Klondike

A game of bluff and betting.

Published by Haba in 1993.
Invented by Stefanie Rohner and Christian Wolf.
Review by Catherine Soubeyrand.

~65 DM
2 to 4 players, 8 years and up
20-30 minutes
Rule book in English, German and French.

During the time of the Gold Rush, you went there to become as rich as possible. You have two ways to do that: by working hard panning for gold in the Yukon river or by making bets on the skill of others at panning gold and keeping nuggets in the pan!

Contents:

1 metal pan
6 wooden markers to mark the claim
4 wooden cups in 4 colours to keep the gold
4 wooden smaller cups for the bets
12 claim shares
16 bet cards
50 gold nugget
37 black pebbles
1 leather bag

All the components are of high quality adding to the pleasure of the game and of course to its price.

There is no gameboard as such, but the 6 wooden markers are gathered to form a hexagon outlining the claim. Players pan inside the hex, so the pebbles and the nuggets will remain inside it when they fall.

Each player receives at the beginning large and small wooden cups, 3 claim shares, 3 bet cards showing 0, 1, 2 and 4 nuggets as it initial fortune. All the pebbles and nuggets are put in the leather bag.

In turn each player draws three beads from the bag.

With 3 black pebbles, he wins nothings.
With 3 gold nuggets, he keeps two and gives one to the next player.
With a mix of gold and pebble, he has to pan so as to keep the gold.

It is not obvious to separate gold from pebbles only by creating a circular motion in a pan! A little training may be useful.

Before he starts to pan, the other players MUST make a bet on how many nuggets will remain in the pan. Each player chooses a card (0, 1, 2) and puts it hidden in front of him, above it he puts the wager cup with inside as gold nuggets as he wishes.

After the panning the bet cards are turned face up. The player panning player takes the gold from the pan and the wager cups from the incorrect players. But he gives gold to the players having done a correct bet. BUT if the pay off is impossible, the panning player takes all the gold!

If a player has no more gold, he has to exchange one of his claim share with the wealthy player against 4 nuggets. If he goes bankrupt and has no more claim share, he has lost and leaves the game.

The game ends when there is 0, 1 or 2 beads left in the bag. The player with the most nuggets wins, each share is worth 4 nuggets.

A special rule: use 4 bet cards and 4 beads for panning.

The great fun of the game is when panning. At the beginning players are not very efficient but soon they usually :) become skilled. The trick is to bluff so as the other players have hard time to guess how many nuggets will remain in your pan. It is easy to lure everyone by turning the pan face down and losing all the gold. If in spite all your efforts you have problems to keep gold in the pan, well you will lose lot of gold with the bets from the others.

Great!

The Game Cabinet - editor@gamecabinet.com - Ken Tidwell