Parsimonia

A game which simulates a free economy




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Components

Definitions

Game

Auction

Turn

Scoring

Miscellaneous


In Latin, "parsimonia" means "parsimony, stinginess".



The resource and tourists cards have not been created.



Components

Dollar cards ($1 * 20 cards, $2 * 20 cards, $5 * 20 cards, $10 * 20 cards, $20 * 20 cards, $50 * 20 cards, $100 * 20 cards, $200 * 20 cards): cards used to pay various things.

Resource cards (60 cards): cards which may be paired with tourists cards to make profit. Each resource card has a "Type" value; the type is a number from 1 to 5.

Tourists cards (60 cards): cards which may be paired, by type, with resource cards to make profit. There is a tourists card for each resource card, with the same type.



Definitions

Company = the generic owner of all the components of the game.

Card owner = a player who received card from the Company (or from another player), or the Company.

Draw a tourists card = a player may draw a tourists card from the tourists cards deck by taking a card from the top of the deck, when he can turn.



Game

The number of players of a game may be between 2 and 6. The order in which each player's turn comes is determined through initial agreement.

Each player receives 1'000 dollars.

The resource cards are shuffled and distributed to the players one by one for each player. These cards become owned by the players who receive them.

The tourists cards are shuffled and put in a deck with the face down. The players must not see the face of the cards, unless they are drawn (when it is allowed so).

All the other components of the game belong to the Company.

The players have maximum 15 minutes in which they may trade, through auction, their resource cards. After this time, the players must start turning.

A game play time is established now (for example, 2 hours). The game ends when this time passes, or when all players (who are still in the game) agree to end it, or when there is only one player left in the game.



Auction

An auction is a process where each player may bid an amount of dollars he is willing to pay in order to buy the auctioned card.

The player who starts the auction sets a starting price. He may decide who wins the auction, and thus the player who may buy the auctioned card.

Each player who makes a bid must bid an amount of dollars bigger than the amount of dollars bid by the previous player. The bid amount must be bigger than the starting price of the auction.

When a player quits the game, his cards go back to the Company. In this case, at every turn a player may start an auction for any of those cards, in the name of the Company. Such auctions are won by the player who bids (and pays to the Company) the highest amount of dollars. If no other player is bidding, the player who started the auction may take the auctioned cards for without paying anything. This player receives from the Company the cards he won.

Players may participate in auctions even when it's not their turn, but may start one only when it's their turn.

A player may bid for a tourists card only if he has a resource card with the same type (as the tourists card) which has no tourists card on.

A player may not bid more dollars than he has.



Turn

Each player has his turn, sequentially, when he must take certain steps, as described further. He may not switch the order of these steps.

The player has maximum 5 minutes to perform the various actions he is allowed; after this time, the player may not do anything more and the next player may turn. However, if the player started an auction which didn't end when the time limit occurred, the auction may continue until it ends (without the next player turning).

From the moment his turn begins, the player must draw a tourists card. The player may place this card on one of his resource cards with the same type (as the tourists card) which has no other tourists card on. In this case, the Company pays him an amount of dollars equal with the sum of the "Profit" values from those two resource and tourists cards.

If the player doesn't put the tourists card on one of his resource cards, he may sell it in an auction to another player. If no other player wants to buy the card then the player must put it on one of his resource cards which has no other tourists card on, but doesn't receive the profit. If he has a resource card with the same type as the tourists card, he must pair them, otherwise he may put the tourists card on any resource card.

When all resource cards of the player have a tourists card on them, all his tourists cards are removed from the resource cards they are on, and put aside until all tourists cards are drawn (at which point all tourists cards are shuffled again).

Then, the player may sell his resource cards in an auction.

After an action is performed, it may not be undone.



Scoring

The game is won by the player who has the biggest amount of dollars, at the end of the game. If more players have the same amount of dollars, they all win.



Miscellaneous

If a player doesn't follow the rules of the game, he is eliminated from the game; however, if no other player notices (by the time the next player turns) that a rule was broken, nothing happens.

A player may exit from the game at any time.

All the cards of a player who quits the game go back to the Company.

A player may give his dollars to other players, whenever he wants. If he intend to do this as a loan, he may not use force to get his dollars back.

Any action which is not forbidden by these rules, is allowed.







Copyright by George Hara