Silver Coin
Silver Coin Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 2 Regifters (card 0)
- 4 Con Artists (card 1)
- 4 Curators (card 2)
- 4 Pixies (card 3)
- 4 Blobs (card 4)
- 4 Apprentice Tanners (card 5)
- 4 Huntresses (card 6)
- 4 Nostros (card 7)
- 4 Assassins (card 8)
- 4 Psychics (card 9)
- 4 Nosferatus (card 10)
- 4 Golems (card 11)
- 4 Village Idiots (card 12)
- 2 Wolfmen (card 13*)
- 4 Reference Cards
- 1 Scorepad
- 1 Silver Coin of Flipping
Setup
- Shuffle the deck, and deal five cards facedown in a horizontal row (a village) to four players (if there are fewer than four players, remove those extra sets of cards from the game).
- Give each player a reference card.
- Place the deck facedown in the center of the table, and create a discard pile with one faceup card from the deck.
- Choose a start player at random, and place the silver coin facedown (tails side up) on the side of the deck/discard pile nearest to them.
- Each player secretly views two of the five cards in their village.
Goal
Remove werewolves (numbers on cards) from your village (your cards). After four rounds, the player with the fewest werewolves wins.
Cards
Cards in Silver Coin have two functions:
First, the numbers represent how many werewolves have followed this resident to your village; the more powerful the resident, the more werewolves they attract!
Second, each card displays a person with an ability. If a card is in your village, that person is a resident. Some residents help you when they live publicly in your village (low-numbered faceup cards). Some are in hiding (facedown cards). Other times, people help out as they wander by (when you draw their card from the deck). Use all of your resources to figure out who is in your village and remove residents who attract the most werewolves.
Gameplay
Beginning with the start player, take turns clockwise. On your turn, do 1 of the following 3 actions:
- Take a card from the deck
- Take a card from the discard pile
- Call for a vote
Take a Card from the Deck
If you take the top card from the deck, do one of the following:
1) Place the card into the discard pile. If the card has a draw-and-discard ability icon on it, you may use the card's ability.
or
2) Exchange one or more of your cards with the card you drew. Discard exchanged cards faceup into the discard pile, and put the new card facedown in front of you, in an exchanged card's place. See "Discard Multiple Cards" below for more details on how to exchange multiple matching cards.
Take a Card from the Discard Pile
If you take the top card from the discard pile: exchange one or more of your cards with the card you drew. Discard exchanged cards faceup into the discard pile, and put the new card faceup in front of you, in an exchanged card's place.
Call for a Vote
If you have four or fewer cards and at least one card is still in the deck, you may call for a vote (say "Call" on your turn instead of drawing a card). At this time, your turn ends. Each other player gets one more turn (they may not call on their turn), and then the round ends.
You may not do anything else on your turn (i.e., no faceup abilities or flipping the Silver Coin) when you call for a vote.
Discard Multiple Cards
To discard multiple cards from your village, all discarded cards must have the same value (e.g., all 6s). Before discarding them, slide them all forward, and turn any that are unrevealed faceup. Place the card drawn in a discarded card's place—you cannot discard the drawn card as part of a set of matching cards until your next turn.
If any slid cards do not match, return all of them to the village, turning them all facedown (even if they were faceup before). Add the card drawn at either end of the village in the orientation it was when you drew it. If three or more cards don't match, take an additional card from the deck without flipping it over and place it at either end of the village (do not look at it if it is facedown).
Abilities
All cards have abilities. You may activate these abilities when the card is faceup in your village (faceup ability icon), when the card is placed faceup onto the discard pile immediately after drawing it from the deck (draw-and-discard icon), or when faceup at end of round scoring (scoring icon). Most card abilities are optional.
You may not use the ability on a draw-and-discard card drawn from the discard pile.
For abilities that allow you to view facedown cards, view cards secretly so that no other players can see them. If you exchange or otherwise move a card that is faceup, it remains faceup after it is moved. If you exchange a card that has been rotated 90°, it remains rotated 90° after it is moved.
