Bohnanza

Bohnanza is a card game of trading and negotiation. Each player takes on the role of a bean farmer planting various types of bean in fields, which can then be harvested to make a profit; the more you plant, the more you earn. Whoever makes the most money at the end of the game wins. Sounds like an odd concept, but it works extremely well.

Each card represents a bean and is illustrated with a (more-or-less) humorous cartoon – the “black-eyed bean” is a bruised boxer, the “red bean” is naked and blushing… Players take turns to plant beans in their limited fields (players start with two but can buy a third), but there is a twist: as new cards are drawn they are added to the back of the hand, but all beans must be planted from the front of the hand and the cards cannot be reordered. Since each field can only hold one type of bean, players are forced to negotiate trades with other players in an attempt to acquire the beans that they want to plant and avoid having to uproot their planted fields prematurely.

Should you trade with an opponent for a bean that they don’t want and you could use? or should you refuse so that they have to plant it themselves?
If you help them out now, they might help you out later (or maybe not!).
There are plenty of decisions to be made.

Bohnanza is fantastic for all ages (from around 8+):
- the encouraged negotiation means that this game is very high on interaction (because of this the game is much better with 5+ players)
- it is simple to teach and there are few rules to remember
- it has a great balance of strategy and luck

All in all this game is a lot of fun and the artwork really lends to this. The constant haggling-pleading-threatening involved mean that Bohnanza is also a great game to get out in social situations.