Holidays (2005)

Overview

In this card game, players propose holiday destinations/types of holidays and then try to win the most points by sending the highest scoring group of people on those holidays. The basic mechanism is trick-taking with an element of bluffing.

There are two kinds of cards in the game. Each player has five holiday destination cards. They are also dealt 6 traveler cards, which may be men, women or children with a value of from 3 to 8 points.

There are five kinds of holidays that may be proposed: A romantic trip to Venice for a couple (one man, one woman) Night-life holidays in Mykonos with any number of men and women Trips to an amusement park for any number of children accompanied by one adult (man or woman) A restful family holiday at Berghotel (one man, one woman and one child exactly) Fantastic cruises (any number of men or women, but only men or only women)

The starting player proposes a holiday by placing the card in the center. Three traveler cards are dealt to the centre of the table, one of which is face up - this is the value of the holiday. The other players, in turn, may agree to this destination, or change it by paying one traveler card (and augmenting the value of the holiday). This goes round, players changing destinations as long as they want to and can afford to, until everyone finally agrees on the destination.

Players then play cards that match the criteria for that destination and the player who plays travelers with the highest score wins the holiday. This is scored as the value from the initial 3 cards plus any extra cards played to change the destination, divided by ten. Points that don't make up to ten exactly don't contribute to the score.

The player to first score 10 points wins.

The game has a nice element of bluffing as a player could propose holiday destinations they have no interest in so that after other players change the destination, they can change it to the real place they'd prefer to go.