THE S1 FINALE – An intense secret trading game you never knew you needed: HAGGLE

In a restricted amount of time, 15 players will trade, bribe, and spill secrets and codes to each other as they each try and obtain the highest-scoring collection possible!

 

When I first read Haggle, I’m pretty sure my eyes lit up. While all these other games sound fun and enjoyable, nothing beats the black-market-esque, manipulating, and deciphering atmosphere a game like this creates; Clue utilizes this same characteristic, and for the longest time, it was my absolute favorite! This is going to be a bit of a more complex post, but if you think you’re ready for this amazing game, let’s dive right in!

 

How well can you exploit other players? Let’s find out…

 

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Players: Ideally 16, but can be played with a few less (Includes a non-playing host)

Gear:

–    Index cards of five colors: red, orange, yellow, blue, and white. For each color, you will need twice as many cards as there are players (In a standard game of 15 people, you will need 30 cards of each color).
–    Slips of paper
–    15 envelopes
–    Pens/Pencils

 

 

PREPARATION

 

There will be one non-playing host that will have to set up all the materials before the game begins. First, they will shuffle all the colored index cards and randomly put 10 in each envelope. Then, there are 15 Secret Rules. You should only use the number of rules equal to the number of players. (If there are 13 players, don’t use the last two rules). Finally, each rule should be printed onto two slips of paper, and then each envelope gets two different slips of paper.

 

Basically, each envelope will include:
–    10 variously colored index cards
–    2 different Secret Rules

 

 

 

 

HOW TO PLAY

 

Similar to Wink Murder, this game is meant to be played in accompaniment to another activity. While Wink Murder could really be played across any span of time, such as a weekend or a week, Haggle is best played in a shorter, constrained amount of time, like a few hours. This means that it can be very well suited for a dinner party, barbecue, or just having your friends over for a few hours. At the beginning of the game, set a time for the game to end, explain the rules and then hand out the envelopes!

 

Even though it may seem complicated, this is the gist:

Using the Secret Rules they are given, players will trade, bargain, and haggle each other for index cards and Secret Rules. Each index card is worth a certain amount of points, and your goal is to score the most points at the end of the game. The secret rules give you inside information about how many points each color is worth, the max number of cards you can have, etc. Your goal is to learn the secret knowledge that other people have so that you can trade your index cards or Secret Rules cards for a more valuable hand.

 

 

HOSTS: Click here for the Secret Rules

 

 

WINNING THE GAME

Whenever the playing period is over, all trading must stop and players will arrange their cards in front of them. (Since at most 13 cards will be evaluated for scoring, players may choose to not display some of their cards for the final count). The host then reads out the basic point values (determined from the first three clues; yellow = 1, blue = 2, red = 3, orange = 4, white = 5). After everyone has tallied their preliminary number of points, the host then reads down the rules, starting at the fourth rule and each player deducts points from their total score. After all the rules have been read, the player with the highest score wins!!

 

 

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Author’s Note

I really love the idea of this game a lot! It is very unique in its concept of gameplay and overall has a really fun social component to it. Even though you’re supposed to be haggling with each other, you’re really bonding with other players and I think that’s great. I am 100% going to try and play this with my friends before the end of the semester, since I think it would be easy to do, and a ton of fun!

Also, I truly had a phenomenal time writing this blog, and has been my favorite project of college so far. Writing about something that I was actually passionate about was the driving force behind these posts and really made the whole process fun. In fact, I would anticipate working on these posts so much that they would be done a week or so in advance! Remember, I’m learning and experiencing these games just as much as you are, and I absolutely loved it. No other topic would have been as much fun to write about, and I’m going to be very sad to not have these to look forward to anymore. BUT, perhaps I can use that energy to focus on making board games like I used to instead of reviewing them! I cannot wait to get back to doing that so perhaps there is a silver lining in all this. Thank you for reading and have a wonderful semester, year, and life! If you leave this blog with anything, take this:

There’s a time for everything… make more time for games

 

 

History

Haggle was created by Sid Sackson, a distinguished game designer, in 1969. Sackson is mostly known for the 1906’s popular board game Acquire in which you take the role of a business person and try to accumulate the largest wealth through stocks, mergers, and other assets. Sackson was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design’s Hall of Fame in 2011, and created several other fairly-recognized games, which are included on his Wikipedia page.

Analysis

I think one thing that makes this game very special is that you can only play it once. Trying to figure out the secret rules is the essential purpose of the game, and after that first time playing, you know what the secret rules are, which affects your strategy; therefore, you cannot play it more than once. Another very interesting thing is that I can’t put myself into the shoes of players, since I have already analyzed the game and know all the secret rules, but other people playing for their first (and only) time, will have a whole different mindset about it, which I think is really neat. Anyways, onto the analysis!

Creativity: It’s not very easy to barter and get the most out of your interaction.  When my dad went to Africa, he developed a very good skill at haggling with the vendors in order to negotiate a price in which to settle the transaction.  Maybe you too can come up with some creative ways to persuade other players into giving what you want… 

Luck: Your actions and approach to the game will largely be determined by which cards and rules you are given at the start, perhaps you will have some more useful or not-so-helpful cards and that may affect you in the long run.  However, most of the game revolves around your ability to broaden your sphere of knowledge and find out information, so luck plays only a small role.

Strategy: It takes a very analytical mind to appreciate the delicate balance that Haggle achieves with its secret rules and knowledge sharing characteristics, but even those who don’t see themselves as highly strategic, or understand the game completely can do very well.  It may help to approach this slightly complicated game analytically, but there is fun in Haggle for people of all mindsets.    

 

Tips & Strategies

• • I won’t spoil much, but you should focus on getting Secret Information first before worrying about trading the colored index cards.  If you don’t, you might trade something you needed before you find out that it would be helpful.  Other than that, just try and learn as much as possible!

 

Variations: Try this out next time you play!

• Did you love Haggle a ton? Feel cheated out of the fact that you can’t play again? Well, If you feel like you truly GET Haggle, perhaps you can try and write your own secret rules! Change up the foundation of the game a bit! Add more colors, introduce numbers or styles of cards, who knows!! I’m sure it would be as much of a blast as Haggle is.

 

Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful day!

 

 

 

Credits

I cannot stress enough the importance of Leigh Anderson’s fantastic book The Games Bible for inspiring these blog posts.  Her book has hundreds of amazing ideas, from icebreakers, family games, and weekend getaways.  This blog would not be possible without all the hard work she put into writing the book so my source for ideas and research are from her book. Thank you, thank you, thank you Leigh Anderson, you’ve been a wonderful aid to me the past few months.

Additional Materials

Haggle Secret Rules

Sources

• Anderson, Leigh. The Games Bible. Workman Publishing Company, 2010.
• Anderson, Leigh. “The Games BIBLE: The Ultimate Gamebook… Book by Leigh Anderson.” ThriftBooks, www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-games-bible-the-ultimate-gamebook-for-grown-ups-307-games-to-put-the-fun-back-in-parties_leigh-anderson/571781/#edition=5740103&idiq=12407424.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquire
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Sackson

Image Sources

• Colored Squares
• Neon Dancers
• Information Sharing
• Terraforming Mars Board Game