Gnadenlos

Gnadenlos

 Editeur

 Auteur(s)

Klaus Teuber

 Nbe de joueurs

3-4

 Age minimum

10 ans

 Durée

50 mns

 Parution

 

-

6/10

 

Designer

Publisher

Year

Min # Of Players

3

Max # Of Players

4

Approx. Playing Time

45 minutes

 

Category


Mechanics

Summary

Gnadenlos! (Merciless!) is a game in which players enter a prospecting boom town and try to accumulate the most prestige points. Rather than doing the dirty work themselves, players high adventurers to pan for their gold, fight their gun battles, and sit in for them in the poker games. Since the money hasn't yet come in, these rough-tough folk are hired merely with pieces of paper - IOUs. But on pay day the IOUs come due, and if a player can't pay off debts, then the vultures swoop in.

Players bid for adventurer cards that will be used in various events - Gold Fever, High Noon, and the Poker Game. Each adventurer carries a number (a rating) for each of the three events. When it's time to play out an event, players place an adventurer card face down. All players simultaneously turn the cards over. The adventurer with the highest number pertaining to the event wins; the lowest loses (ties are usually kept as ties, with both receiving the benefits or penalties). In Gold Fever the winner and second highest receive gold, which may be exchanged for prestige points or used to pay off debts. In High Noon, the winner gets to pick back up two IOUs (not necessarily his or her own); the loser is shot and loses the adventurer card. Also the undertaker advances on space along a timing track. In the Poker Game, the winner moves forward on the prestige track; the loser moves backwards. The IOU cards used in bids for the adventurers are placed in rows along the board, each beside on of six dice symbols (showing 1 through 6). When as many rows as there are players in the game are filled, it's Pay Day. A die is rolled and the outermost card beside the corresponding die symbol is turned up. The player who owns that IOU must pay up. This continues until either all cards by one die symbol have been turned up, or a player cannot meet a debt. The unfortunate player in this case gets a vulture chip and moves back 5 spaces on the prestige track. The game ends either when one player has 3 vulture chips; a player reaches or passes the winning space on the prestige track; or the undertaker reaches his final space. When the game ends the player farthest along the prestige track wins.

 

Klaus Teuber game of the Wild West in a surprisingly-small box (first in the new Kosmos "Games for Multiple Players" series). The heart of the game is a double auction system. The first bid uses an adventurer to try to win at either a shootout, poker or gold digging. An adventurer may be lost at this if too successful or not successful enough. But the winner gains some advantage, say in gold or victory points, and then there is a second auction for adventurers using IOU's. Eventually the IOU's come due and the players must pay using the gold they have acquired earlier. Woe betide the player who cannot pay as they suffer a black stain on their reputation and consequent loss of victory points. Strategy tip: do not overbid IOU's. The main idea here seems to be to have perfect timing and balance, but the experience is overly chaotic due to the vagaries of which IOU cards are pulled. Somewhat reminiscent of the inventor's earlier in this respect. Also unpleasant, unless the rules translation is wrong, is the mild memory aspect. Title means "Merciless".

GNADENLOS

 

COMPOSITION DU JEU:
Traduction de Jutta et Michel RICHARD

 

 

1 Plateau de jeu

 

 

 

 

1 Dé à 6 faces
dé à six face

1 Pion Croque-mort en carton
pion chapeau noir

1 Pion revolver en carton
pion revolver

 

4 Pions joueur (bleu, vert, jaune, rouge)
pions joueur

37 Jetons "pépites"
jetons pépite

9 Jetons "vautour"
jeton vautour

 

 

 

 

7 Cartes évènement
carte évènement
Dos de toutes les             1 carte                             1 carte                      1 carte                  2 cartes Poker       2 cartes Règlement
cartes évènement        ruée vers l'or 3/1         ruée vers l'or 5/3       ruée vers l'or 7/4                                             de compte

 

53 Cartes Reconnaissance de dettes, 13 de chaque couleur (ci dessous l'exemple des cartes rouges)
cartes dette 
  dos de toutes les           3 cartes de "1"              3 cartes de "2"             3 cartes de "3"           3 cartes de "4"            1 carte de "0"
     cartes dettes

 

29 Cartes aventurier
cartes aventurier
       dos de toutes les                quelques exemples de cartes aventurier
         cartes dettes

 

 

RÈGLE DU JEU:

 

 

PREPARATION DU JEU
(pour joueur débutant)

Déposez le plan de jeu au milieu de la table
Les cartes "aventurier" sont mélangées et déposées, face cachée, à coté du plan de jeu. Chaque joueur en prend deux en main sans les montrer.

exemple 1

Chaque joueur choisit une couleur et reçoit les 13 cartes "reconnaissance de dette" de sa couleur, de valeur 0,1,2,3 et 4. Chaque joueur garde ses cartes "reconnaissance de dette" cachées.
Chaque joueur prend le chapeau de sa couleur et le dépose sur la case départ. Le chapeau noir est posé sur la case départ du croque-morts.

 

 

 

Récupérez 2 cartes de "reconnaissance de dette" par joueur, d'une valeur 1 et 2. Mélangez les (8 pour 4 joueurs, 6 pour 3 joueurs), puis déposez les, face cachée, en dessous des dessins de dé du plateau de jeu (voir exemple)
En déposant les cartes de "reconnaissance de dette" il faut former des rangées. Sous chaqu'un des dessins de dé du plateau de jeu on place une carte "reconnaissance de dette", donc la rangée comportera 6 cartes. Dès qu'une rangée est complète (6 cartes), on commence la rangée suivante. Ces rangées de reconnaissance de dette sont appelées le marché.

exemple 2

Les cartes "événement" sont mélangées et déposées face cachée sur l'une des deux cases événement du plateau de jeu.

Chaque joueur reçoit des pépites pour une valeur de 10. Les pépites restantes sont déposés en réserve sur le côté du plan de jeu.
Le pion revolver est donné au joueur qui lance le dé la plus vite (d'après OYA), se sera le premier joueur actif.

 

 

 

(pour joueur confirmé)
celui qui a déja joué une ou deux fois devrait commencer le jeu comme suit:
Les points suivants de la préparation sont supprimés:
- 1 Pas de dépose de carte "reconnaissance de dette" d'une valeur 1 et 2 pour la constitution du marché.
- 2 Les joueurs ne prennent pas de carte "aventurier".

Ces points sont remplacé par les règles suivantes:
Pour trois joueurs on découvre 3 couples "aventurier" (3 x 2 cartes) et pour 4 joueurs on découvre 4 couples "aventurier" (4 x 2 cartes)
Comme décrit sous la rubrique "Mise aux enchères des cartes aventurier", chaque joueur fait une offre. Le joueur qui lance le dé la plus vite commence. Le jeu continue dans le sens des aiguilles d'une montre.
Le joueur qui a fait l'offre la plus important choisira en premier son couple et dépose ces cartes de "reconnaissance de dette" en dessous des dessins de dé figurant sur le plateau de jeu. Il commence ainsi la première rangée du marché.
Ensuite les autres joueurs, selon le montant de leur offre, choisissent leurs cartes "aventurier" et déposent leur carte "reconnaissance de dette" sur le marché en forme de rangées.


DEROULEMENT DU JEU
Chaque tour de jeu se déroule en phases que le joueur actif doit effectuer dans l'ordre suivant:
1) Exécuter l'événement
Le joueur retourne une cartes événement et le réalise.
2) Acheter des points de prestiges
A l'aide des pépites il peut acheter des points de prestiges et avancer son chapeau sur la route du succès.
3) Demander les offres pour l'achat d'aventuriers
Le joueur doit accomplir cette phase s'il possède moins de 3 cartes aventurier en main à la fin de son tour,
4) Jour de paye
Si a la suite de cette phase, le marché a autant de rangées complète que de joueurs, c'est "jour de la paye".

Après ces 4 phases on passe le revolver au joueur suivant qui devient le joueur actif.

1) Exécuter un événement
Le joueur dont c'est le tour de jouer découvre la 1ère carte de la pile "événement" et le place sur le 2ème champ événement du jeu. Il y a 3 types d'événements: Ruée vers l'or, Duel, Poker

Au début de l'événement
Chaque joueur dépose une de ses cartes aventurier devant lui (face cachée). Le joueur qui ne possède pas de carte "aventurier" ne participe pas au jeu. Si un seul joueur possède des cartes "aventurier", l'événement n'a pas lieu. Les joueurs retournent simultanément leur carte aventiurier. Et l'événement découvert est exécuté.

A) Ruée vers l'or
Il y 3 cartes événement "ruée vers l'or" différentes. Elles se distinguent uniquement par le nombre de pépites trouvées.
Pour définir lequel des aventuriers trouve les pépites, il faut tenir compte du chiffre jaune indiqué sur les cartes d'aventurier.
Les joueurs qui ont le chiffre jaune le plus élevé reçoivent le nombre de pépites le plus élevé de la carte évènement. Par exemple pour l'événement 7/4, ils reçoivent 7 pépites. Les joueurs suivants reçoivent le nombre inférieure, c'est à dire 4 pépites pour la carte 7/4. Les autres joueurs ne reçoivent rien.

