Game: Klondike

Thread: Kid Games 100 - #54: Klondike

gamemark — 2008-11-03T23:34:38+00:00

You open the box & the first thing you notice is the dinner plate-sized metal pan... and then the rope ring - because, unless you've been playing a lot of German kid games (esp. Haba games), you haven't seen components like these in a box. (Americans games have, unfortunately, tended towards plastic & thin cardboard.)

Once you start playing, you quickly find out that you've got a lot more here than nifty components - there's a wicked gambling/bluffing/dexterity game shoehorned into the box. (This, btw, is another one of those kid games that works really well with a group of adults - even with no kids in sight.)

Players take turns "panning" for gold - they draw three wooden marbles out of the bag & drop them into the pan. Carefully, you try to get the non-gold marbles (grey & black) to fall out of the pan without losing any gold marbles. It's a skill that takes some practice... ok, a lot of practice.

Meanwhile, the other players are betting on the results, predicting how much gold you'll have left when all the non-gold marbles are gone. The payoff system is simple - if they're right, you owe them gold; if they're wrong, you get their wager.

There's also a raccoon that goes to the player who last picked a grey marble out of the bag - they get a tax of 1 gold when a player draws 3 gold marbles. As well, there is a second variation on the rules that mainly changes the limits on betting.

Here's the deal - Haba packed extra wads of fun in the box along with the rest of the stuff. Since you're wagering on each person's turn, you always interested in how they do - there's no real "down time". Of course, the panning player can dump all the gold in an attempt to burn the gamblers... or get burned themselves.

While the game works (after a fashion) with 2 players, it's really better with 3 and best with 4. The age recommendation here is pretty solid as well - the coordination needed to pan successfully doesn't happen much before age 6.

By the way, the rope circle is to keep the marbles from rolling all over the place, not so siblings can strangle each other at the end of the game.

This mini-review is a part of the Kid Games 100 (http://akapastorguy.blogspot.com/search/label/Kid%20Games%20...) over on my blog, aka pastor guy.

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Steve56 — 2008-07-23T15:12:46+00:00

Klondike: First German Edition

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Steve56 — 2008-07-20T16:00:14+00:00

Klondike: First German Edition

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Steve56 — 2008-07-20T15:34:18+00:00

Klondike: First German Edition

Thread: Family Gold Rush

bnordeng — 2008-06-04T13:37:21+00:00

My wife and two daughters (ages 2 and 4) sat down with me for a game of Klondike. I saw a note on BGG here last week that this game was going OOP and could be picked up for $16 on clearance. I got it and am very happy that I did.

This is a dexterity game with some clever mechanics to make it exciting and competitive for everyone involved. It took a turn or two before the kids understood the idea of "betting" on how many gold nuggets (yellow marbles) the current player could keep in the pan while getting rid of the gravel (black and gray marbles). And, I'm not sure that my 2 year old fully grasped it, but she did understand whether or not her "bet" was right when she flipped over the card.

The game went really well as everyone got a kick out of the marbles rolling around the pan and trying to keep them inside. My wife was very adept at sifting out the gold but soon realized that I was always betting the right number and she was having to pay me for it... so I have a sneaking suspicion that she started to intentionally drop out some gold to ensure that she could pick up my gold.

The game was very back and forth with different leaders throughout, but in the end it was my 2 year old daughter who won...

2 yo: 12 Gold
Mom: 10 Gold
4 yo: 8 Gold
Me: 5 Gold

We all had fun and will definitely play this again. I may remove some of the marbles when playing with my 2 yo and 4 yo so the game plays a bit shorter, but otherwise I see no reason to change any rules for them.

Thanks to nsowinski for pointing me to the games on clearance at Maukilo.com... http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/316397

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cuazzel — 2008-04-23T17:35:01+00:00

The game components

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cuazzel — 2008-04-22T21:31:50+00:00

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cuazzel — 2008-04-22T21:24:48+00:00

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cuazzel — 2008-04-22T20:01:55+00:00

Box back

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cuazzel — 2008-04-22T19:58:20+00:00

Box front

Thread: found it

1Wif — 2008-02-17T21:01:11+00:00

I looked all over this internet for this. Finally found it at Maukilo.com for $26.95. They have quite a number of them (71 in stock on Feb. 17 2008). However, they were the ONLY place that I could find any, as they're discontinued. Hope this helps anyone who wants it.

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patchwerq — 2007-12-12T16:37:41+00:00

Handmade Prospector bag; There's gold in them thaar hills!

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beezwax — 2006-12-06T05:48:50+00:00

Stake card for use with the advanced rules

Thread: Klondike Review

Jatoha — 2006-05-02T15:45:22+00:00

Klondike by HABA games
2-4 players

Klondike is a game with the unusual theme of panhandling for gold. HABA games are beautifully produced with very high quality components. Klondike is no exception.

When you open the box, you know that you are squarely in Euro-gaming territory.

Where are the dice?
Where’s the game board?
Why is there a rope? Is this really a kid’s game????

Components:

One rope
Bag of wooden marbles in three colors: gray, black and yellow
One wooden raccoon
Four tin pans
Four wooden cups
One large aluminum plate (the riddle)
12 cards for wagers
8 claim cards

Gameplay:

Players all start with four gold nuggets in their plates.

