Forage

Forage is a small card game for two players that you can learn and play in half an hour. All you need is a deck of cards, a handful of pebbles and a four-sided die. At the start of each turn you roll the die. That many cards are laid face up on the table, ready to be claimed. Whoever has the finest collection at the end wins. Each turn you have two choices. You buy cards with your pebbles to grow your own collection. Or you sell two matching cards, for example two mushrooms, two beetles or two berries, and get five pebbles in return. You may both buy and sell once per turn, in the order you choose. As soon as the deck runs out, everyone gets one extra turn to spend their last pebbles. After that you count the points. It sounds simple, and it is. Even so, you need to pay close attention to what your opponent is collecting, or you will end up empty-handed. Whoever has the most of a kind scores those cards. And do you hold exactly the same pair? Then those count too. Short, exciting and never quite the same.