Components

• one sack of beans
• a height measurer
• 70 wooden building blocks
• Instructions.

Setup

All pieces are placed on the table in easy view and reach of all players. Each player is given a pool of 10 tokens, which must be plainly visible to all players. Each player should have a flat, stable play area roughly 2 feet square.

Game Elements

• Foundation & Tower

  The first piece you place is called your foundation, which is the only piece that is allowed to touch the table surface. The foundation and all other pieces stacked on it are collectively called your tower.

  All other pieces must be balanced on the foundation or on another piece in your tower.

• Placing Pieces

  Once you have accepted a piece, either by placing the winning bid during a Build or receiving a piece from a Push, you must place it on your tower before play can proceed.

  You may not touch your tower or move pieces you have already placed; however, you may use an accepted piece to adjust the position of pieces already placed on your tower.

  Once you let go of a piece, it has been placed and cannot be picked back up or adjusted except by the above method.

• Pool

  A player's remaining tokens. All players start with 10 tokens and do not gain any more during the game.

• Tower Collapse

  Your tower is considered to have collapsed if, at any time and for any reason, a piece other than your foundation touches the table surface; this includes pieces that you have accepted and are in the process of placing.

  When a tower collapses, that player is out of the game: all of their pieces are immediately put back into the supply and all their tokens returned to the bank.

  If a tower collapses on a player's turn but before they have chosen a piece for a Build or Push, they may immediately make use of the new pieces. A tower may collapse such that the force of the impact or a scattering piece hits another player's tower and causes theirs to collapse.

Game Play

Starting with the youngest player, the order of play proceeds clockwise. On your turn, you have two options: Build or Push. Once this is resolved, the turn passes to the next player.

Build

Select a piece from the pile: you may pick up any piece(s) and examine it/them, but may not touch your tower or anyone else's tower with it.

Choose an opening bid, which can be zero: starting with the next player clockwise, players may either pass or set a higher bid (up to the number of tokens they have remaining) for ownership of the piece.

If a player passes, they may no longer bid on that piece. The highest bidder pays that amount to the bank and immediately places the piece. If the piece is the player's first piece, it becomes their foundation.

If it is your turn and you are outbid for a piece, you must either choose another piece to Build, or you may choose to Push (see below).

Push

Select a piece from the pile: you may pick up any piece(s) and examine it/them, but may not touch your tower or anyone else's tower with it. The piece goes to the next player, who must either accept the piece and immediately place it or immediately pay 1 token to the bank to pass it to the next player.

That player may either accept the piece or pay tokens to the bank to pass it. Each time it is passed, the cost of passing it increases by 1 token: the second player to receive the piece must pay 2 to pass it, the third must pay 3 tokens, and so on.

End of the Game

The winner is the player whose tower is the last to be standing, even if only briefly before it collapses. If all of the pieces have been successfully placed and more than one player remains, the game ends in a draw.

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