You may not use any card's ability on the turn that you call for a vote.
Keep the Reference Guide handy for players to look up abilities of their cards, as they won't be able to pick up a facedown card to check how it works unless they use an ability that allows them to view that card.
Card Spots
When you view a card, return it to the same spot that you took it from. When a single card replaces another card, the new card must go in the same spot as the old card.
When one card replaces multiple cards, the new card may go in any of the spots that the old cards were in. Then collapse empty spots by sliding cards together.
Running Out of Cards
The Curator and Assassin make it possible for you to get rid of all of your cards. If you begin your turn with no cards, you may take a card from the deck and either use its ability or discard it, or you may call for a vote. If you do not have any cards in your village, you may not take a card from the deck or discard pile or use any ability that requires you to interact with cards in your village.
If you have no cards at scoring, you receive 0 points for that round.
Round End & Scoring
The round ends when one player has called for a vote and each other player takes one more turn, or the deck is depleted (the latter can happen before all other players get a turn after a player has called for a vote). Slide any faceup cards above your other cards, then flip your remaining cards that are facedown faceup. This will help indicate any faceup Regifters or Wolfmen versus those which may have been facedown in your village.
If any players have faceup Regifters (0s), those actions take place now, starting with the player who has the Silver Coin and going clockwise around the table. Faceup Wolfmen (13s) are calculated after the faceup Regifter actions take place.
Your score for the round is the sum of your remaining cards.
However, if you called for a vote and have the lowest sum (or are tied for it), you score 0 points. If you called for a vote and do not have the lowest sum, you score the sum of your cards plus 10 more points.
Write down each player's score for that round, and add it to the sum of the previous rounds.
Place the Silver Coin facedown (tails side up) in the middle of the table on the side of the deck nearest to the player who scored the fewest points in the current round. If that player successfully called for a vote, they take the Silver Coin, turn it faceup (heads side up) and pull it back toward themselves to their edge of the table. This indicates that the player had a successful Call, and they are able to use the Silver Coin on the next round (see "Silver Coin" below).
If the call was unsuccessful and there is a tie for the lowest score in the current round, the tied player who had the Silver Coin on the previous round keeps it. If the player with the Silver Coin did not score the fewest points in the current round, the tied player who is closest to the start player's left places the Silver Coin in front of them.
Subsequent Rounds
Shuffle all the cards in the deck and deal four sets of 5 cards, removing any sets for each player fewer than four in the game.
Place the deck facedown in the middle of the table and turn one card faceup next to it to form a discard pile.
Each player secretly views two of the cards in their village.
The player with the Silver Coin in front of them goes first.
After the first, second, and third rounds, you'll play one last round for a total of four rounds.
Silver Coin
If you have the Silver Coin faceup (heads side up) as a result of successfully calling for a vote, you may, as part of your turn, flip over both the Silver Coin and any single card in any village. Once you've used the Coin's ability, it may not be used again that round. You may not call for a vote on the same turn that you use the Silver Coin.
Game End
The game ends after four rounds.
The player with the fewest points wins.
In case of a tie, the tied player who has the Silver Coin wins. If the player with the Silver Coin is not tied to win, the tied player closest to the left of the Silver Coin player wins.
Tips & Reminders
Abilities on cards are activated when the card is faceup:
- 1–4 in your village,
- 5–12 on the discard pile immediately after drawing it from the deck,
- 0 & 13 when scoring your cards at the end of the round (it must be faceup before the round ends).
You may only activate a card's ability on the discard pile if you have a Blob faceup in your village or if you draw a Nosferatu card and use his ability.
The card you draw this turn cannot be included in a matching set until your next turn.
The player with the lowest score for the previous round receives the Silver Coin (not necessarily the lowest total score), and is the start player for the next round.
