The Garden Gnomes Society

A bucolic card game by Roman Mathar for 2-6 player aged 12 and up
playing time: ca. 60 minutes
Illustrated by Georg von Westfalen

The president of the garden gnome breeders society “Golden Cap” has passed on, and now the hunt for a worthy successor is on. The highly coveted presidency will go to the first society member who succeeds at breeding a gnome with a golden cap or buying one for 4000 Petals. To this end, the society members busily bid on gnomes for breeding, send them to beauty contests or – of course – to work in the garden. Who will be the first to breed a golden-capped gnome?

Each game round starts with an event card that is drawn and read aloud by the treasurer (start player). After that event, the players decide on the occupations for their gnomes. They might try to find a breeding mate for their little bearded friend, offer him as a mate, send him to a competition, sell him or let him do the garden work. Once all gnomes are occupied somewhere, gnomes that got a mate will breed. The value of the new gnome is decided by the parent with the higher pedigree (as marked by the colour of his cap) and Mother Nature, whose intervention comes in the form of Breeding Cards.

If the new gnome should turn out to have a grey cap, the luckless breeder has a lazy gnome on his hands – too lazy even to breed. Gnomes with a brown cap are a little better, but still less valuable than orange-capped gnomes, which in turn are outclassed by gnomes with red, blue and green caps.

Beyond that, the vaunted golden-capped gnome beckons, spurring the efforts of garden gnome breeders everywhere. If you do not want to depend on breeder’s luck, wise bidding and some lucrative wins at gnome beauty contests might also pave your way to the presidency of the Garden Gnomes Society.

Apart from the event cards and rule summary cards, of which english translations are available here, The Garden Gnomes Society is completely language independent.

Components:
45 Breeding Cards
18 Event Cards
5 Competition Cards
6 Summary Cards
6 Shack Cards
48 Bid Chips
1 Rulebook
1 Block of Petals (Money)