Designed by: Daniel Skjold Pedersen
In Gold Fever you are prospectors mining for gold. But what nasty prospectors you are, as you can throw the rubbish you don’t want down someone else’s mine…
There’s no board – all players begin with a cloth bag each containing five gold pieces, twelve gravel pieces (four each of grey, black and white) and, if you choose to include them in the game, one emerald and one ruby.
The rules are super-simple: on your turn, draw pieces from your bag, one at a time: the first to draw four gold pieces is the winner. But! If you draw two of the same colour gravel, all your pieces go back into your bag and your turn is over. To avoid going bust this way, you can decide to stick instead: not only are any gold you drew now safe for the rest of the game (ie they can’t go back in your bag) but you can put any gravel you drew into someone else’s bag! So the game is a personification of luck-pushing, as it’s possible – though extremely unlikely – the first player can win on their very first turn. More likely is the chance they’ll go bust if they simply keep on drawing from their bag – the canny player will stop at some point, and ‘poison the well’ of someone else’s mine…
If you’ve included the emerald and ruby, then when you draw an emerald you must draw two more pieces before you can stick. If you draw a ruby, a race begins: everyone begins drawing pieces (again, one at a time) until someone draws a gold. Nobody can go bust in this instance, and all non-gold pieces drawn are returned to their bags.
Very light and fun push-your-luck game. I feel like I'd like the game to end in a different way - once someone draws their 4th gold I'd like something else to happen - it always feels a bit 'Oh, you've won...' to me. But I don't know what - some sort of final showdown. And I would also like the gold to be, well, gold, instead of a lemon curd milky yellow colour. But it's a fun game, I'm just being super picky.
It's heavy on the Take That.
Very low.
Even lower: to draw again, or not to draw again? It's not a decision-less game, but it's hardly what you'd call crunchy.
The game is pretty random, and how good your decisions are is to a great deal down to luck.
2-5
Players
6+
Years
5-15
Mins
Sam says
Despite the couldn't-be-simpler rules, this is probably better for adults than kids: it personifies the Take That sensation more than many other games, as when - or if - you dump gravel, you're targeting someone else. Often this will be the 'leader', but the game is over so quickly the leader can change quickly. It's a fun game, highly portable and exceedingly brisk - but not one for tender hearts.