Schwarzmarkt - Money plays no part! (Black Market) by Stefan Dorra Published by Amigo 1996 Translation by Richard Ingram For 3-5 players, aged 12 and upwards. Distributed from The Rules Bank by Mike Siggins Contents: 100 cards featuring luxury items of different values (chewing = 1, chocolate = 5, cigarettes =10, nylons = 50). 66 commodity cards (potatoes, coffee, flour, butter, sugar). 30 black market cards with commodities and events on. 1 board 1 price marker Idea of the game Each player tries to make his fortune with lucrative exchanges. He will always have to choose whether to trade at the current value or pursue a higher price. However, he who pushes for a higher price is not always successful. Until it is his turn again, things may change. The game ends after two rounds. Whoever has been able to exchange his goods most profitably will be the winner. Preparations Place the board on the table, with the price marker on the space with an arrow. It always starts here to begin a new round of exchanges. The marker shows the true exchange value of individual commodities. Sort out the 100 luxury item cards and lay them in piles for all to see near the board. Shuffle the black market cards. Deal 3 cards to each player, placing the rest face down on the marked space. With these cards you can influence the demand for particular goods for an exchange round in your favour. On the cards are either different commodities or a longer text. For the basic game, remove 2 flour cards and 4 potato cards so that each commodity appears 12 times and then shuffle the remaining 60 commodity cards. Deal 9 to each player and place the rest on the appropriate space. How to play: The first round When it is your turn you can exchange commodity cards for luxury items and must move the price marker. The start player must in addition play a black market card as his first action. Playing a black market card (only the start player) The player left of the dealer starts and is the start player for the first exchange round. He chooses a black market card and places it near the board face up. He draws a replacement card. A face up card with text is valid until its instructions are carried out. An offer card is valid for a whole exchange round. Example 1: Alwin is the start player. He has two offer cards and one with text on it. He lays the card with 2 sacks of potatoes - 2 pounds of butter on it near the board and draws a replacement. Exchanging goods The start player now has the choice of exchanging no, one, more or all of the stated commodity cards. If he wants to exchange he lays the appropriate card(s) near the black market card. He takes the actual exchange value in luxury items. Example 2: With the price marker standing on the '1' space, Alwin decides not to exchange. Raising the price Now the player must move the price marker, regardless of whether he exchanged or not. If he exchanged, it moves only one space. If he did not, it must be moved one or more spaces. The distance depends on the die symbol on the price space on which the marker stands. This number is the maximum number of spaces to move the marker. Example 3: From the start space, the marker can be moved 1, 2, 3 or 4 spaces. Alwin chooses 4 spaces, and moves the marker to the 9 space. The next player and end of an exchange round It is then the next players turn. He now has the choice of exchanging goods or not. He takes for each exchanged article, the equivalent in luxury items. Example 4: Brigitte decides to exchange 1 pound of butter and 1 sack of potatoes. She lays these cards down and takes luxury items worth 2 x 9 = 18 points. Treat the luxury item cards as a bank if change is needed. She then moves the price marker only one space as she has made an exchange. It is then the next player's turn. The following players make the same choices and act accordingly. This goes on until the offer on the black market card has been met, or the price marker has reached 50. No goods can be exchanged on the 50 space except by the player whose turn it is. After either of these events, an exchange round ends, even if with the marker on space 50, the offer has not been met in full. All used cards are placed at the bottom of the respective piles and luxury items gained are laid on the table, face up or face down as each player wishes. The next exchange round The new start player is the person to the left of the previous one. He returns the price-marker to the start, and begins by playing a black market card. Black market cards with text Instructions must be carried out at once. There is no exchange round. Example 5: Erich plays the 'Alte Rechnung!' card. He performs this action, taking a commodity card from Charlotte. He could also have played the "Neue Ware Entdeckt!" card, and taken a sack of potatoes from the pile and paid cards to the value of five in luxury items. You can only play this card though if you already own luxury items. Accordingly, the next player clockwise is the new start player. He must play a black market card. Cards with text can also have an effect on the following exchange round, although this has not yet taken place. Example 6: The "Waren knapp!" card is played. Only with the playing of the next offer card does a new exchange round take place. It thus can happen that two or more black market cards influence an exchange round. These cards remain face up and valid until that exchange round has ended. End of the first round of the game The first round ends as soon as a player has exchanged his last commodity card. All other actions are ignored. The commodity deck is re-shuffled and cards dealt out in such a way that all players have a hand of 9 cards once more. Black market cards are kept, but the pile is still re-shuffled. How to play: The second round The second round proceeds as the first, and ends in the same way. The first start player is the next player in turn. End of the game The game ends after two rounds. The winner is the player with the highest value luxury cards. Tips Advance the price marker quickly if you think you alone own certain commodity cards which are in demand. The strategy of selling quickly in order to win can also work. Variant Replace the 6 removed cards, and remove instead 2 sugar and 4 coffee cards. This gives you a staggered distribution (16 potatoes, 14 flour, 12 butter, 10 sugar, 8 coffee) which can bring added enjoyment to the game. Cards German Translation Spionage! Draw, look at, and hand back 2 commodity cards belonging to another player. Schnelles Exchange any one of your commodity Geschaft! cards for luxury items worth 20. Zwangstausch! Give an opponent 1 or 2 of your commodity cards and draw the same number from him. Razzia! Name 1 opponent and 1 commodity. He must place all cards showing that commodity which he holds at the bottom of the deck. If he owns none of that card type, he loses nothing. Neue Ware Entdeckt! Search through the commodity card deck and select one card. Exchange it for luxury items you own worth 5. Limit! The next exchange round will end when the marker reaches 25 instead of 50. Alte Rechnung! Steal one commodity card (without studying them first) from an opponent. Verdorbene The first card exchange in the next Ware! exchange round will only be worth half (rounded down). All other cards will be exchanged for real prices. Waren knapp! In the next exchange round, each player can exchange a maximum of only one commodity card.