 

 

Exemple: La carte ruée vers l'or 7/4 est retournée. Chaque joueur a sorti une carte aventurier. Le joueur "rouge" reçoit 7 pépites, car sa carte aventurier a le chiffre le plus élevé. Les joueurs "vert" et "jaune" reçoivent chacun 4 pépites. Le joueur "bleu" ne reçoit rien..

exemple 3

 

 

 

B) Duel
Avant d'exécuter l'événement "Duel" le croque mort (le chapeau noir) doit avancer d'une case.
Pour résoudre cet événement on tient compte du chiffre bleu figurant sur les cartes aventuriers. Le joueur ayant retourné l'aventurier possédant le chiffre bleu le plus élevé doit prendre deux cartes "reconnaissance de dette" du marché.
Si plusieurs aventuriers ont la plus grande valeur, chaque joueur doit prendre une carte "reconnaissance de dette" du marché.
S'il n'a pas assez de cartes de "reconnaissance de dette" pour satisfaire tous les joueurs, aucun joueur n'est servi.
Quand on prend une carte "reconnaissance de dette" du marché, on n'a pas le droit de la regarder.
Si un joueur prend une carte "reconnaissance de dette" d'un autre joueur (c'est à dire d'une autre couleur), il pourra l'utiliser plus tard pour ses propres offres.

Le jour de paye (voir Jour de paye), les joueurs payent les dettes des cartes"reconnaissance de dette" de leur couleur, même si c'est un autre joueur qui a déposé cette carte sur le marché.

Le joueur actif, rebouche les trous dans les premières rangées du marché comme il le souhaite en se servant des cartes de la dernière rangée du marché (voir exemple).

Les aventuriers avec le plus petit chiffre bleu seront fusillés et les cartes seront défaussées.

exemple 4

 

 

 

C) Poker
Pour savoir si un aventurier est un bon joueur de poker on tient compte du chiffre rouge figurant sur les cartes aventuriers.

Tous les joueurs possédant le chiffre le plus élevé sont gagnants. Les perdants sont ceux qui ont le chiffre est le plus faible.
Le chemin du succès est divisé en sections de couleur. A chaque section correspond un symbole, une paire de carte de la couleur de la section portant un chiffre positif en noir et un chiffre négatif en rouge.

Le chiffre positif indique au(x) gagnant(s) le nombre de cases dont ils doivent avancer leur chapeau
Le chiffre négatifs indique au(x) perdant(s) le nombre de cases dont ils doivent reculer leur chapeau.
Ainsi, les gagnants gagnent de l'estime en avançant leur chapeau et les perdants perdent de l'estime en reculant leur chapeau.

Exemple:
les joueurs "bleu " et "vert" sont gagnants au Poker.
- Le chapeau du joueur "bleu" est dans la section grise, il ne peut avancer de 4 cases.
- Le chapeau du joueur "vert" se trouve dans la section beige. Il peut donc avancer uniquement de 3 cases.
- Le joueur "rouge" est le perdant son chapeau est dans la section grise, il doit reculer d'une case.

exemple 5

 

 

 

A la fin de l'événement
Tous les aventuriers qui au cours l'événement ont joué la carte la plus élevée doivent la défausser (dans l'exemple de la Ruée vers l'or, le joueur "rouge" devrait déposer son aventurier). Les autres joueurs peuvent reprendre leur aventurier (à l'exception des aventuriers fusillés).
Attention: Si tous les joueurs ont posé des cartes "aventurier" de même valeur, l'événement n'aura pas lieu et aucune carte d'événement de remplacement n'est tirée. Les joueurs reprennent leur carte "aventurier" en main et on passe au joueur suivant.

Mélanger à nouveau les cartes événement
Le dernier événement (7ème carte) n'est jamais exécuté. Le joueur dont c'est le tour de jouer retourne la dernière carte événement (si c'est une carte de duel, le croque mort est avancé d'une case). Puis le joueur remélange les 7 cartes événement et tire la première carte de la pile nouvellement mélangée.

2) Acheter des points de prestige
Le joueur dont c'est le tour peut acheter des points de prestige avec ses pépites. Pour chaque pépite payée à la banque il peut avancer son chapeau d'une case. Par tour de jeu un joueur ne peut pas acheter plus de 5 points de prestige. Ce n'est qu'au prochain tour qu'il pourra acheter des points de prestige.
Exemple: le joueur "rouge" paie 3 pépites et avance de trois cases.

3) Demander les offres d'achat des aventuriers avec des cartes de "reconnaissance de dette"
Si le joueur dont c'est le tour possède moins de 3 aventuriers il doit mettre aux enchères des cartes "aventurier". S'il possède 3 aventuriers ou plus cette phase est supprimée et c'est immédiatement le tour du joueur suivant.
Si le joueur possède moins de 3 aventuriers, il pioche autant d'aventuriers que de joueur autour de la table moins un et les poses sur la table face visible. Chaque joueur, en suivant le tour de table, fait alors une offre, en déposant 1, 2 ou 3 cartes "reconnaissance de dette" face visible devant lui en respectant les règles suivantes:
- chaque joueur ne doit pas utiliser plus de 3 cartes "reconnaissance de dette" pour faire son offre.
- une offre peut être plus basse que les offres précédentes
- chaque offre doit être différentes des offres précédentes. Donc l'offre "0" ne peut être faite qu'une fois
- chaque joueur est obligé de faire une offre. Si un joueur ne peut pas respecter les trois règles ci-dessus, il est dispensé de faire une offre. Il doit cependant le prouver en montrant ses cartes "reconnaissance de dette". Automatiquement il aura l'offre la plus faible.

Le joueur qui a fait l'offre la plus élévée choisit en premier l'un des aventuriers et dépose les cartes de "reconnaissance de dette" de son offre, face cachée, sur le marché en complétant la rangée en cours ou au besoin en recommençant une nouvelle. Selon le montant de leur offre le autres joueurs en font autant.
Le joueur qui a fait l'offre la plus basse ne reçoit pas d'aventurier, mais récupére ses cartes de "reconnaissance de dette".

 

Exemple: Le joueur "bleu" fait la première offre et dépose des cartes de "reconnaissance de dette" d'une valeur de "5". Suivent les joueurs "rouge", "jaune", et "vert" offrant respectivement "4", "3" et "6". Le joueur "vert" (offre le plus élevé) choisit donc en premier et prend l'aventurier C. Il dépose les cartes de "reconnaissance de dette" (faces cachées) dans la rangée incomplète du marché ou commence une nouvelle rangée. Le joueur "bleu" se décide pour l'aventurier B il reste donc l'aventurier A pour le joueur "rouge". Le joueur "jaune" ne reçoit pas d'aventurier, mais peut reprendre ses cartes de "reconnaissance de dette" en main.

Quand il n'y aura plus d'aventurier sur la pile, la pile de défausse constituée entre-temps sera mélangée et remise en jeu.

exemple 6

 

 

4) jour de paye
Il y a jour de paye quand le marché a autant de rangées complètes que de joueurs.
Voir l'exemple ci-contre: 4 rangées sont terminées, avec 4 joueurs la conditions serait remplie.

La paye est assurée par le joueur dont c'est le tour de jouer. Il procède comme suit:
1) Il jette le dé
2) Il retourne la carte "reconnaissance de dette" de la colonne correspondant au chiffre du dé.
3) Le joueur a qui appartient la carte "reconnaissance de dette" (voir la couleur) doit payer le nombre de pépites indiqués sur la carte.
Le joueur chargé de la paye répète l'opération 1,2,3 jusqu'à ce:
A) que le chiffre du dé indique une colonne dont toutes les cartes sont retournées
B) ou qu'un joueur n'a pas suffisamment de pépites pour payer sa reconnaissance de dette.
Dans ces deux cas le jour de paye est terminé.

exemple 7

Exemple: Le joueur chargé de la paye jette le dé et obtient un "1". Il découvre la lère carte de la première ligne. C'est une carte du joueur "bleu". Le joueur "bleu" doit donc payer 2 pépites à la banque. Puis le dé tombe sur "3", le joueur chargé de la paye découvre la 3ème carte de la 1ère ligne. C'est une carte du joueur "rouge". Le joueur "rouge" doit payer 3 pépites à la banque.

exemple 8

 

 

Si le cas B) se présente, le joueur qui ne peux honorer ses dettes doit prendre une carte "vautour" pour montrer qu'il a perdu de l'estime. De plus, pour chaque vautour qu'un joueur reçoit il doit reculer son chapeau de 5 cases (sans dépasser toutefois la dernière case grise). Le joueur qui n'a pas assez de pépites pour payer ses dettes,prend un vautour mais garde les quelques pépites qui lui restent.

Lorsque le jour de paye est terminé, chaque joueur doit reprendre en main les cartes "reconnaissance de dette" qui sont retournées. Le joueur dont c'est le tour complète les trous des rangées avec des cartes de son choix, en ayant soin d'avoir le plus de rangées complètes possibles, Comme dans l'exemple ci-contre.

exemple 9

 

 

Exemple: Le jour de paye c'est terminé par un jet de "5" au dé, car toutes les cartes "reconnaissance de dette" de cette colonne étaient retournées. Les joueurs reprennent leurs cartes "reconnaissance de dette" qui ont été retournées et les rangées sont complétées.

Important: Si après cette opération il y a autant de rangées complètes que de joueurs, il y a immédiatement un autre jour de paye.

exemple 10

 

 

 

LE JEU CE TERMINE DANS LES SITUATIONS SUIVANTES:
A) Trois vautours: un joueur reçoit un troisième vautour
B) Le croque mort atteint le but: Le chapeau noir arrive dans la dernière case de son parcours. Cela est le cas quand la événement "Duel" est retournée pour la 7ème fois. L'événement n'est pas joué.
C) Un joueur atteint le but: le chapeau d'un joueur atteint la dernière case ou la dépasse.

Si le jeu se termine par la situation B ou C, on procède à un dernier jour de paye. Si un joueur reçoit alors un troisième vautour, il perd le jeu et retire son chapeau du plateau.