Player One blindly chooses three marbles from the sack to place on the riddle. This player will try to swirl the black & gray marbles (the gravel) out of the plate and try to keep the yellow ones (the gold nuggets) on the riddle. A circular rope is laid on the table to keep the panhandled marbles from rolling away.

Before he begins, however, the other players try to guess how many gold nuggets will stay in the pan. They place their wagers in the wooden cup and choose a card with 0, 1 or 2 gold nuggets and place that face down in front of them.

Then, the pan-handling begins. The player holds the riddle in two hands and swirls the marbles until all of the gravel is out of the plate. If there are any gold nuggets left, the panhandler keeps those and puts them in his small plate.

The bets are revealed and players who guessed wrong must give the panhandler their wagers. The panhandler pays the correct guesses out of his plate of nuggets.

Play continues until the bag or a player has run out of nuggets. Then the players total their gold nuggets and the one with the most is the winner.

The basic game has a betting limit of two nuggets.

The advanced game doesn’t have an upper limit on bets, but if the panhandler cannot pay out all the winnings, he gets to keep all the wagers. Also, the advanced game gives each player two claim cards. If a player runs out of nuggets, he may turn in a claim card for four gold nuggets. The claim cards count for four nuggets each when totaling the score at the end of the game.

Additional rules:

If a player chooses all gravel out of the bag when he is getting ready to panhandle, he is out of luck and loses his turn.

If a player chooses all gold nuggets out of the bag, he gets to keep two and one goes to the player with the raccoon.

The raccoon starts with the youngest player but if a player chooses a gray marble out of the bag, then the raccoon moves to that player.

Impressions:

I think this is a great family game. It is very amusing to watch players panhandling; some are more skillful than others. It lends itself to a lot of trash talking, teasing and laughter. Bluffing is big in this game, too. A skillful panhandler can decide to dump out the whole plate in hopes that no one bet zero, therefore collecting all the wagers.

Skillful betting always wins over skillful panhandling, so even young children who aren’t able to panhandle well can still win. My daughter is six and really enjoys this game. I am not sure how she consistently bets well. But she always seems to know when her brother is going to go for the big bluff.

This is a fun one to pull out at a family gathering. It’s unusual theme and components create a lot of interest and it is fun for those not playing to watch, too.

If you enjoy dexterity games, or ones with opportunities for trash talk & bluffing, you’ll want to give this light, quick game a try.

Thread: Bonus Round Variant

JoltedKev — 2005-03-18T00:17:45+00:00

Klondike is a fun little game about dexterity skill, but the real game is in the betting. This variant is played after a full normal game.

Bonus Round
After you are done scoring, declare a winner and celebrate. Then play the bonus round where each player must take all of their winnings (trading in cards if using advanced rules) and place them in the pan. Add 1 black stone for their ranking as losers (meaning lowest scoring player in the main game gets 1 black stone, second lowest gets 2 black stones, etc. -- In a 4 person game, the winner of the main game with play the bonus round with 4 black stones). Starting with the loser of the main game, each person gets one final pan to see how many gold they can hold on to. Whoever has the most left is winner of the bonus round.

My group finds it to be a nice capper to the game.

Thread: Session Report

gschloesser — 2001-10-07T06:40:03+00:00

Now, it was time for silliness. Craig had given Mark a gift for hosting him and his family a few days prior to Gulf Games. The gift, of course, was a game, and with Mark's tendencies for 'quirky fluff', it was no surprise that the game would fit that bill quite nicely.

Klondike is a dexterity/betting game. Players are mining for gold, with opponents betting on how much gold they will successfully find. Each player randomly grabs three wooden marbles from a bag and places them onto a metal plate. Most of these marbles are gold, while some are black or gray. If a player draws three gold marbles, he keeps two of them and the third is discarded. If, however, he draws a gray or black in the mix, he must 'pan' to see how many of the gold marbles he drew he will get to keep.

Panning involves rotating, shaking and/or bouncing the metal plate, attempting to cause the black and gray marbles to flip out, while keeping the gold marbles in the pan. Whatever gold marbles remain are kept by the player ... maybe.

You see, before the active player begins shaking and rotating the plate, however, his opponents secretly place a card (numbered 0, 1 or 2) face down. The number on the card represents the number of gold marbles that each player feels will be remaining in the pan after the active player finishes his panning. If they are correct, the active player must pay them an equal amount of gold marbles from his supply. If, however, the player is incorrect, he must pay the active player that number of marbles. So, this is a bit of a guess, and the active player can try to keep as many marbles as he can, or dump them all, hoping to outwit his opponent's bets. Interesting, but kind of frustrating, too, as there really isn't much (if any) control here.

The game ends once the bag of marbles is depleted. The player with the most marbles is victorious.

We did get some laughs out of the pan shaking and rotating, but often there was quite a bit of dead time as players did their panning. Ted proved to be a master, evoking comments as to what he really did for a day job! Still, due to the wacky betting system, Craig ended with the most gold, capturing the victory.

Craig 30, Ted 28, Greg 12, Mark 0

No ratings, but I'd give it a 5.