Leftovers

The power is out and the fridge is off, so all the food should be eaten before it goes bad. Some of it already has. But when you open the door, you cannot see the food because the light is out, so you draw out food randomly. Everyone at the table needs a full meal, but you can try to make your meal have all your favorite (highest scoring) foods and try to give the spoiled (negative scoring) foods to your opponents. There are 5 food groups (suits): Fruit, Vegetable, Entree, Beverage and Dessert You'll get a better bonus the earlier you can play (meld) a full meal, either on yourself or someone else. You can exchange good and bad foods between your hand and meals on the table to improve your score and decrease the score of your opponents. You can also "eat" one item at a time to protect it from getting taken by someone else. An important choice is what to do with your "leftover" cards; should you get rid of them to decrease negative score at the end of the round, or keep them longer to exchange and/or create more meals? This game was the first place winner of the 2004 KublaCon Game Design Contest.

Players: 2–6 best 4
Playing time: 30 min
Age: 5+
Complexity: 1.7 / 5