Si le jeu se termine par la situation A, B ou C, chaque joueur a le droit d'avancer son chapeau jusqu'à trois cases, à condition de pouvoir payer les pépites nécessaires. (Le joueur avec trois vautours ne peut plus rien faire).

Le joueur dont le chapeau est le plus avancé a gagné. Si deux joueurs sont sur la même case, c'est le joueur avec le plus grand nombre de pépites en sa possession qui gagne.

 


Récapitulatif des cartes aventuriers

Nom de l'aventurier

point pour
rué vers l'or

Point pour règlement de compte

Point au poker

Poker Paul

0

3

7

Sheriff Dooley

0

7

0

Jack Jennings

1

2

2

Jasmin Dooley

1

2

3

Joey Gun

1

3

3

Buffalo Johnson

1

3

4

Blind Joe

1

4

1

Jenny Cassidy

1

5

5

Joshua Tree

1

6

4

Joke Greenhorn

2

1

2

Tricky Jeff

2

1

4

Jacky Belle

2

2

2

Slim Jim

2

3

1

Janice Boone

2

3

2

Joseph Trigger

2

4

3

Blue Jack

3

1

1

Jolly Hopper

3

2

1

Jackson Bill

3

2

2

Jesse Frank

3

5

4

Killer Miller

3

6

5

Jonas Smiley

4

1

1

Greedy Geoff

4

2

1

Gamblin Jay

4

5

6

Jeremiah Jones

5

1

1

Nugget Jones

5

1

2

Lucky James

5

4

5

John Digger

6

1

3

Reverend Jon

6

4

6

Daddy Digger

7

4

0

 

 

Plateau de jeu (taille réelle = 56 x 13 cm)

 

plateau de jeu

"Gnadenlos" means "merciless" and yes, of course you can pronounce it. Just pull yourself together and think back to the Flanders and Swann record that your parents used to play when you were a kid: "I'm a gnu, agnother gnu, the gnicest work of gnature in the zoo.". German doesn't actually get difficult until you have to tackle "Pflanze", the only word I know that requires you to wrinkle your nose like a hamster.

Gnadenlos, like Bali, which is reviewed earlier in this issue, is one of Kosmos's new line of "small" multi-player games, where "small" refers to the size of the box. The game itself is as substantial as many that come in the standard sized package and it is simply a combination of the absence of a full-sized board and the sacrifice of all that empty space which publishers normally like to give you that has made the format possible.

The idea behind the game is that the players are boss figures in a Wild West town. In their employ are characters who are prepared to turn their hands to gold prospecting, gambling and gun fighting, activities which will bring wealth and prestige to their employers. The local economy runs on tick, or more precisely, on a system of promissory notes, which you hand over whenever a character comes to work for you. When the number of IOUs in circulation reaches a certain level, some of them will get called in and at that point you need to have the money to cover your obligations. Failure to do so results in a loss of prestige (victory points).

Each player has 13 promissory notes with values in the range 0 to 4. (The '0' card is there to enable you to bid 'zero' in the auction phases.). Eleven of these cards are in your hand at this point and the other two are already "in circulation". The cards in circulation are arranged, face down and as evenly as possible, in rows of six along the edge of the board. Each position in the row corresponds to one of the numbers on the 6-sided die which will be used later to determine which IOUs have to be redeemed when "payday" comes round. The only other thing you are given at this point is 10 gold nuggets. You will have some adventurers working for you by the time the game gets properly under way, but these are people you will have to hire and that means you will be handing over more IOUs to add to the rows at the side of the board.

The rest of the game equipment consists of various markers, a board showing the prestige track, and two sets of cards: one for the adventurers and the other a collection of seven 'events'. The event cards are shuffled and placed face down in the appropriate place on the board. Then as many pairs of adventurer cards as there are players are dealt face up. Players will bid for these. Each player will get one of the pairs, but the high bidder will have first choice. Bidding is a once round affair and a bid consists of between 1 and 3 promissory notes, whose combined value constitutes your bid. You can't match an earlier player's bid and you can't pass, though you can (provided somebody else hasn't already done it) use your 0 card to bid zero.

A player turn has three phases. In the first, an event card is turned up and the event executed. Next, the player on turn has the option of paying gold to move forward on the prestige track. Finally, there is the possibility that more adventurer cards will be put up for auction.

The event deck has seven cards: three 'prospecting', two 'card games' and two 'gun fights'. The procedure is the same in all cases: each player plays one of their adventurer cards and the ratings of the adventurers for this particular type of event are compared. If the event card was 'prospecting', it will show two numbers, each of which represents gold nuggets. The player (or players) who played the adventurer card(s) with the highest 'prospecting' rating receives the higher number of nuggets; those who played cards with the second highest rating receive the lower number. Anyone below this gets nothing. With card games the player of the card with the top rating moves forward on the prestige track; the one who played the lowest moves back. How far forward or how far back depends on where you are on the track: the closer you are to the finishing post, the lower the reward for winning the card game and the higher the penalty for losing it. Gunfights are more brutal. Here the winner reclaims a couple of IOUs (which may or may not be their own, but which the player can reuse either way) from the side of the board; the loser's character is dealt with by the undertaker (card discarded). With all three types of event the card played by the winner of the event is also discarded, so you don't have the situation where the same few powerful cards dominate the entire game. Other players reclaim the cards (except for the loser of a gunfight).

Paying gold to move forward on the track is straightforward: one space per nugget paid, up to a maximum of 5. Deciding whether to take the option is less so. On the one hand victory goes to whoever is furthest round the track when the game ends and so any progress looks like a good idea, but on the other you have the higher penalties and poorer rewards that go with the gambling games when you are further forward, and also the fact that money is tight and the penalties for failure to redeem your IOUs on paydays are unpleasant.

To complete their turn the player counts the number of adventurer cards remaining in their hand. If this is less than three, some more are put up for auction. The number put up is one less than the number of players and the auction procedure is the same as the one described earlier, save that this time you are bidding for single cards rather than pairs and the lowest bidder is going to miss out. Any cards bid by successful bidders are added to the rows at the side of the board and as soon as the number of completed rows equals or exceeds the number of players, everyone gets nervous because it is now a payday and you, as the boss figures, are the ones who will be doing the paying.

When a payday occurs the active player rolls a die and turns over the first card in the corresponding column of the array. The player whose IOU this is must redeem it by paying the appropriate amount of gold to the bank and reclaiming the card. The die is then rolled again and the redeeming process repeated. This continues until either all the cards in one column have been redeemed or until one player finds themself with insufficient money to pay off the latest demand. If the second of these occurs, the player concerned receives a 'vulture' marker and moves back five spaces on the prestige track. In either case the remaining face-down IOU cards are shuffled up to fill the gaps that have been created and the game then continues.

The game ends when one of three situations occurs:

1. A player receives their third vulture marker.

2. The seventh gunfight card is turned up.

3. A player reaches the finishing space on the prestige track.

With the first of these the game ends immediately; with the other two there is a final payday. A player who has picked up three vulture markers automatically loses. The others then have a final opportunity to pay gold in order to move forward (a maximum of 3 spaces this time) and the one who is furthest forward after this wins.

When I saw the components (more nice work from Franz Vohwinkel) and read the rules I was quite excited. The theme is attractive; there are some original ideas; the mechanics mesh logically with the story line and the alternative endings carry the promise of varying strategies. The event was more disappointing. Some games play better than they read; this one read better than it plays. The system turns out to be one that kicks you when you're down, where survival seems to be your primary aim and where strategy often consists of keeping your fingers crossed and hoping that someone else will collect the kick in the crotch. Whether winning or losing -- and I have experienced both with this game -- I don't find that sort of experience very entertaining.

It is not the tightness of the money side that I find dispiriting. Indeed, that part of the design is essential to the whole game and the problems that it presents to the players are quite interesting. You have to have the vulture tokens and you have to have the fact that receipt of one of them is a likely end to a payday or the game becomes yet another gentle trundle along a victory point track. I also don't mind the inevitable elements of good and bad fortune that go with the dice rolling. What gets to me is the way that the card supply tends to work. You lose a card every time you win an action or lose a gunfight. It is clear that you need to replace them and equally clear that you are better off with a few cards than with just one or two. This is the reason why there is a phase three in a player turn, which enables you to bring extra cards into the game if you are short-handed. But note how the auction works: it is a 'once round' system and the active player has to bid first. Let us suppose that this is a 3-player game and that the two cards turned up are Gamblin Jay, whose ratings are 4-5-6, and Joke Greenhorn, ratings 2-1-2. The first of these is a very good card; the second a very bad. The high bidder will get Jay; the second highest bidder will get Joke. The active player, the one who needs to replenish their hand, has no good course of action open. Bid low and you are giving up on the good card; bid high and one of the later bidders will top your bid, leaving you having paid a high price for rubbish. Games of this type work best if they have an ebb and flow: you build up resources, use them to make a play and then rebuild. With Gnadenlos that doesn't happen. Once you find yourself in a hole the system tends to keep you there. And it is not just because of the auction; the game has other ways of kicking you when you are down. Remember the gunfights? Suppose that you have been reduced to a single card and that it is John Digger. He is excellent as a prospector, average as a card player and hopeless as a gunfighter. If the next event card turned up is a gunfight, he dies, because the rules say that you must participate in each event and he is the only card you can play. A better device for souring the way someone feels about a game would be hard to devise.

The game therefore is a disappointment as it stands, but if you either already have the game or fancy it anyway, I would suggest the following rule changes as a possible fix:

1. Gunfights: If a player is down to one card, they can opt out of a gunfight. If they do this, they move back one space on the prestige track. Option: if one or more players has opted out of a gunfight, the penalty for the loser is one space on the prestige track, rather than loss of the card.

