# April Foolishness Haggle. \[Game in progress\]

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-foolishness-haggle-game-in-progress/493723>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [April 20, 2009, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-foolishness-haggle-game-in-progress/493723 "2009-04-20T14:45:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 3

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**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-foolishness-haggle-game-in-progress/493723/3 "2009-04-20T16:36:48Z")

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_Get your examples here._

I’m going to mostly draw examples from ‘Holiday Haggle’ [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=446660&highlight=haggle](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=446660&highlight=haggle), December of 2007, because it was sort of the smallest and easiest to understand.

First, here’s the kickoff post:

> [@Anybody up for a holiday round of Haggle?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-up-for-a-holiday-round-of-haggle/428904/65):
>
> Thanks for signing up, everybody, and welcome to the kickoff for _Holiday Haggle_
> 
> Just come on over to the long table and take a seat, any seat but mine here at the head. Notice that there are starting packages at each place on the table.
> 
> Everybody settled? Okay, open up your packages and let’s see what everybody has got.
> 
> **Drain Bead**  
> Holds rules: 4, 7, 10, 15, 18  
> Has seen rules:  
> And holds these cards: Blue Candle, Green Cane, Green Candle, Red Box, Red Tree
> 
> **FarmerChick**  
> Holds rules: 3, 7, 11, 14, 17  
> Has seen rules:  
> And holds these cards: Blue Cane, Blue Star, Green Star, Green Tree, Red Candle, White Cane, White Candle, White Star
> 
> **Hal Briston**  
> Holds rules: 1, 5, 9, 13, 17  
> Has seen rules:  
> And holds these cards: Blue Wreath, Green Cane, Green Wreath, Red Candle, Red Wreath, White Box
> 
> **jsgoddess**  
> Holds rules: 2, 6, 8, 12, 16  
> Has seen rules:  
> And holds these cards: Blue Cane, Green Box, Green Cane, Red Wreath, White Box, White Candle
> 
> **NAF1138**  
> Holds rules: 1, 4, 8, 11, 15  
> Has seen rules:  
> And holds these cards: Blue Star, Blue Tree, Green Wreath, White Wreath
> 
> **Revenant Threshold**  
> Holds rules: 3, 7, 10, 13, 16  
> Has seen rules:  
> And holds these cards: Blue Cane, Green Candle, Green Star, Red Candle, Red Star (2), White Tree
> 
> **Santo Rugger**  
> Holds rules: 2, 6, 9, 14, 16  
> Has seen rules:  
> And holds these cards: Blue Candle, Green Box, Red Box, Red Cane, White Cane, White Star
> 
> **Uncommon Sense**  
> Holds rules: 1, 5, 8, 12, 18  
> Has seen rules:  
> And holds these cards: Blue Box, Blue Wreath, Green Candle, Red Cane, White Cane, White Wreath
> 
> I’ll come around to help each of you read your numbered rules, and then ring the starting bell to begin trades. Good luck hagglers!

This should be fairly easy to understand, but let’s go through it in a bit more detail. The named items like ‘blue box’ and ‘red tree’ are trading counters, worth points. Each player starts with five rules and the same rule number repeats 2 or 3 times among the set of players. Rule text is not listed here, of course, because it’s secret information.

The only reason that ‘has seen rules’ appears in this post is because I generated it with my usual mid-game update function. Nobody starts off having seen a rule that they don’t hold a copy of, but it’ll happen a lot once trading starts. More on that later.

The full rule set from this game is listed below:

> [@Anybody up for a holiday round of Haggle?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-up-for-a-holiday-round-of-haggle/428904/342):
>
> 1. A cane is worth 3 points to start.
> 
> 2. A candle is worth 5 points to start.
> 
> 3. A star is worth 8 points to start.
> 
> 4. A wreath is worth 15 points to start.
> 
> 5. A box is worth 25 points to start.
> 
> 6. A tree is worth 40 points to start.
> 
> 7. Whoever turns in the most counters of a particular color ‘has control’ of that color. If multiple players tie, then they ‘share control’ of that color.
> 
> 8. Having control of red is worth 50 points.
> 
> 9. Sharing control of red (no matter with how many people) is worth 21 points.
> 
> 10. Having control of green will triple the value of your candles and wreaths.
> 
> 11. Sharing control of green with 1 other player will give you 5 extra points per star.
> 
> 12. Having control of white and at least one blue star will let you ‘steal christmas’ and keep all other players for scoring from their boxes, and any more than one tree per player.
> 
> 13. Sharing control of white (no matter with how many people) will cost you 14 points.
> 
> 14. Having control of blue gives you 6 points per blue item.
> 
> 15. Sharing control of blue with 1 or 2 other people gives you 1 point per green item.
> 
> 16. A red cane is worth a 10-point bonus.
> 
> 17. A green wreath counts double towards green control.
> 
> 18. A white box will double the value of all your canes.

There’s a number of interesting things in this particular set that I could point out. Base value of each counter depends only on its shape/type, (can, tree, etcetera,) and not its color. Then the notion of ‘having control/sharing control’ of a color is introduced in its own rule, followed by the specific implications of that rule with each color. Notice that if you have any of rules 8-15 but not 7, you might not understand the criteria for the bonuses and modifiers mentioned, and if you have only 7 but not any of the others, you have no idea how having or sharing control might affect your score.

I was a bit irrationally proud of the ‘stealing christmas’ rule, and hoped that at least one player would try for it, and come up against a coalition determined to stop him or her, which did sort of happen. Notice also that sharing control of white has a negative point impact, partly as a disincentive for trying to steal christmas and failing.

And finally there’s a small selection of rules that apply to a particular shape-color match.

The first trade that was finalized started with

> [@Anybody up for a holiday round of Haggle?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-up-for-a-holiday-round-of-haggle/428904/69):
>
> I’d also like to extend an offer to anyone (Revenant Offer #2) for a look at my rule #3 in return for a look at your rules #1 or #2 (assuming you have them)

This led to:

> [@Anybody up for a holiday round of Haggle?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-up-for-a-holiday-round-of-haggle/428904/74):
>
> **Revenant** , I accept your offer #2, a look at my rule #1 for a look at rule #3.

And also:

> [@Anybody up for a holiday round of Haggle?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-up-for-a-holiday-round-of-haggle/428904/89):
>
> I’ll do that
> 
> Accept RT offer #2 a look at my rule one for your rule #3

But at this point Rev pointed out that he hadn’t specified that he’d be willing to repeat the trade, so it was off the table once it was accepted.

To get to a sample trade that involves actual trading counter, we’ll follow a slightly more involved series of negotiations - in my next post.

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_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-foolishness-haggle-game-in-progress/493723)._