Think back to when you were a kid. What did you want to be when you grew up? My guess is that none of you wanted to be bean farmers. Not that there is anything wrong with being a bean farmer, but it just doesn't have the same appeal as being an astronaut, the president, a firefighter, or mid-level business professional who has already reached his glass ceiling and is just waiting to retire and die (don't judge!). Nope, bean farming just isn't sexy. Sorry.
One of the beautiful aspects of gaming is that it allows you to be something you aren't, do something interesting, momentous, exciting, or just simply different. You can be pharaoh, building your legacy out of gold and stone, expand your financial empire as a 19th century industrialist, pilot an X-Wing, taking on two Tie-Fighters at once (and living to tell about it), or head a ruthless alien race, destroying your piteous neighbors like some sort of galactic juggernaut. With games like these, why would anyone bother with bean farming? Well, Bohnanza may just change your mind.
In Bohnanza, you are all bean farmers trying to plant sets of like-typed beans, harvesting them, and turning them into gold. Honestly, even this sounds boring. But what I didn't tell you is that you can't rearrange your hand, which acts as a substantial roadblock to your beautifully laid plans. To get around this, you must work with your opponents, wheel and deal with them, in order to cultivate a productive bean farm. Through the course of the game, loose alliances are formed, promises are made and broken at a dizzying rate, and grudges evolve into open hostilities, where you shift your focus from trying to win the game to BURNING YOUR NEIGHBORS' FARMS TO THE GROUND!
Sorry, got a little carried away... What smoke? Oh, never mind that. It's probably just my neighbor having a barbecue... with the fire department. Umm... Let's keep talking about Bohnanza! A turn is broken into three phases: planting, market, and drawing cards.
One of the beautiful aspects of gaming is that it allows you to be something you aren't, do something interesting, momentous, exciting, or just simply different. You can be pharaoh, building your legacy out of gold and stone, expand your financial empire as a 19th century industrialist, pilot an X-Wing, taking on two Tie-Fighters at once (and living to tell about it), or head a ruthless alien race, destroying your piteous neighbors like some sort of galactic juggernaut. With games like these, why would anyone bother with bean farming? Well, Bohnanza may just change your mind.
In Bohnanza, you are all bean farmers trying to plant sets of like-typed beans, harvesting them, and turning them into gold. Honestly, even this sounds boring. But what I didn't tell you is that you can't rearrange your hand, which acts as a substantial roadblock to your beautifully laid plans. To get around this, you must work with your opponents, wheel and deal with them, in order to cultivate a productive bean farm. Through the course of the game, loose alliances are formed, promises are made and broken at a dizzying rate, and grudges evolve into open hostilities, where you shift your focus from trying to win the game to BURNING YOUR NEIGHBORS' FARMS TO THE GROUND!
Sorry, got a little carried away... What smoke? Oh, never mind that. It's probably just my neighbor having a barbecue... with the fire department. Umm... Let's keep talking about Bohnanza! A turn is broken into three phases: planting, market, and drawing cards.
Phase 1
You start by planting the first bean in your queued hand. This may involve ripping up one of your fields, which may be a real bummer because you start the game with only two available* (you can buy a third later). Then, you MAY plant the second bean from your hand. There you go. Phase one is complete. Pretty straightforward.
Phase 3
For the purposes of saving the best for last, let's talk about the third phase. You draw three cards, which get put into the back of your hand. This is where I tell players that this the ONLY time cards come into your hand. Cards attained by any other means are to be planted.
Phase 2
Phase two! This is where Bohnanza really shines. Flip over two cards from the draw pile. I call this the market. You can plant, trade or donate these beans. There are really only 3 rules (one that I slightly modified) that everyone must follow, but other than that, you are free to wheel and deal (and BURN) to your little heart's content:
- Once the dust settles, any cards in front of you must be planted. You can do so in any order, but you must follow the usual planting rules.*
- All trades must be directly with the active player, or brokered by the active player.**
- Planted cards cannot be traded. Cards in the market and cards in your hand are free to be traded.
And that's it! You know how to play Bohnanza! If this game is any indication, it's that theme isn't everything. Rather, what IS important is the space the game creates in which players can operate. You want a game in which you can outwit your opponent with your cleverness and cunning? Try a heavyweight Euro. Would you like to turn up the intensity dial up to a "ten"? Maybe try Pandemic. Want to vacillate between boredom and frustration? Try Dominion. Want a knock-down, drag-out fight with your opponents that will make you whine, beg and laugh more than you did all last month? Try Bohnanza. You'll be glad you did.
I hope this game inspires a new generation of bean farmers, maybe with less of a proclivity to commit arson.
Yay, footnotes!
*This is a rule that gets everyone confused, so I'll try to make sense of it here. You have two fields. If both fields have 2+ beans planted in each, you can pick either to rip up. Same goes for the person who has 1 or 0 beans planted in each field. The gotcha is when you have one field with 1 bean, and the other field has 2+ beans. In that case, you must rip up your 2+ field. This prevents someone from having a junker field that is being constantly ripped up, while having a nicely pruned, mature field right next to it. Aren't rules fun?
**Okay, so this is where I explain my homebrew rule. Technically, players may not indirectly trade with one another through the active player, who acts as the broker. This results in a purely hub and spoke trade situation, which can be a little boring. BUT if you allow for players to indirectly trade with one another, through the use of the active player/broker, things get a lot more chaotic and engagement soars through the roof, which is what I think this game is all about.***
***Yes, this is a footnote about a footnote. So, even though I will take full credit for this amazing house rule, I do have to be honest in that I came across it by accident. I read the rule wrong and had been inadvertently been playing this version of the game for quite some time. It was only much later, upon re-reading the rules, that I found out that we had been playing it "wrong". We then tried playing by the official rule, but we found it to be kind of dull compared to our house rule, so we switched back.
I hope this game inspires a new generation of bean farmers, maybe with less of a proclivity to commit arson.
Yay, footnotes!
*This is a rule that gets everyone confused, so I'll try to make sense of it here. You have two fields. If both fields have 2+ beans planted in each, you can pick either to rip up. Same goes for the person who has 1 or 0 beans planted in each field. The gotcha is when you have one field with 1 bean, and the other field has 2+ beans. In that case, you must rip up your 2+ field. This prevents someone from having a junker field that is being constantly ripped up, while having a nicely pruned, mature field right next to it. Aren't rules fun?
**Okay, so this is where I explain my homebrew rule. Technically, players may not indirectly trade with one another through the active player, who acts as the broker. This results in a purely hub and spoke trade situation, which can be a little boring. BUT if you allow for players to indirectly trade with one another, through the use of the active player/broker, things get a lot more chaotic and engagement soars through the roof, which is what I think this game is all about.***
***Yes, this is a footnote about a footnote. So, even though I will take full credit for this amazing house rule, I do have to be honest in that I came across it by accident. I read the rule wrong and had been inadvertently been playing this version of the game for quite some time. It was only much later, upon re-reading the rules, that I found out that we had been playing it "wrong". We then tried playing by the official rule, but we found it to be kind of dull compared to our house rule, so we switched back.