2. Auctions: The active player turns up the cards as usual, but they will be auctioned one at a time. The auction is still once round in a clockwise direction, but the active player may choose whether to bid first or last. Option: Decide before the game starts whether a player can buy more than one card in a round. Option: Decide before the game starts whether these auctions are conducted on a 'first card first' or a 'best card first' basis. If the latter, you will need a method of valuing the cards. My suggestion would be that you add twice an adventurer's best rating to the sum of their other two. So, for example, Gamblin Jay on 4-5-6 would be rated at 21, John Digger on 6-1-3 would be a 16 and Joke Greenhorn on 2-1-2 would be a 7. The active player would decide in the event of ties.

Go West, young man, loaded with promissory notes to hire Adventurers for your dirty work. Adventurers, won at auctions, have numbered skills in Poker, Pistols, and Prospecting. Event Cards determine Adventurers' conflicts each round. The winner's employer earns gold or Prestige Points; the luckiest losers return to their bosses. At intervals, some spent promissory notes are randomly chosen; owners unable to meet the payment lose considerable Prestige. You can buy Prestige with gold, but awaiting paydays encourages caution. Win by riding to the Prestige track's end, or by being ahead when the Undertaker has seen enough gunfights!

Gnadenlos !

Spéculation

 

Auteur :

Klaus Teuber

Editeur :

Kosmos

Date de sortie :

2001

Durée :

30 mn

Nombre de joueurs :

3 à 4

 

Description du jeu

L'installation du jeu Gnadenlos ! commence par le placement au centre de la table de l'éternelle piste de score. Celle-ci à la particularité de proposer des cases en deçà de la case de départ (les joueurs peuvent marquer des points négatifs) et au delà de la case d'arrivée (les joueurs peuvent se doubler sur le fil). A côté de la piste de score se trouvent la piste de sept cases du pion Croque-mort et le talon des cartes d'événement.

Chaque joueur reçoit dix pions Pépite et un jeu de treize cartes Dette à sa couleur. Les cartes Dette valent de 0 à 4 points et vont servir à acheter des cartes Aventurier : à certains moments de la partie, les joueurs devront honorer leurs dettes, c'est à dire racheter leurs cartes jouées avec des pépites.

Les cartes Aventurier, au nombre de 29, représentent des.. aventuriers. Chaque aventurier est caractérisé par trois valeurs : son savoir-faire de chercheur d'or, sa dextérité au pistolet et sa maîtrise du poker. Ces valeurs s'échelonnent de 0 à 7 ; certains aventuriers sont spécialisés avec une forte valeur dans une des trois catégories, d'autres sont au contraire sont moyens partout et quelques rares sont talenteux dans tous les domaines. Au début de la partie, on étale face visible autant de couples d'aventuriers qu'il y a de joueurs. Ces couples vont constituer, après enchères, la main de départ des joueurs.

Les enchères se déroulent en un seul tour : chaque joueur à tour de rôle pose devant lui la ou les deux ou trois cartes Dette constituant son offre. Le total des offres doit toujours être différents. Le joueur qui a misé le plus commence à choisir et ainsi de suite. Les cartes Dette jouées sont posées face cachées à côté de la piste de score de manière à constituer des rangées de six cartes

Tour du jeu

Un premier joueur est désigné pour commencer. De fait, tout le monde joue en même temps ; le joueur en phase a le privilège d'être le dernier à poser son offre au cours des enchères.

Un joueur commence son tour en retournant la première carte du talon des cartes d'événements. Il y a trois types d'événements : Ruée vers l'or, Duel et Partie de poker. Quelque soit le type d'événements, les joueurs posent devant eux un de leurs aventuriers face cachée et tous les cartes sont dévoilées en même temps. La valeur de l'aventurier dépend du type d'événement : c'est le savoir-faire de chercheur d'or qui compte pour les ruées vers l'or, la dextérité au pistolet pour les duels, etc. Le ou les joueurs avec les aventuriers les plus forts gagnent le bénéfice de l'événement :

Les joueurs gagnants défaussent leurs cartes, ainsi que le ou les joueurs perdant (avec la carte la plus faible) dans le cas d'un duel. Les autres joueurs reprennent leurs cartes en main. Enfin, si l'événement est un duel, le pion Croque-mort est avancé d'une case sur sa piste et s'il ne reste plus qu'une carte d'événement dans le talon, elles sont toutes remélangées.

L'événement joué, le joueur en phase peut dépenser jusqu'à cinq pépites pour avancer d'autant de cases sur la piste de score.

Ensuite, si le joueur en phase a moins de trois aventuriers, il est mis aux enchères autant de cartes aventuriers que le nombre de joueurs moins un. Les enchères se déroulent comme au début du jeu, sauf que le joueur qui a misé le moins ne gagne aucun aventurier et récupère ses cartes Dette. Les cartes Dette utilisées pour l'enchère sont posées à la suite de celles précédemment jouées afin de constituer des rangées de six cartes.

Jour de paie

Si à la fin d'une enchère, il y a autant de rangées de six complètes qu'il y a de joueurs autour de la table, on procède à un jour de paie. On jette alors un dé qui désigne une colonne et on retourne la carte Dette de cette colonne dans la rangée constituée en dernier. Le joueur dont c'est la carte doit immédiatement (et obligatoirement) payer autant de pépites que la valeur de la carte pour la récupèrer. On jette à nouveau le dé pour désigner une autre colonne et ainsi de suite. Le jour de paie s'arrête dans deux cas :

  1. le dé désigne une colonne vide, c'est à dire où toutes les cartes Dette ont été retournées ;
  2. un joueur n'a pas le nombre de pétites suffisant pour récupérer sa carte ; il recule alors de cinq cases sur la piste de score et reçoit un jeton Vautour.
Fin de la partie

La partie prend fin lorsqu'une des trois conditions suivantes est remplie :

  1. un joueur reçoit son troisième jeton Vautour,
  2. un joueur atteint la case d'arrivée de la piste de score,
  3. le pion Croque-mort arrive sur la septième et dernière case de sa piste.

Dans les deux derniers cas, un dernier jour de paie a lieu. Les joueurs peuvent ensuite dépenser jusqu'à trois pépites pour avancer un peu plus sur la piste de score. Le joueur le plus avancé gagne la partie, à condition qu'il n'ait pas accumulé trois jetons Vautour.

In Gnadenlos!, players arrive at a boom town in the Wild West. The goal here is to have the most prestige points by game end. Players hire mercenaries to work for them, panning for gold, gunslinging and playing poker. Since the player has no cash flow, these mercenaries are hired with IOU's.....And only *hope* they can acquire enough cash to pay these ruffians off when the time comes! Players bid on the ruffians that will work for them. The ruffians have a rating for each event: Gold Fever, High Noon and the Poker Game.

The outcome of each event is determined separately. Place the ruffian card face down. Players turn the cards over simultaneously. The ruffian with the highest rating for that event wins the event. For Gold Fever, winner and second place acquire gold, either gaining prestige points or paying off debts. In High Noon, the winner picks up two IOU's, but the loser is killed and loses that ruffian card. The Undertaker (the game timer) advances one space along his track. For the Poker Game, the winner moves forward along the prestige track, whereas the loser moves backwards.

IOU cards are placed beside the board, beside one of six dice symbols (1-6). When the same number of IOU rows are filled as there are players, PAY DAY happens........And you'd better hope you can pay up, partner!!! Roll a dice. The card beside the corresponding dice number is revealed; the player responsible for that IOU must cough up his $$$. Dice continue to roll, either until all the cards beside one dice symbol have been turned up, or a player cannot pay his debt. If a player cannot pay up, he receives a vulture chip and is forced back five spaces on the prestige track.

The game ends if: a) a player acquires three vulture chips, b) a player reaches the end of the prestige track or c) the Undertaker the end of his track. The player with the most prestige, wins!

GNADENLOS

Kosmos
3-4 players, 30-40 minutes
designed by
Klaus Teuber
reviewed by
Stuart Dagger

``Gnadenlos'' means ``merciless'' and yes, of course you can pronounce it. Just pull yourself together and think back to the Flanders and Swann record that your parents used to play when you were a kid: ``I'm a gnu, agnother gnu, the gnicest work of gnature in the zoo.''. German doesn't actually get difficult until you have to tackle ``Pflanze'', the only word I know that requires you to wrinkle your nose like a hamster.

Gnadenlos, like Bali, which is reviewed earlier in this issue, is one of Kosmos's new line of ``small'' multi-player games, where ``small'' refers to the size of the box. The game itself is as substantial as many that come in the standard sized package and it is simply a combination of the absence of a full-sized board and the sacrifice of all that empty space which publishers normally like to give you that has made the format possible.

The idea behind the game is that the players are boss figures in a Wild West town. In their employ are characters who are prepared to turn their hands to gold prospecting, gambling and gun fighting, activities which will bring wealth and prestige to their employers. The local economy runs on tick, or more precisely, on a system of promissory notes, which you hand over whenever a character comes to work for you. When the number of IOUs in circulation reaches a certain level, some of them will get called in and at that point you need to have the money to cover your obligations. Failure to do so results in a loss of prestige (victory points).

Each player has 13 promissory notes with values in the range 0 to 4. (The `0' card is there to enable you to bid `zero' in the auction phases.). Eleven of these cards are in your hand at this point and the other two are already ``in circulation''. The cards in circulation are arranged, face down and as evenly as possible, in rows of six along the edge of the board. Each position in the row corresponds to one of the numbers on the 6-sided die which will be used later to determine which IOUs have to be redeemed when ``payday'' comes round. The only other thing you are given at this point is 10 gold nuggets. You will have some adventurers working for you by the time the game gets properly under way, but these are people you will have to hire and that means you will be handing over more IOUs to add to the rows at the side of the board.