It is often a valid strategic choice to take a higher card that matches one of your existing cards so you can discard a pair (or larger set) on a future round.
Remembering Cards
There is a bit of a memory element to Silver Coin, in that you'll need to remember the facedown cards that you've seen. One of the best ways to remember your cards is to silently repeat the ones you know from left to right. So if you have seen the first three cards, and they are 1, 8, and 1, repeat "one eight one" to yourself a few times.
It's easy to temporarily forget cards you've seen if you or other players are talking about different things while playing. It is considered bad form to try to distract other players who are focusing on remembering cards they have viewed by saying random numbers out loud.
Reference Guide — Card Abilities
The following ability text is transcribed from the Silver Coin Cards Reference Guide, the companion reference booklet published by Bézier Games alongside the rulebook.
0 — Regifter
Prior to scoring at the end of each round, each faceup Regifter allows you to give one other card in your village to the player of your choice. The recipient of the card receives it the same way it was at the end of the game (faceup or facedown), so regifting a faceup card with an endgame scoring ability makes that ability active for the receiving player. You may not give the Regifter you activate to any player, and you may not use this ability if this card is the only card in your village.
If you have a second Regifter, you may use one faceup Regifter to give the other Regifter to another player; if that player is after you in turn order, they may use the Regifter ability.
1 — Con Artist
If you have a faceup Con Artist in your village, you may turn him facedown and take an additional turn immediately. You may call as a result of the new turn you've gained, or draw a card as usual.
If you gain a faceup Con Artist (or turn a facedown Con Artist in your village faceup) during your turn you may turn him facedown at the end of the current turn and then take an additional turn. You may only use the ability of a single Con Artist once before another player takes a turn. If you use a Con Artist ability and then he returns faceup during the additional turn, you can't use his ability again until all other players have had at least one turn.
If another player calls, you may use your faceup Con Artist to take an additional turn (or turns if you have multiple Con Artists) at the end of what would normally be your last turn.
2 — Curator
For each faceup Curator in your village, you may do one of the following: rotate one of the cards in your village 90°, or discard one of the cards in your village that is already 90° (that card is no longer 90° when discarded). You may use this ability on the Curator himself. You may rotate a card back to its regular orientation.
You may use the Curator ability at any time during your turn, as long as the Curator is faceup in your village at that time. You may use the Curator to discard a card before you draw, allowing you to draw the card you just discarded from the top of the discard pile. You may use the Curator ability in the middle of your turn, such as after you've drawn a card, but before you've discarded another card (even if you've looked at a facedown card you are about to discard). You may use the Curator ability at the end of your turn, after you have discarded a card. You may use the Curator ability in the middle of an exchange you've activated, such as the Village Idiot ability, to give a player a rotated (or unrotated) card.
If a 90° card is exchanged with another player, the card stays at 90° (relative to the cards in that player's village), even if the player does not have a faceup Curator. Cards placed in the discard pile do not retain their 90° rotation.
It is possible to run out of cards using the Curator. If you begin a turn with no cards, you must either draw a card from the deck and use its ability or discard it, or call for a vote. Other players may not exchange cards with you when you have no cards, but they may give you a card by using an ability like the Gremlin (from Silver Bullet).
3 — Pixie
If a Pixie is faceup in your village, you may turn it over facedown, and then flip any other card in any village over (faceup to facedown or facedown to faceup).
If you happen to turn another Pixie in your village faceup, you may turn the new Pixie facedown and turn another card faceup, etc. You may not use the same Pixie more than once on your turn (though if you take another turn through the use of the Con Artist, you may use a Pixie again on that additional turn).
4 — Blob
If you have a faceup Blob in your village, you may use the ability of the top card of the discard pile if it is a draw-and-discard card instead of drawing a card or calling. If you have two faceup Blob cards, you may choose to activate the top or 2nd discard. Having a third Blob allows you to activate the top, 2nd, or 3rd discard, etc.
