# Spoons — grab a coin when someone makes four

- From: Spoons, a party card game, played here with coins
- Players: 3–6 players
- Time: 5–8 min
- Made by: Traditional
- This version: Coins in place of spoons, a substitute Pagat lists

Made with boardgameBuilder 0.14.4. To design from it, open boardgameBuilder and choose Open game: its blocks go on the canvas, and the feelings are left for you to pick.

Cards move quickly round the circle, one at a time, while everyone tries to collect four of a kind. In the middle sit coins, one fewer than the players. When one player takes a coin, everyone else grabs one too, and whoever is left without one loses the round.

## What it shows a designer

A quiet card game that ends in a scramble, with one fewer coin than players. It shows how adding a physical race to a hidden race changes what players watch.

## What you need

- a standard deck
- coins or pebbles, one fewer than the players

## How to play

1. **Set up.** Deal four cards to each player and put the rest face down by the dealer. Put one fewer coin than there are players in the middle.
2. **Pass along.** The dealer draws a card from the pile, keeps four, and passes one card face down to the left. Each player picks up the card passed to them, keeps four, and passes one on. The last player puts their card on a waste pile; when the dealer's pile runs out, the waste pile is turned over and used again. Nobody waits for turns.
3. **Four of a kind.** When you hold four cards of the same rank, quietly take a coin from the middle.
4. **Grab.** As soon as anyone takes a coin, everyone else may grab one too.
5. **Left out.** The player without a coin loses the round.

## After playing, talk about

- Were you watching the cards or the coins?
- How did the speed feel?
- Did anyone take a coin without four of a kind?

## Where the rules are written down

- https://www.pagat.com/eights/spoons.html
- https://www.nps.gov/articles/spoons.htm

## Its blocks

- Core mechanic: set collection; dexterity
- Victory condition: one loser
- Player interaction: direct confrontation
- Chance or skill: chance with mitigation
- Information visibility: hidden hands
- Timing: no turns

## Saved state

boardgameBuilder reads this part back when the file is opened.

```json
{"mechanics": {"core-mechanic": ["set-collection", "dexterity"], "victory-condition": "one-loser", "player-interaction": "direct-confrontation", "chance-skill": "chance-with-mitigation", "information": "hidden-hands", "timing": ["no-turns"]}, "chosenFeelings": [], "previousMechanics": {}, "previousFeelings": [], "turnNumber": 0, "locked": false, "turnHistory": [], "answers": {}, "tests": {}}
```