The rest of the game equipment consists of various markers, a board showing the prestige track, and two sets of cards: one for the adventurers and the other a collection of seven `events'. The event cards are shuffled and placed face down in the appropriate place on the board. Then as many pairs of adventurer cards as there are players are dealt face up. Players will bid for these. Each player will get one of the pairs, but the high bidder will have first choice. Bidding is a once round affair and a bid consists of between 1 and 3 promissory notes, whose combined value constitutes your bid. You can't match an earlier player's bid and you can't pass, though you can (provided somebody else hasn't already done it) use your 0 card to bid zero.

A player turn has three phases. In the first, an event card is turned up and the event executed. Next, the player on turn has the option of paying gold to move forward on the prestige track. Finally, there is the possibility that more adventurer cards will be put up for auction.

The event deck has seven cards: three `prospecting', two `card games' and two `gun fights'. The procedure is the same in all cases: each player plays one of their adventurer cards and the ratings of the adventurers for this particular type of event are compared. If the event card was `prospecting', it will show two numbers, each of which represents gold nuggets. The player (or players) who played the adventurer card(s) with the highest `prospecting' rating receives the higher number of nuggets; those who played cards with the second highest rating receive the lower number. Anyone below this gets nothing. With card games the player of the card with the top rating moves forward on the prestige track; the one who played the lowest moves back. How far forward or how far back depends on where you are on the track: the closer you are to the finishing post, the lower the reward for winning the card game and the higher the penalty for losing it. Gunfights are more brutal. Here the winner reclaims a couple of IOUs (which may or may not be their own, but which the player can reuse either way) from the side of the board; the loser's character is dealt with by the undertaker (card discarded). With all three types of event the card played by the winner of the event is also discarded, so you don't have the situation where the same few powerful cards dominate the entire game. Other players reclaim the cards (except for the loser of a gunfight).

Paying gold to move forward on the track is straightforward: one space per nugget paid, up to a maximum of 5. Deciding whether to take the option is less so. On the one hand victory goes to whoever is furthest round the track when the game ends and so any progress looks like a good idea, but on the other you have the higher penalties and poorer rewards that go with the gambling games when you are further forward, and also the fact that money is tight and the penalties for failure to redeem your IOUs on paydays are unpleasant.

To complete their turn the player counts the number of adventurer cards remaining in their hand. If this is less than three, some more are put up for auction. The number put up is one less than the number of players and the auction procedure is the same as the one described earlier, save that this time you are bidding for single cards rather than pairs and the lowest bidder is going to miss out. Any cards bid by successful bidders are added to the rows at the side of the board and as soon as the number of completed rows equals or exceeds the number of players, everyone gets nervous because it is now a payday and you, as the boss figures, are the ones who will be doing the paying.

When a payday occurs the active player rolls a die and turns over the first card in the corresponding column of the array. The player whose IOU this is must redeem it by paying the appropriate amount of gold to the bank and reclaiming the card. The die is then rolled again and the redeeming process repeated. This continues until either all the cards in one column have been redeemed or until one player finds themself with insufficient money to pay off the latest demand. If the second of these occurs, the player concerned receives a `vulture' marker and moves back five spaces on the prestige track. In either case the remaining face-down IOU cards are shuffled up to fill the gaps that have been created and the game then continues.

The game ends when one of three situations occurs:

1. A player receives their third vulture marker.

2. The seventh gunfight card is turned up.

3. A player reaches the finishing space on the prestige track.

With the first of these the game ends immediately; with the other two there is a final payday. A player who has picked up three vulture markers automatically loses. The others then have a final opportunity to pay gold in order to move forward (a maximum of 3 spaces this time) and the one who is furthest forward after this wins.

When I saw the components (more nice work from Franz Vohwinkel) and read the rules I was quite excited. The theme is attractive; there are some original ideas; the mechanics mesh logically with the story line and the alternative endings carry the promise of varying strategies. The event was more disappointing. Some games play better than they read; this one read better than it plays. The system turns out to be one that kicks you when you're down, where survival seems to be your primary aim and where strategy often consists of keeping your fingers crossed and hoping that someone else will collect the kick in the crotch. Whether winning or losing -- and I have experienced both with this game -- I don't find that sort of experience very entertaining.

It is not the tightness of the money side that I find dispiriting. Indeed, that part of the design is essential to the whole game and the problems that it presents to the players are quite interesting. You have to have the vulture tokens and you have to have the fact that receipt of one of them is a likely end to a payday or the game becomes yet another gentle trundle along a victory point track. I also don't mind the inevitable elements of good and bad fortune that go with the dice rolling. What gets to me is the way that the card supply tends to work. You lose a card every time you win an action or lose a gunfight. It is clear that you need to replace them and equally clear that you are better off with a few cards than with just one or two. This is the reason why there is a phase three in a player turn, which enables you to bring extra cards into the game if you are short-handed. But note how the auction works: it is a `once round' system and the active player has to bid first. Let us suppose that this is a 3-player game and that the two cards turned up are Gamblin Jay, whose ratings are 4-5-6, and Joke Greenhorn, ratings 2-1-2. The first of these is a very good card; the second a very bad. The high bidder will get Jay; the second highest bidder will get Joke. The active player, the one who needs to replenish their hand, has no good course of action open. Bid low and you are giving up on the good card; bid high and one of the later bidders will top your bid, leaving you having paid a high price for rubbish. Games of this type work best if they have an ebb and flow: you build up resources, use them to make a play and then rebuild. With Gnadenlos that doesn't happen. Once you find yourself in a hole the system tends to keep you there. And it is not just because of the auction; the game has other ways of kicking you when you are down. Remember the gunfights? Suppose that you have been reduced to a single card and that it is John Digger. He is excellent as a prospector, average as a card player and hopeless as a gunfighter. If the next event card turned up is a gunfight, he dies, because the rules say that you must participate in each event and he is the only card you can play. A better device for souring the way someone feels about a game would be hard to devise.

The game therefore is a disappointment as it stands, but if you either already have the game or fancy it anyway, I would suggest the following rule changes as a possible fix:

1. Gunfights: If a player is down to one card, they can opt out of a gunfight. If they do this, they move back one space on the prestige track. Option: if one or more players has opted out of a gunfight, the penalty for the loser is one space on the prestige track, rather than loss of the card.

2. Auctions: The active player turns up the cards as usual, but they will be auctioned one at a time. The auction is still once round in a clockwise direction, but the active player may choose whether to bid first or last.
Option: Decide before the game starts whether a player can buy more than one card in a round.
Option: Decide before the game starts whether these auctions are conducted on a `first card first' or a `best card first' basis. If the latter, you will need a method of valuing the cards. My suggestion would be that you add twice an adventurer's best rating to the sum of their other two. So, for example, Gamblin Jay on 4-5-6 would be rated at 21, John Digger on 6-1-3 would be a 16 and Joke Greenhorn on 2-1-2 would be a 7. The active player would decide in the event of ties.

 

Opinions de joueu(r)(se)

Gnadenlos ! marque à ma connaissance le retour de Klaus Teuber à d'autres jeux que ceux de la gamme des Colons de Katäne. Sans être un coup de maître, Gnadenlos ! est un jeu bien agréable où, consciemment ou non, Klaus Teuber se joue des deux standards du jeu allemand : les enchères et la piste de score.

Sur la piste de score, tout d'abord, où les occasions de reculer sont plus nombreuses que celles d'avancer. Pour gagner en atteignant l'arrivée, un joueur va devoir dépenser de précieuses pétites tout en achetant des aventuriers doués au poker qui ne lui rapporteront pas grand chose mais le préviendront des reculs subits (en effet, si un joueur se trouve dans les quatres dernières cases avant l'arrivée, gagner au poker le fait avancer d'une case et perdre le fait reculer de quatre). Ses adversaires devront faire vite pour provoquer un jour de paie qui peut être dévastateur.

Sur les enchères, ensuite, car les cartes Dette sont une trouvaille très amusante. Tant que la perspective du jour de paie arrive, on peut les dépenser tout à loisir et faire grimper les prix. Mais lorsque le jour de paie, les dégâts peuvent être considérables (d'ailleurs, les joueurs débutants ne comprennent l'intérêt de Gnadenlos ! qu'après le premier jour de paie). Comme les cartes sont tirées au hasard, un joueur tant soit peu audacieux peut espérer que c'est le voisin qui va se retrouver en défaut de paiement.

J'apprécie également les différentes conditions de fin de partie. Le pion Croque-mort permet d'éviter que la partie s'éternise et l'existence des jetons Vautour permet de développer une stratégie dépensière basée sur l'idée suivante : « qu'importe que je sois encore sur la case de départ en fin de jeu si les autres ont des points négatifs ! ».

Great fun. A lot of tension on payday. A Teuber-game that really has 'no mercy' on its players  

Lots of choices in another bidding game using cards, but with winning card goes out element. Never seem to reach fame gaol before bankrupcy strikes. 

I like it but others in my group think that it's an average game at best. 

A rather nice little game, fairly short, nice tension. Good strategy in the bidding rounds, with the random call-ins of the IOUs adding a nice bit of excitement. Well done, recommended. 

Nice filler game. Fun theme, cute gold nuggets. Trying to balance acquiring adventurers and giving out your IOU's is fun. Payday can be brutal!!! 

Only played once, but I look forward to another round.  

"The Luck Of Roaring Camp." Nice theme. The cards, vultures, and especially the payday is fun. We don't like memorizing the IOU layout, so we play with face up IOUs. 

