Moneybags is a game of stealing money from the other players.

Getting a lot is good, but too much can be baaaaad.

A group of thugs stole a bunch gold from the corrupt crime lord in the next town over. Tonight is the secret meeting to decide how the gold is split. At this meeting, each thief has their own sturdy moneybag.

If someone thinks the gold distribution is unfair, they can call out another fellow thief they believe has more gold coins and move some of those coins from the other thief’s bag to their own.

However, they must be very careful! If the thief steals too much gold and gets caught, they must give all of their coins to the other thief as punishment.

Moneybags Game Play

Choose a random start player and call them ‘Boss’. Give them a bag and the box lid filled with the coins and the diamond.

Also, give each other player a bag, they are ‘Henchmen’.

Secretly, The Boss puts at least 1 coin in each bag, as well as the Diamond so all the coins have been distributed.

It’s important that players don’t get a real feel of how much is in their bag so they can’t look in it or hold it from the bottom, only the top.

Actions

Starting with the Henchman to the left of the Boss, players take 1 of 3 actions:

Stand By – This means “Do Nothing”, fun!

Close Bag – This means do nothing AND “Drop out the round”, more fun!

Steal from another player – Reach in their bag and take out as much or little as you like. You can hold another players bag from the bottom when stealing loot and drop it in your own bag. But you still can’t feel the bottom of your bag or look inside it.

When the target gets their bag back, count down backwards from 5. In that time limit, the victim can challenge if they think they now have fewer coins than their thief. If they do, each player empties their bags, stacks up the coins (the diamond will go on top and is 10 coins high) and sees who is higher.

If the stack is equal or lower, the victim is out and they give all their loot to the thief. But, if it’s higher, the victim takes all the Thiefs loot and the thief is out.

Round End

After the bosses second turn, the round ends. The remaining player’s stack all their treasure with the highest pile winning. Ties are broken by the player earlier in turn order.

The winner gets a 3 point token, 2nd place gets 2 points and 3rd place 1 point. The player that ended the round with the Diamond is the new ‘Boss’ for the next round. After 3 rounds the player with the most points is the winner.

Theme

The theme is an interesting one but when playing you’re just trying to survive. It’s all about the table talk and ‘winning a game’, not ‘playing a theme’.

Setup & Rulebook

Give everyone a bag and put everything in the box… Simple.

The rulebook is very clear.

Components

The bags are nice and the coins are very nice indeed.

But, fitting it all back in the tiny Oink Games box is IMPOSSIBLE! 🙂

Ease of Teaching & Accessibility

The rules are easy to teach but if someone will get it or not is a different story. The rules are easy, the point of the game is hard to explain I think.

If a new player does something wrong or says something they shouldn’t, just keep going. Rounds are short so it won’t affect too much.

Moneybags Summary

I put Moneybags closest to a game like Love Letter which is weird I know. But doing something and trying to deduce the outcome gives it a similar feel. The only problem here is that the player you’re trying to read doesn’t know how much is in their bag.

The 3 actions available are do nothing, do nothing and drop out of the round or do something and potentially get eliminated… Not great choices there.

I also feel EVERYONE around the table needs to play this well and play to WIN THE GAME.

You shouldn’t just ‘shoot for the moon’ and hope it goes your way here. If you do the game fails and just plays like poker if everyone goes all-in every hand.

So, while the design is solid, you need the players to do their job. Sadly, the options available to you on your turn incentivise poor choices.

Jesta ThaRogue