Green Box of Games

In this game you get to create your own rules, and the other players have to guess what they are. It is inspired by the card game Eleusis, created in 1956.

At a glance:

3-8 players

30 minutes

Complexity: low

Components used:

All cards

All cubes

Setup:

Determine randomly who is to be the first “Professor”, the other players are “Students”.

Shuffle the cards and deal 5 cards to each Student. Draw one card from the deck and place it in face up in the center of the table as a starting card.

Play:

At the start of a round, the Professor secretly creates a rule deciding what is a correct sequence of cards. Examples of rules:

• Always play a different colour than the previous card
• Always play a higher value card…
• Alternate between even and odd numbers
• The colour must match the symbol of any card previously played

The students now play cards to the table in turn, creating a row of cards from the starting card. Each time a Student play a card, the professor states whether it was correct or not. If it was correct, place one cube next to the card, and give one to the Student. If it was incorrect, nothing happens.

The Student may now choose to make a guess as to what the secret rule is. If the guess is incorrect, the Student must give up one of her cubes, and play continues. The Student then draws a new card, and the player on the left continues to play.

If, however, she correctly guesses the rule, then the round is over. The cubes next to the cards are divided between the Student and the professor. Fractions go to the Student. Now the cards are reshuffled, the player to the left of the Professor becomes the new Professor, and all Students are dealt 5 new cards to start a new round.

The round will also end if 15 cards are played without anyone guessing the correct rule. In this case the cubes on the table go back to the stack. In other words, if the Professor creates a rule that is too hard tu guess, she might not score any points at all.

Winner:

The game ends when all players have been the Professor once. The player with the most cubes is the winner.