Solid Klaus Teuber game themed on a Wild West town. Players are western dudes trying to climb the prestige ladder by recruiting hired help. The hired help are a deck of character cards, each one having a rating in gold mining (fill your coffers), poker games (more prestige) or gunfighting (don't pay your IOU's). You use your IOU's to pay for the help, but may have to pay them back via a random dice driven "pay day". A mish-mash of mechanics turns out to be a pretty good 45 minute game.  

Chaotic, but we all had a good laugh. Although Jeff always helps with that. Mightn't go so well if the players are too serious about it. Go with the flow - play cards, get drunk, shoot a few people - just don't run out of money. 

Ugh! I really WANTED to like this game, but it seems to be simply a matter of surviving long enough for the other players to be eliminated from the game first. 

reviews

J'ai acheté ce jeu au hasard pour voir et en fait il a été la révélation de la soirée. On a joué plusieurs parties d'affilées avec chaque fois la phrase "allez on s'en refait une !". Donc je pense et je trouve que c'est un bon jeu. Par contre il n'est pas simple à expliquer car il y a de nombreux mécanismes impliqués.

La boîte a un format inhabituel (1/2 grosse boîte de chez Kosmos) mais tant mieux c'est plus facile à ranger. On y trouve: un plateau de jeu tout en longueur qui représente une rue d'une ville du Far West, des cartes (personnages, actions, dettes, aide de jeu), 4 pions en carton (1 pour chaque joueur), un pion croque-mort, des pépites d'or, un dé à 6 faces, des pions vautours marqués ­5, et un marqueur de premier joueur.

Même si le plateau de jeu semble petit, il faut une grande table pour jouer à Gnadenlos car au cours du jeu les cartes dettes s'accumulent le long d'un coté du plateau sous forme de rangées. Sur le plateau on trouve représenté la piste du prestige. C'est sur cette piste que chaque joueur devra avancer le plus loin possible pour gagner (but du jeu). Sur un des bord du plateau on voit symbolisé les 6 faces du dé (1, 2, 3 etc...). En regard de ces symboles s'accumuleront les cartes dettes. Enfin, il y a une piste spéciale pour le croque-mort qui s'il arrive au bout termine la partie (mais ce n'est qu'un des 2 moyens de terminer la partie).

Au départ chaque joueur reçoit: des pépites, un lot de 13 cartes "dette" à sa couleur (valeur de 0 à 4), et place son pion sur la case départ.
Ensuite on va proposer aux enchères autant de paires de carte personnage qu'il y a de joueurs (4 paires pour 4 joueurs). Les enchères se font en exposant 1, 2 ou 3 cartes dette. La plus forte enchère choisit sa paire et ainsi de suite. Les cartes dettes misées sont accumulées le long du plateau de jeu (face cachée) en formant donc des rangées en face des symboles des faces du dé. Mais attention, un jour il faudra les payer...
Les cartes personnages portent 3 symboles (duel, poker, or) avec une valeur de 0 à 7. Un personnage très fort aurait 7 partout. Ces valeurs serviront à régler les évènements correspondant. Lorsqu'un événement est retourné chaque joueur va jouer un personnage et la valeur la plus forte remporte l'événement et est défaussée.
Le tour d'un joueur est composé de 4 actions:

1) retourner un événement: il y a "L'or" permettant de gagner des pépites pour les deux joueurs ayant jouer le personnage avec les deux valeurs les plus fortes; il y a le " duel " permettant de récupérer 2 cartes dettes parmi celles accumulées au bord du plateau (le but est de se souvenir ou ont été placées les cartes des autres car ainsi on pourra miser avec celles ci alors qu'au moment de payer c'est le joueur de la couleur qui paye); le "poker" qui permet d'avancer sur la piste de prestige (mais aussi de reculer pour le personnage qui a la plus faible valeur !).
2) Payer pour avancer son pion sur la piste. Mais en général on garde ses pépites pour le "jour de paye" qui peut suivre.
3) Proposer un recrutement de personnage (si le premier joueur en a moins de 3). Dans ce cas on retourne un personnage de moins qu'il y a de joueurs et chaque joueur fait 1 seul tour d'enchère avec 1 à 3 cartes "dette" de sa main. Le plus fort choisit et pose ses cartes dette le long du plateau face cachée mais en montrant la valeur de la carte qu'il pause avant de la retourner. Et ainsi de suite. Il n'y a qu'un joueur qui ne pourra pas recruter de personnage ce qui peut constituer un handicap lors de la résolution de la phase événement.
4) Faire un "jour de paye" dès qu'autant de rangées de cartes "dette" que de joueurs sont complètées le long du plateau. Chaque rangée est composée de 6 cartes "dette", chacune posée en regard d'une des valeurs du dé. Le joueur lance le dé et retourne la carte "dette" de la colonne indiquée par le dé. La carte doit être payée par le joueur auquel elle appartient. Le dé est relancé jusqu'à ce qu'une colonne soit vide avec à chaque lancé de dé une carte à payer. C'est là que le bas blesse par ce que l'or est somme toute rare et que si on ne peut pas payer on gagne un pion vautour et on recule de 5 cases sur la piste de prestige. De plus au bout de 3 vautours on est éliminé.

Tout ca parait bien compliqué mais en fait le jeu tourne vraiment bien et on ne s'ennui jamais car à chaque phase tous les joueurs sont concernés. Le jeu est difficile à appréhender car il y plusieurs éléments à équilibrer et le hasard vient parfois mettre son grain de sel. Mais il est vraiment génial. On ne l'a testé qu'à 4 joueurs mais on a adoré.

Réglement de compte à OK Corral

Les cow-boys, les réglements de compte, l'Ouest américain, tous les ingrédients sont réunis dans Gnadenlos. Un jeu d'ambiance à nul autre pareil, avec un thème fort par l'auteur d'Entdecker et Löwenherz (on oublie les Colons). Gnadenlos est servi par un matériel de qualité, agréable à utiliser. Le système de jeu n'est pas très original, mais le jour de paie reste un moment incroyable.

Kosmos signe une nouvelle gamme de jeux: Spiele für viele (les jeux à plusieurs). L'optique de la gamme est de recréer des jeux simples "à la Colons de Katäne". Pour ouvrir le bal, c'est justement Teuber qui signe le premier de cette nouvelle collection. Teuber s'était fait assez discret dans le monde du jeu depuis 1997 et Lôwenherz qui avait décroché le deutscher spielepreis. Depuis, Teuber s'occupait des jeux pour enfant et du développement de la gamme Katäne. N'étant pas fan de cette dernière, je me languissais un peu de l'absence de cet auteur génial (Löwenherz, Entdecker, Drunter uns drüber, Adel verpflichtet...). Heureusement, le voici de retour avec Gnadenlos (impitoyable). Et là, on regrette ces 4 années d'absence. Car Gnadenlos est une petite merveille. Pour faire mentir "l'école allemande", Teuber nous sert un jeu où la mécanique et le thème sont intimement liés.

Les joueurs vont devoir gagner du prestige dans l'une des nombreuses villes champignons de la ruée vers l'or. Pour celà, il faudra embaucher quelques aventuriers et les utiliser à bon escient. Chaque aventurier possède 3 capacités notées entre 0 et 7: capacité à trouver de l'or, capacité à tirer au pistolet et capacité à tricher au poker (car tout bon joueur de poker qui se respecte doit savoir tricher).

Au début chaque joueur a 2 aventuriers et il pourra en acheter d'autres aux enchères au cours du jeu. Ensuite, a chaque tour de jeu, on retourne une carte: il y a 3 possibilités.

1- Ruée vers l'or: les joueurs jouent un aventurier face cachée et le retourne tous en même temps. L'aventurier avec la plus forte capacité en recherche d'or gagne le plus gros chiffre indiqué sur la carte, le deuxième, le deuxième chiffre en pépite d'or.
2- Duel au pistolet: chaque joueur joue un aventurier: l'aventurier avec la plus forte capacité au tir au pistolet remporte le duel, est défaussé et récupère 2 reconnaissances de dettes. Le perdant (celui avec la plus petite capacité de tir) est défaussé.
3- Partie de poker: l'aventurier avec le plus haut score fait avancer son propriétaire d'un certain nombre de cases (fonction de sa position), le perdant recule.

De plus, après chaque événement, tous les vainqueurs sont défaussés. 2 mécanismes font de ce jeu un jeu intéressant: lors des enchères, on ne paie pas les aventuriers, on leur donne des reconnaissances de dettes, qui vont s'aligner en rangées de 6 colonnes le long du plateau. Il est donc tout à fait possible d'avoir offert à ses aventuriers plus d'argent (au travers des reconnaissances de dettes) qu'on en possède. Ceci risque de poser un problème lors du jour de paie. Ce moment intervient dès que l'on a 3 ou 4 rangées de reconnaissance de dettes. On lance un dé, on retourne la dernière carte de la colonne correspondante, et le joueur a qui appartient cette carte (reconnaissance de dettes) paye le montant indiqué. Et on jette le dé aussi longtemps que nécessaire.

Deux cas peuvent alors se produire: une colonne se vide ou un joueur ne peut pas payer. Cette manière de procéder inclus un suspense qui va croissant au fur et à mesure que le jour de paie avance: l'argent en caisse diminue et ce foutu jour de paie n'en finit pas. Pourvu que ce ne soit pas moi qui perde le premier. Bien sur, cette tension nerveuse n'existe pas si on a pris soin de ne pas investir plus que ce que l'on a. Mais ça, c'est très diffcile.

