How to play
Each round one player is the Warden at the pond gate and everyone else is a trader. Traders fill their hands to six cards, then all at once pack a bag of one to five cards and say what’s in it, like “three bread”. The number is always true, and you can only name a legal good: bread, seeds, reeds or snails. You don’t have to tell the truth about the rest: you can sneak in other goods, or contraband (pearls, glowberries and golden eggs), which is worth much more. You can also add a bribe.
The Warden then deals with each bag. Let it through and the Warden keeps any bribe. Open it and check: if the trader told the truth, the Warden pays them each card’s fine. If not, the trader loses every card they didn’t declare and pays those fines to the Warden. Goods that make it through go on the trader’s stall. Legal goods sit face up; smuggled contraband stays face down until the end.
Everyone takes a turn as Warden (once or twice, as you choose). Then you score your coins, plus each good on your stall (bread 2, seeds and reeds 3, snails 4, pearls 7, glowberries 8, golden eggs 10), plus 10 for having the most bread, seeds, reeds or snails (5 each if tied). The highest score wins.
Tips
An honest bag now and then makes the Warden trust you, and the next fib gets through. A bribe makes a bag look guilty, so try one on an honest bag sometimes. As Warden, opening honest bags costs you coins, so open the big bags, the bribers and anyone caught before.