The Blob action takes the place of your normal action this turn; you may not draw a card or call when you use the Blob ability, and you may not use the Blob ability if you have already drawn a card or called for a vote.
5 — Apprentice Tanner
When you use this card's ability, place the Apprentice Tanner faceup at either end of your village, then flip over 1 other card in any village. You do not discard a card when you keep the Apprentice Tanner faceup as a result of using its ability.
6 — Huntress
When you use this ability, first turn one faceup card in any village facedown, and then turn another, different card in any village faceup. You may not turn the card you just turned facedown back faceup.
If there are no faceup cards in any village you may not use this ability.
7 — Nostro
When you use this ability, view all of the facedown cards in any village.
8 — Assassin
When you use this ability, you may discard 1 faceup card from any village and place it on the bottom of the discard pile, keeping it faceup there. After using the Assassin's ability, the targeted village will have 1 fewer card than it had at the beginning of your turn.
It is possible to run out of cards using the Assassin. If you begin a turn with no cards, you must either draw a card from the draw deck and use its ability or discard it, or you may call for a vote. Other players may not switch cards with you when you have no cards, but they may give you a card using an ability like the Gremlin (from Silver Bullet).
9 — Psychic
You may view up to 3 cards, in any village(s). You may view cards from different villages.
10 — Nosferatu
Instead of taking the top card of the discard pile to put in your village, you may take any one of the top 3 cards. Alternatively, you may use the draw-and-discard ability of any of the top 3 cards on the discard pile. If you do use a card's ability, it keeps its position in the discard pile. (Do not put it on top of the pile or on the Nosferatu you just played.) If any of the 3 choices is facedown, you may not use its ability, though you may still take it and put it in your village facedown.
If you take a card, you must then exchange a card (or a matching set of cards) from your village. Place the Nosferatu card on the discard pile first, then put the exchanged card(s) on top of it.
If you activate another Nosferatu card with this ability, you may activate or take any of the 3 discards immediately below the discarded Nosferatu card you are activating. You may continue "burrowing" into the discard pile for additional Nosferatu cards.
11 — Golem
You may take the top card of the discard pile (not the Golem you are activating) and switch it with any other card in any village. Then place the card you took from the village on the bottom of the discard pile in the same orientation (faceup or facedown). If the card is facedown, no one sees what that card is.
Cards that let you look through the discard pile may not view or use the ability of facedown cards, though a facedown card may be taken to exchange with a card from your village by using the Nosferatu card (you may not view that facedown card).
12 — Village Idiot
You may move 1 card from each village to its neighboring village in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction, keeping the orientation of the cards faceup or facedown.
All players keep the same number of cards that they started with.
If a player (including yourself) does not have any cards, or if all of their cards are protected, skip that player when moving cards.
13 — Wolfman
If you have a faceup Wolfman at scoring, and the sum of all your other cards is less than 13, you score 0 points. If the sum of all your other cards is equal to or greater than 13, you score the sum of all your cards, including the Wolfman. If the only card you have is a faceup Wolfman, your score is 0.
If you have two faceup Wolfmen, add the other Wolfman's 13 to your sum to determine your total.
Combining Decks
You can combine Silver decks to customize your games. Replace all of the cards of one number from one deck with all of the cards of that same number from another deck. You can combine any combination of numbers, and any number of decks this way!
Just make sure you always have two 0s, two 13s, and four each of cards 1–12.
A fun way to combine decks is to let the losers of the last game each replace a number of their choice before the next game.
Other Silver Games
Silver and Silver Bullet are also published by Bézier Games.
Credits
Designer: Ted Alspach, who has designed many games, including One Night Ultimate Werewolf, Suburbia, Werewords, and Castles of Mad King Ludwig.
Artist: Andrey Gordeev, who has drawn amazing artwork for a number of big name clients, including McDonalds and Lipton, and has illustrated children's books and videogames. He's also the artist of Silver and Silver Bullet.
Publisher: Bézier Games