De plus, le système d'enchère est très vicieux (quoique assez classique): on met aux enchères un aventurier de moins qu'il n'y a de joueurs: chacun fait une mise en reconnaissance de dettes face visible. Le joueur suivant peut offrir plus ou moins, mais pas la même valeur. Lorsque tous les joueurs ont misé, celui qui a offert le plus choisi son aventurier parmi ceux présents et ainsi de suite. Bien sur, les aventuriers sont très inégaux: certains sont très forts dans une capacité et nul à coté, d'autres sont nuls partout alors que d'autres sont forts partout. Avec ce système d'enchère, il est tout a fait possible d'avoir dépensé une forte somme mais de récupérer une daube. Les mauvais aventuriers peuvent servir, mais les bons sont toujours plus efficaces.

En définitive, Gnadenlos est un très bon jeu d'ambiance. En général, ce genre de jeu ne me plait guère. Mais là, les graphismes sympa, le thème original, porteur et pas du tout artificiel me font aimer ce jeu. Le suspense du jour de paie, le système d'enchère meurtrier, les prises de risque, la part de chance, tout ceci propulse Gnadenlos tout en haut de l'échelle des jeux d'ambiance. Surement mon préféré devant tous les autres. Cepandant, attention, si Gnadenlos est relativement simple, les règles peuvent être très déroutantes lors de la première partie.

4-star rating
Very nice little game

I was surprised by how nice and clever this game was. It's an obvious distant cousin to Teuber's classic, , but the meat of this one is in the bidding. Instead of bidding straight cash, you bid IOUs, which will then come due (or possibly not!) at some semi-random point in the future. So the game is about keeping yourself properly leveraged and skirting the edge of bankruptcy (or even going bankrupt when necessary). The 'payday' mechanism for calling in IOUs is very nice, tense, and exciting, as the die is rolled to see who is going to have to pay up.

This is a real gem which comes highly recommended. It's light-ish, significantly lighter than Adel Verpflichtet, I think, but has some nice strategy. It's easy to learn and teach, a lot of fun, just the right length, and even thematic! The only proviso is that it seems to work mainly with 4; I've played once with 3, and the balance seemed a bit off. Stick with 4 players, and you'll be in good shape.

3-star rating
Cute abstraction of the Old West

The idea of a game where your goal is to accumulate gold from digging, win poker games in the saloon, and have a few showdowns out in the street is appealing to me. It covers many of the myths of that period. Add in characters rated in each of the three areas, and you've got some flavor.

But that's where the flavor ends. Each type of contest (gold digging, poker, and gunfights) are abstract activities. Each player reveals one character from their stable, and the highest-rated one (in the particular area being fought) gets a reward. In all but the gold-chase, the lowest-rated character's owner incurs a penalty. These rewards and penalties are usually manifested in movement around the board.

First to the end wins. Of course, there's some money management involved (gold is precious) and you have to pay your 'hired guns' with something (in this case IOUs). At various points in the game, the bank gets greedy and starts calling in lots of IOUs (via dice rolls, so it's pretty random) which must be paid out in gold.

All in all, it's a nice bidding/money-management game with a theme of the Old West, but very little actual flavor in that regard. I'll buy it, but it won't be a top-shelf game.

 

GNADENLOS! (Merciless!)

Because the vultures are already waiting…

Translation by Bob Scherer-Hoock (Translator’s disclaimer: I am not a German speaker. The following is a computer-assisted translation. I have done this many times, learned a few things (even some of the language) and am reasonably confident of the results, but I can’t in all cases be certain I have translated all nuances correctly. (After all, ambiguities can be found even in one's native language) This will certainly make the German edition playable, but if someone more knowledgeable about the language comes along and says something should be read another way, then please believe them.)

 

Game components

1                     Game Board

29        Adventurers

52        Promissory notes (IOUs) in 4 colors

7          Event cards

4          Overview cards

9          Vulture-chips

37        Nugget chips: 25 – 1; 12  - 5

4          Player hats: red, green, blue, yellow

1          Undertaker hat: black

1          Revolver

1          Die

1          Professor Easy rule book (on the backside of this rule book)

 

What is the game about?

Gold, gold, gold at the Tuzza River!!!

Hordes of bold adventurers have heard the news A small gold prospecting city has sprung up. Everyone needs boots, shovels, and much, much whisky. However money is scarce!

 

So players enter this scene. We are intelligent! Instead of us doing the dirty work, we quickly print a few promissory notes and press them into the hands of the penniless adventurers.

 

As a return, these bold, skilled workers reward us with the gold they’ve found, or we profit from their shooting or card playing skills. Soon, gold nuggets fall into our laps!

The nuggets can be spent to help us move forward on the path to success, and to become the most respected citizen of Tuzza City.

 

There is a catch however! Someday, the promissory notes will be cashed in against our nuggets. If we don’t have sufficient nuggets life will be unmerciful, because the vultures are already waiting.

 

Before the first game:

- Carefully remove the nuggets, the hats, and the revolver from the cardboard frames.

- Put the hats and the revolver on their respective bases.

 

Game setup

- Place the game board in the middle of the table.

- The adventurer cards are shuffled and are stacked facedown beside the program.

- Each player draws 2 cards from this stack and takes them into their hand.

- Each player chooses a color and gets 13 promissory notes in that color with the values 0,1,2,3, and 4 and an overview card. The promissory notes are also taken into their hand and are hidden.

- Each player takes the hat in his/her color and puts it on the start space (the large gray horseshoe). The black hat is put on the start space for the undertaker (the circle with the undertaker's hat).

- From each player's hand take two promissory notes, one each of the values 1 and 2.

- Shuffle these promissory notes (with four players there will be 8 cards, with three players 6) and place them face down near the game board below the die numbers as in the illustration at the top of page 3 of the German game rules. (Translator's note: In the three-player game, there will then be one promissory note beside each die number; in the four-player game there will be a second row started with second promissory notes below the 1 and 2 die pictures.) This placing of promissory notes forms rows. Since a promissory note is assigned to each die number, a row can consist only of at most 6 cards. Once a row is filled with 6 cards, the next row is begun. These promissory note rows form the market.

 

- The event cards are shuffled and are placed face down on one of the two event spaces at one end of the game board.

- Each player gets 10 nuggets to start. The remaining nuggets are placed in reserve beside one of the narrow edges of the game board.

- The die and the revolver are kept ready at the side. The active player always gets the revolver.

 

Distribution of the first adventurers (advanced version game setup):

Whoever has played Gnadenlos once or twice before may want to start the game this way:

The following points may be used for the game setup

1.  At the beginning of the game no promissory notes in the values of "1" and "2" are distributed to the market.

2. The players do not draw adventurer cards. Instead the draw is replaced with the following rules:

 

- With three players 3 x 2 and with four players 4 x 2 adventurer cards are drawn. In each case two consecutively drawn adventurers form a pair.

- Bids are offered for the cards using promissory notes according to the rules described in the section "Promissory note offers". Each player makes a bid beginning with the player who makes the highest die roll. The other players follow clockwise. Whoever has made the highest bid can choose the first pair of adventurer cards. He/she then sets aside the promissory notes offered below the die-numbers of the program. He/she begins the first row of the market with these.

- In the descending sequence of the bids, the other players now take a pair of adventurers and put their promissory notes in the market area.

 

The game play

 

Roll the die to see who starts. The player whose turn it is gets the revolver. Each player's game turn is divided into 3 phases:

I. Perform the event

The player turns over an event card. The event is executed.

II. Buy prestige

The player can use nuggets to buy and move his/hers hat forward on the success track.

III. Offer promissory notes

If a player has fewer than 3 adventurers at the end of his/her turn, then this step is taken. If after this is completed the market contains as many full rows as there are players, then a payday occurs.

If a player has finished his/her turn, the next player in clockwise order receives the revolver.

 

I. Perform the event

- The player whose turn it is uncovers the top card on the event deck and places it face up on the second events space on the game board. There are following events:

Gold Fever

High Noon

Poker Game

 

To begin the event

- Each player must place one of his/her adventurer cards face down in front of them. Only if a player does not have an adventurer may he/she not take part in this event. If only one player possess an adventurer, the "Perform the event" phase is skipped.

- All players simultaneously uncover her/his adventurer. Now, the current event is played out.

 

A) Gold Fever

There are 3 different gold fever event cards. They differ only in the number of nuggets found on the cards. Whether an adventurer finds the nuggets depends on the gold number (the number beside the gold symbol) on the uncovered adventurer card.

 

- All players whose uncovered adventurer possesses the highest gold number, get the higher number of gold nuggets, the upper number, on the gold fever card. For the gold fever event card 7/4, this would be 7 nuggets.

- All players whose adventurer has the second-highest gold number get the number of nuggets that corresponds to the lower number on the gold fever. For the gold fever event card 7/4, this would be 4 nuggets.

- All other players receive nothing.

Example (from page 6 of the German rulebook): The gold fever event card 7/4 is drawn. Each player plays an adventurer. Player "red" gets 7 nuggets because her/his adventurer possesses the highest gold number. The "green" and "yellow" players each get 4 nuggets. The "blue" player goes home empty-handed.

 

B) High Noon

Before this event is executed, the undertaker must be moved forward 1 space. Whether an adventurer survives the "High Noon" successfully depends on his/her revolver number (the number beside the revolvers).

- If only one adventurer has played the highest revolver-number, he/she can take any 2 promissory notes from the market.

- If there are several players who have played an adventurer with the highest revolver-number, each of these players can take any 1 promissory note from the market.

- If there are not sufficient promissory notes for all to get one, then no one picks up any promissory notes.

- Whoever takes a promissory note from the market cannot look at it beforehand.

- Whoever takes a promissory note belonging to another player can use this for his/her own bids later in the game. At payday (See rule III) the player whose color is on the promissory note naturally is still the one who must pay the debt.

