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Premise

It's rent day, and Bob's Burgers is $250 short!

To boot Gene, Tina, and Louise have been disheartening customers with their usual shenanigans. If Bob doesn't come up with the money, Mr. Fischoeder will be giving the lease to Jimmy Pesto for his gift shop.

Help Bob and Linda keep their restaurant by serving burgers to Teddy, Mort, the transvestite prostitutes and even the One-Eyed Snakes (they are paying for their food this time!) in spite of adversity in the form of Lobsterfest, The crazy Captain Flarty, the Moodie Foodie, and of course Jimmy Pesto himself. While you might get tripped up by a crippling addiction to Burgerboss, and even a total shutdown by Hugo the Health Inspector, you can find help from Moolissa (she...err...he faked his death. Don't judge.) and your bank robbing friend Mickey to get customers in the seats.

Don't let Bob's Burgers get shut down. Save the restaurant...at least until next month.

Official Rules

The Bob's Burgers Card Game (catchy title) is a fan-created draw game for 2 to 6 players. The objective is to be the first player to achieve the goal of $250 while keeping your competitors from doing the same before you. While this is doable in 1 hand, it can take up to seven or eight depending on the competition.

Each BBCG deck consists of 104 cards. There are 27 different cards in 8 color coded suits. To begin play, the dealer shuffles the deck and deals each player six cards face down. The first player to the left of the dealer opens the game by drawing from the Storeroom Pile. Players continue to draw and play in turn moving clockwise around the table. Note: All players must have six cards in their hand after each turn.

Storefront Cards

Storefront Cards are red and come it 2 types: Open for Business and Closed for the Night.

The Open for Business card (10 per deck) is used to open the Cash Register (located at the left of each players tableau). This card must be displayed to allow a player to sell burgers. Each player only needs one of these cards in a hand with one exception, to be discussed later.

The Closed for the Night card (5 per deck) is used by a player to end the hand and tally sales. It is most beneficial when a player feels they have the highest score for the hand and wish to collect. It can be used any time a player is not dealing with a "Situation" (more on that below). NOTE: If the Storeroom Pile dwindles to nothing and no one has played a Closed for the Night card, then the hand is automatically ended.

Sales Cards

Sales Cards are green and come in six varieties: $5.00 - Regular Burger (6 per deck), $10.00 - Burger of the Day and Beer (6 per deck), $25.00 - Teddy & Mort's Usual (5 per deck), $25.00 - Dinner for the "Ladies" (5 per deck), $50.00 - "Human Flesh" Burger (5 per deck), and $100.00 - Feed the One-Eyed Snakes (1 per deck)!

These cards represent earnings to be made from potential sales and the ultimate profit you can accumulate from the hand. A player may place a Sales Card on their tableau only if they have already opened their Register and only if they are not dealing with a Situation for that turn.

Situation Cards

Situation Cards are gold and come in four varieties: Jimmy Pesto (3 per deck), Moodie Foodie (3 per deck), Lobsterfest (3 per deck), and Shanghaied (3 per deck).

These cards are place on an opponent's Cash Register Pile to hinder their progress in selling burgers. If a Situation Card is played on your Cash Register Pile, you lose the ability to place Sales Cards on your tableau - until you play either a matching Remedy Card or a "Bribe Louise", Moolissa or Mickey card!

Even without an Open for Business card a player may still lay Situation Cards on any opponent who has an Open for Business card displayed.

Remedy Cards

Remedy Cards are blue and similar in appearance to Situation Cards, but have a black bar diagonally across. They come in four varieties (5 of each per deck), which match those of the Situation Cards.

Placing the matching Remedy Card on your hindered Cash Register Pile brings the Open for Business card back to the top of the pile and allows you to continue to play on your next turn with no restrictions (unless in the meantime someone places another Situation Card on your Cash Register Pile).

There is a fifth Remedy Card that works differently: the Bribe Louise card (4 per deck). To use this card on your hindered Cash Register Pile, you must take your smallest tabled Sales Card and throw it in the Trash Bin pile (the discard pile next to the Storeroom Pile). If you have no tabled Sales Cards, you may not remedy a situation with this card.

