Glückshaus - Lucky Pig

Glückshaus (or Lucky Pig) is a game that was played in medieval times.  We played it at Rangers as part of our Richard III challenge.

It would have been played with money but being Rangers we played it with chocolate (obviously!)

Each Ranger had 5 celebrations and 5 Starburst each.  (It is important you use wrapped sweets or chocolate as it is going to exchange hands a lot of times!)

The playing board is 10 'rooms' from 2 to 12 (there is no 4.) Each person takes it in turn to roll 2 dice.



















If they roll  3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 or 11, they put a sweet on the board if that room is empty.  Or if there is already a sweet there they get to take it.

If they roll two ones it is "Lucky Pig" and they can collect all the sweets on the board, except what is on the 7
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If they roll a 12, she is "king" (König) and wins all the coins on the board including what is on number 7.

Room 7 has a wedding (Hochzeit) happening in it.  If you roll a seven you put a sweet down no matter what, it is the dowry.  You only ever get to collect these if you roll a 12.

It sounds complicated but I just put a picture on the cards and the Rangers picked it up straight away.

You can download the rules and my playing squares here

The game should end when one person has won all the sweets

It was amazing how quickly some lost all their sweets and others started to build up a large stash.

Some girls started to lend sweets to those with none. Others with only one left tried to trade for them: "I'll give you my malteser for 2 bounties"

We ran out of time before we finished and I asked them to just fairly share out what was still in play on the board to finish up.

A Ranger who had only started that night grabbed everything she could get her hands on and loudly announced "by share she meant grab what you can."  I sadly suspect I'm going to have a challenge on my hands there.  Luckily the Rangers are fairly good at self regulating.  They tend to 'do the right thing' as a group and will tell others that seem not to be 'playing the game fairly' so fingers crossed they meet that challenge head on.