players exchange 3. Third and sixth players exchange 2. Fourth and fifth players exchange 1.

Hollywood Power Broker

By adopting the use of these optional rules, players can:

1. Beat cards that are melded by playing extra cards. For example, if Player 1 lays down two 3s and Player 2 lays down two 10s, then Player 3 beat the existing plays by melding three 1s.

2. Pass A Cards need not be played at the beginning of the game; they may be played between rounds during the game.

Card Name Corrections

The following personalities had their names spelled incorrectly:

• Yasser Arafat
• Saddam Hussein
• John McLaughlin
• Steven Spielberg
• Barbra Steisand

The publisher extends its sincerest apologies to those personalities involved.