Bonus Cards

Bonus Cards are orange are the most helpful cards in the deck, coming in 2 varieties: Moolissa (5 per deck) and Mickey (1 per deck).

Playing either of these cards (directly to the Trash Bin) entitles you to 1) Remedy any situations you are dealing with, 2) receive another turn, and 3) receive an unsecured Sales Card from each opponent's tableau. The Moolissa cards allow you to take the lowest Sales Card, but the Mickey card allows you to take the HIGHEST Sales Card!

Note: When playing the Mickey card, you have to yell "Jimmy Pesto's is CRAP"! Actually that isn't a rule; it's just more fun that way.

Secure Cards

Secure Cards are purple and come in three varieties: Pick the Weeds (2 per deck), Butt Treasure (2 per deck), and Independent Study (2 per deck). These cards are played on your tabled Sales cards and protect your sales from Bonus Cards as well as from Mayhem and Swipe Cards (both described below). Secure cards may be used to protect more than one Sales Card provided the sum of the cards is below or equal to the value of the Secure Card. Secure cards can only protect Sales Cards tabled at the time of play and cannot be used in combination to protect the Feed the One-Eyed Snakes Card.

Mayhem Cards

Mayhem Cards are the worst cards to possess. They are yellow and come in three varieties: Burgerboss (4 per deck), Emergency Room (3 per deck), and Health Inspection Shutdown! (1 per deck). Mayhem Cards are played directly to the Trash Bin and provide a great deal of strategy as you will see. Any time a Mayhem card is played, each player must pass a card from their hand face down to the player to their left. Additionally, the player who threw the Mayhem Card must shoulder the following penalty.

Playing a Burgerboss card requires the player to lose a turn and throw their lowest unsecured Sales Card into the Trash Bin.

Playing an Emergency Room card requires the player to lose two turn and throw their highest unsecured Sales Card into the Trash Bin.

Note: If the player has no tabled Sales Cards or all tabled Sales Cards are secured, only the subsequent turns are lost with Burgerboss and Emergency Room.

Playing the Health Inspection Shutdown! is the ultimate insult. The player loses two turns, but also must put everything from their tableau into the Trash Bin (except Secured Sales). This includes the Cash Register Pile. It is the only time a player would need a second Open for Business Card to continue selling burgers.

You may be asking "Why even play these cards if they are so bad"?!? Playing them may be the lesser of two evils as players are accountable for holding these cards at the end of each hand. Burgerboss will cost you $25 each, Emergency Room will cost you $50 each, and Health Inspection Shutdown! will cost you a whopping $100! Think of that last one as removing Hugo's posters without permission.

Swipe Cards

Swipe Cards are gray and come in two varieties: Park the Food Truck (4 per deck) and Sell the Meatsiah (1 per deck). These cards allow a player to swipe a portion of other players' unsecured sales.

Park the Food Truck Cards are played on the opponent's Cash Register Pile and allow you to take that player's largest tabled non-secure Sales Card and place it in on own tableau. You cannot use this card when you are dealing with a Situation. You may however play it on an opponent while THEY are dealing with a Situation.

Unlike the Park the Food Truck Card, the Sell the Meatsiah Card is held through the end of the hand. It allows the possessor to swipe 20% of all other players' unsecured sales. The Sell the Meatsiah Card can be discarded to the Trash Bin, but who the hell would want to do that?!?

Scoring/A Sample Hand

Each player totals the Sales on their tableau (secured and unsecured if the Hand Out the Meatsiah is a factor). If the Hand Out the Meatsiah card is held then that player swipes 20% off the unprotected tabled Sales Cards on each opponent's tableau. Opponents subtract the respective swipe amounts from their scores. Each player subtracts amount of the highest single Sales Card held in their hand. Each player subtracts total of penalties of the Mayhem cards held in their hand. A $25 bonus goes to the player with the highest score of the hand.