 

The player, whose turn it is, fills the gaps in the first rows of the market using his own discretion with promissory notes from the last row(s).

 

- All adventurers who have the lowest revolver-number are shot and these cards are discarded. (The first discarded adventurer forms the start of a discard pile.)

 

C) Poker Game

Whether an adventurer is good at the poker game depends on his/her card-number (the number beside the card symbol).

 

All players whose adventurers possess the highest card-number are the winners of the poker game. Players whose adventurers possess the lowest card-number are the losers. The success track on the game board is divided into four colored sections for the "poker game" event. Beside each section there is an identically colored card symbol that is assigned both a plus number and a minus number.

The plus number declares the number of spaces the winner may move his/her hat forward if the hat stands in that same color section.

The minus number declares the number of spaces the loser's hat must move back if his/her hat is in that same color section.

- Whoever wins, wins prestige and now advances his/her hat according to the plus number for the section he/she is currently in.

- Whoever loses, loses prestige and now moves his/her hat backwards according to the minus number for the section he/she is currently in.

 

Example (from page 8 in the German rulebook): The "blue" and "green" players are winners of the poker game. The "blue" player's hat stands in the gray section. He/she is therefore allowed to move

4 spaces forward; the "green" player's hat stands in the beige section. He/she is allowed to advance 3 spaces. The "red" is the loser of the poker game. He/she has to go back 1 space with his/her hat.

 

At the end of the events

All adventurers that were the highest numbers played in their respective events are discarded (in the example for the gold fever event the "red" player would have lost his/her adventurer). These adventurers have done their duty. All other players can take their adventurers back into their hand (except for the adventurers who were shot).

 

Attention: If it should happen that all players play adventurers with the same number for event in question, the event is not executed and the next event card is also not uncovered. The players take their adventurers back into their hands and the player whose turn it is continues.

 

Event cards are reshuffled

The last event  (the 7th card) is not executed. When a player draws the last event card, it is ignored and he/she shuffles all 7 event cards and draws the top card from the new deck.

But: If "High Noon" is drawn as the last event, the event is not executed but the undertaker is stilled moved forward one space.

 

II. Buy prestige

The player whose turn it is can trade nuggets for prestige. For each nugget that he/she pays from their reserve, he/she can move his/her hat forward one space on the success track.

But: A player is not allowed to move more than 5 spaces on one turn. Only when it is his/her next turn once again can he/she pay another 1-5 nuggets and can move his/her hat forward.

 

Example: The player with the color "red " pays 3 nuggets and moves his/her hat 3 spaces forward.

 

III. Offer promissory notes

If the player whose turn it is possesses fewer than 3 adventurers, he/she must execute this action. If he/she possesses 3 or more adventurers, this phase is skipped and it is the next player immediately takes his/her turn.

 

The player uncovers one less adventurer than the number of players participating. Consequently 3 cards are turned over in a four-player game, and 2 adventurers in the three-player game.

 

Beginning with the player whose turn it is, each player in clockwise order offers 1, 2, or 3 promissory notes face up in front of them. The following rules must be heeded:

- A player may not offer more than 3 promissory notes.

- A bid may also be lower than any that have gone ahead of it

- Each bid must differ from those that have come before it. The bid "0" can therefore only be used once each round.

- Each player must make a bid. He/she can pass only if he/she can make no bid with the promissory notes held that is in keeping with the previous rules. He/she must prove this by displaying his/her remaining promissory notes. He/she is then considered to have made the lowest bid, even automatically lower than a "0" bid.

 

- The player who has made the highest bid now chooses the first adventurer.

- He/she places the offered promissory notes face down in the last open row of the market; he/she may need to begin a new row as well. All other players proceed in the same sequence from highest to lowest bid as well:

- Adventurers chosen

- Promissory note(s) placed in the market.

Only the player with the lowest bid gets no adventurer. He/she takes his/her promissory notes back.

 

Example (from page 11 of the German rulebook): The "blue" player makes the first bid and places in front of him/her promissory notes with a value of 5. The "red", "yellow", and "green" players by placing bids of 4, 3, and 6, one after the other. The "green" player has the highest bid and with the first selection takes adventurer C. He/she takes the offered promissory notes and places them face down in the last row of the market and begins a new row as well. The "blue" chooses adventurer B and the "red" player adventurer A. Only the "yellow" players gets no adventurer; he/she, however, takes his/her offered promissory notes back into his/her hand.

 

If the stack of adventurers is depleted, the discard pile is shuffled and serves as the new deck.

 

III. a. Pay Day

A payday always occurs if the market has at least as many rows filled as there are players in the game. In the example at the right (bottom of page 11 in the German rulebook), there are 4 completed rows. That would mean that in a four-player game, this condition is filled.

The player whose turn it is conducts the payday as follows:

 

1) He/she rolls the die.

2) He/she turns over the last face down promissory note in the column corresponding to the number rolled.

3) The player to whom this promissory note belongs must pay as many nuggets as is displayed on the promissory note.

 

The player now repeats steps 1, 2, and 3 until:

A. He/she either the rolls the number of a column in which all promissory notes are already uncovered, or

B. A player has too few nuggets to pay the debt of an uncovered promissory note.

 

Example (from page 12 of the German rulebook): The player who is conducting payday rolls one "1" and uncovers the last promissory note in the column with the die number "1". A promissory note belonging to the  "blue" player appears. This player must pay 2 nuggets from his/her reserve. After this the player rolls a "3" and uncovers the last promissory note in the column with the die number "3". The "red" player must pay 3 nuggets from his/her reserve, etc.

 

These steps continue until case "A" occurs, a column number is rolled in which no promissory note can be uncovered and more and the pay day is finished. Or these steps continue until case "B" occurs and a player cannot pay off his/her promissory note. As a symbol for this loss of prestige, he/she takes a vulture.

 

For each vulture a player gets, he/she must move his/her hat back 5 spaces on the success track (but not beyond the last space). If a player cannot pay a promissory note, yet still has nuggets remaining, he/she is allowed to keep these.

 

In situation (1) (on page 13 of the German rulebook), the payday has been finished by the throw of 5 since all promissory notes of this column are uncovered. After paying their debts, all players take back their uncovered promissory notes into their hands again.

 

The player whose turn it is, at his/her own discretion, moves cards from the last rows to fill in gaps in the first rows (situation 2 on page 13 of the German rulebook). When finished there should be as many filled rows as is possible.

Important: If after this there are still as many filled rows as there are players, a pay day is again played out.

 

End of the game

If one of the following situations happens, the game ends:

A) Three vultures: A player gets his/her third vulture.

B) Undertaker reaches goal: The black hat reaches the last space of the undertaker track. This is true even if on the seventh event card a "High Noon" is uncovered. The event is not executed.

C) Player reaches goal: A player moves his hat on to or beyond the goal space (the large green horseshoe).

 

If the game is finished by situations B or C, a payday is played out one more time. A player who has received a third vulture has lost the game no matter what and his/her hat is taken off the success track.

No matter whether the game ends through situation A, B, or C, each player (with exception of a player who has received a third vulture) may move their hat up to 3 more spaces provided he/she can pay the necessary nuggets.

 

The winner is the player whose hat stands the farthest ahead on the success track. If players are tied, the winner is the player with the most nuggets.

 


Player Aid Cards

 

Events (beige side)

 

Gold Fever

Highest gold number: Gets the larger number of nuggets

Second-highest gold number: Gets the smaller number of nuggets

 

High Noon

Undertaker: Moves forward 1 space

Highest revolver-number:

Takes 2 (1 in case of a tie) promissory notes from the market

Lowest revolver-number:

Adventurer is shot, card is discarded

 

Poker Game

Highest card-number (winner):

Moves hat forward in accordance with the corresponding plus number

Lowest card-number (loser):

Moves hat backward in accordance with the corresponding minus number

 

True for each event:

Adventurers with highest number are placed on the discard pile

 

 

Game turn sequence (yellow side)

 

1. Perform the event

See the reverse (beige) side

 

2. Buy prestige

You may move forward 1 space per nugget paid on the success track, however no more than 5 spaces per turn.

 

If you possess fewer than 3 adventurers:

 

3. Offer promissory notes

- One adventurer less than the number of players is uncovered.

- Everyone offers up to 3 promissory notes.

- Successfully offered promissory notes are placed in the rows of the market.

 

If as many rows of the market are filled as players participating:

 

3a. Pay Day


SEQUENCE OF PLAY

 

1. Perform Event

    (See reverse)

 

2.  Buy Prestige

     You may move forward 1 space per nugget paid on the success track, however, no more than 5 spaces per turn.

 

If you possess fewer than 3 Adventurers:

 

3.  Offer Promissory Notes

     * One Adventurer less than the number of

        players is uncovered.

     * Everyone offers up to 3 Promissory Notes.

     * Successfully offered Promissory Notes are

        placed in the rows of the market..

 

If as many rows of the market are filled as players participating:

 

3a. Pay Day

 

EVENTS

 

GOLD FEVER

Highest Gold Number:: Gets larger number of Nuggets.

Second Highest Gold Number: Gets smaller number of Nuggets.

 

HIGH NOON

Undertaker: Moves forward 1 square

Highest Revolver Number: Takes 2 (1 if tied) Promissory Notes from the market

Lowest Revolver Number: Adventurer is shot, card is discarded

 

POKER GAMES

Highest Card Number: Moves hat forward in accordance with corresponding plus number

Lowest Card Number: Moves hat backward in accordance with corresponding minus number

 

TRUE FOR EACH EVENT

Adventurers with highest number are discarded

 

Notes personnelles: