Nicht die Bohne

From: Amigo List Price: $10 Players: 3-6 Playing Time: 30-45 minutes  Type of game: Card Skill level: 7 Complexity: 3  Reviewed by: Peter Sarrett, Issue 24, September 2000

If you were attracted to The Settlers of Catan for its relentlessly positive, non-combative gameplay, you may want to give Nicht die Bohne a wide berth. Each player tries to score as much as possible for himself, but the chance to wield a mighty screw is often too big a temptation to ignore. Consequently this isn’t a game for the tea and crumpets set.

One deck. Four suits. One bean chip. The complete deck is dealt out and the player with the bean chip sets a card face up in front of him, marking it with the chip. Everyone else then puts a card face up in front of themselves. What follows is a kind of white elephant exchange similar to that of Money or Andromeda. The first player takes the offered card of his choice and puts it in his scoring pile, sorted by suit. The player whose card he chose then does the same, and so on. The last player gets the card marked by the bean chip and sets out the first card for the next round.

Each suit is ranked from 1-10, and every card a player collects is worth its face value. Each suit also has a 2x card which doubles that suit’s value for the owner, a “nicht die bohne” card which makes that suit worth 0, and three negative beans which multiply the suit’s value by –1.

With some cards beneficial and others detrimental, the strategy of each round shifts depending on what the chip player offers. When a good card comes up, players offer garbage in the hope that theirs will be the last one taken and they can grab the goods. When a crappy card is offered players offer good stuff to avoid being left holding the bag. The negative beans create an interesting dynamic. Since two negatives cancel each other out, once a player has one he becomes very interested in getting a second, or a nicht die bohne as a last resort. The 2x cards are firecrackers ready to blow up in your face, as everyone else tries to steer the negative beans your way.

The degree of viciousness in the game varies directly as a function of how much table talk you allow. If players are free to collude openly, it’s child’s play to steer unwanted cards where they’ll do the most damage. Consequently we prefer to play without any table talk whatsoever. This creates a kind of prisoner’s dilemma. Everyone wants to see the negative bean go to the player with the highest score in that color, but for that to happen everyone has to see the possibility and play for the team rather than grabbing the card that’s best for themselves.

Control in Nicht die Bohne is illusory at best. Doing well is more a function of avoiding calamity than seeking out prosperity, and the outcome of each round has little to do with what cards you’re dealt— especially since you can never collect those cards yourself. As such its appeal is mainly as a filler, but one which won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. Proceed with caution.