Here is the scoring for the sample hand. NOTE: ( ) indicates a negative amount

Player #1 Player #2 Player #3 Player #4 1a - Unsecured Burger Sales $140.00 $65.00 $175.00 $25.00 1b - Secured Burger Sales $25.00 $0.00 $0.00 $50.00 2 - Hand Out the Meatsiah Swipe $53.00 ($13.00) ($35.00) ($5.00) 3 - Unsold Penalty ($5.00) $0.00 ($50.00) ($25.00) 4 - Mayhem Penalty $0.00 ($25.00) ($50.00) ($100.00) Subtotal for the Hand $213.00 $27.00 $40.00 ($55.00) 5 - Highest Sales Bonus $25.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 GRAND TOTAL FOR THE HAND $238.00 $27.00 $40.00 ($55.00)

As you can see, Player #1 has almost won the game in a single hand. Player #4 on the other hand, is in a hole to start the game. Here is they why and how of strategy as shown in this sample.

Strategy Behind BBCG

You don't need a lot of big ticket sales to have a winning hand. Sometimes lots of small sales make the grade. Player #1 only played one $50.00 sale, but he still came in second in total sales.

Holding on to Mayhem Cards is a huge risk. Waiting for someone to play a Burgerboss so you can pass off the Health Inspection Shutdown! may look good on paper, but not if the restaurant closes early! Had Player #4 bit the bullet and played HIS!, he would have lost $25.00 instead of $100.00!

Know when it is time to close up shop. Player #3 was ahead of Player #1, but the Hand Out the Meatsiah card leveled the playing field quickly.

Second only to Mayhem cards, holding big sales can come back to bite you. Sometimes it is better to risk a Food Truck swipe than to take a hit on an early closing. Player #1 only had to subtract $5.00 at the end of the hand.

Try to make the most of your Secure cards. Don't get anxious and protect a $5.00 with an Independent Study. On the other hand, if you have $45.00 tabled, don't get greedy and wait for that other $5.00!

Gameplay Options

The depth of the Bob's Burger's Card Game allows for many variations on gameplay. Here are a few of them.

Beginner's Play

When learning how to play the BBCG, it is best to start out with less suits to get a feel for the game. Here are the different "levels" and which cards can be removed.

Level 1 - Remove Bonus, Secure, Mayhem, and Swipe Cards.

Level 2 - Remove Bonus and Mayhem Cards.

Level 3 - Remove Mayhem Cards.

Level 4 - Play with ALL cards.

No Math, I'm On Vacation

The most complex part of keeping score for the mathematically challenged is the Hand Out the Meatsiah Card. One option is to leave it out entirely. There are however many ways it can be included but simplified. At the end of the hand, you can have the holder be entitled to everyone's highest (or lowest) tabled card. Alternately, the holder may get a free pass for any Mayhem Card(s) held. There are plenty that can be done with the mighty HOTM card, but be sure to agree upon the rules before play begins!

Stay Positive

If you want not have to worry about negative scores, you can do away with the penalty for highest Sales Card held at the end of the hand. You can also play perpetually at Level 3 to eliminate the dreaded Mayhem cards.

Make It An All-Nighter

Just because the intro to this game says Bob is $250 short of his rent, there is no reason you can't put him a little MORE behind the 8-ball. What if Bob and Mr. Fischoeder never played that last round of Rock-Paper-Scissors and Bob owes him $5,000? That would make for a real marathon of BBCG!

Bartering

This is more of a rule option than a different type of gameplay. Sometimes you just can't get free of the Windbreaker and Louise is nowhere to be found. At times like this another player may offer the needed Remedy card in exchange for sales or other beneficial cards. There are however some rules when it comes to bartering.

Bartering can only be with (or by) the active player.

Exchanges are 1-to-1 from hand to hand. Tabled sales can be part of the deal (from tableau to tableau), but each player may only hold six cards for play to continue.

You cannot negotiate for any cards in the Trash Bin.

History

BBCG is based on the card game "Touring" patented by the Wallie Dorr Company in 1906. Several other incarnations of this game have included Mille Bornes (Parker Brothers, 1954) and the marijuana-themed Grass (Euro Games/Ventura International, 1979).