Components

• 8 wood apple halves
• 10 half apple tokens
• 75 whole apple tokens Granny's apple basket

Object of the Game

Collect apple tokens by correctly counting the total number of apples scattered in play. Be the player with the most apple tokens when Granny's Basket has 12 apples.

Setup

Look over the 8 wood apple halves. Notice that four show apple halves on the flat side and the others feature respectively a worm, a bird, an apple pie and a picture of Granny. Each apple counts for a different amount depending on how it lands.

Place Granny's Basket on one end of the playing area. Remove the lid of the box and put it off to the side. Use the bottom half as the "orchard" and place it within reach of all players. Keep all of the whole and half apple tokens in the orchard.

The Orchard Keeper

Granny Apples is divided into rounds. In each round, one player does not compete for counting apples and instead plays the Orchard Keeper. The Orchard Keeper has the following responsibilities:

• Rolls the apple halves.
• Judges who was the first person to shout a number.
• Verifies the correct number of apples rolled.
• Awards or penalizes the other players according to who shouted first.
• Puts apples into Granny's basket if indicated.

For the first round, the oldest player is the Orchard Keeper but for subsequent rounds, the winner of the previous round plays it.

Game Play

The Orchard Keeper takes all eight apple halves, shakes them and rolls them onto the playing surface. Once they land, all other players, without taking turns, race to count the total number of apples scattered in play and be the first to shout out the correct number.

Apple Values

An apple that lands half-side down counts as one whole apple.

An apple that lands half-side up counts as one half apple.

Worm - Does not count as an apple but subtract one whole apple from the total every time it shows up.

Bird - Does not count as an apple but eats the worm if it appears at the same time. Ignore both bird and worm apples when counting. No action if bird shows up by itself. Simply don't count it.

Pie - Does not count as an apple but subtract the equivalent of two apples from the total every time it appears (two whole apples, one whole apple and two half apples or four half apples).

Granny - Does not count as an apple but the Orchard Keeper puts one whole apple token from the orchard into Granny's basket every time she appears.

Granny Apples

On the rare chance all eight apples wind up half-side up, the first player to shout "Granny Apples!" wins two whole apple tokens from each player.

Also, Granny receives two apple tokens from the orchard. (Any player with less than two apples gives what they have).

Notes

• Players must count silently.

• No player may touch or block the apples while counting.

• Apples are allowed to overlap when they land. However, if any land on the long side or if it's difficult to tell which side they landed on, the Orchard Keeper must re-roll them.

• If you can't see all of the apples after they've landed, shout "Re-roll!" This immediately stops the round and the Orchard Keeper must re-roll them.

End of a Round and Scoring

As soon as a player shouts out a number, the round ends immediately and the Orchard Keeper (along with the other players) checks to verify the correct number of apples in play.

• If the player shouted out the correct number, the Orchard Keeper awards the player with the corresponding number of apple tokens from the orchard. (Players keep their apple tokens in a pile in front of them).

• If the player shouted the wrong number, the Orchard Keeper collects half of the player's apple tokens and puts them back in the orchard. If the number of tokens contains a fraction, round down to the nearest whole number and take half. (For example, if a player has 9 apples, the Orchard Keeper takes 4.5. If she has 5.5 apples, the Orchard Keeper takes 2.5).

Once the apple tokens have been awarded or collected, the winner becomes the new Orchard Keeper and rolls all the apple halves to start a new round. (If the round ended in a tie or with no winner, the player to the left of the Orchard Keeper becomes the new one).

Breaking Ties

If more than one player shouts out a number at the same time, the Orchard Keeper decides who shouted first and settles ties:

• If two or more shouted the correct number, the Orchard Keeper may award the appropriate number of apple tokens to each correct player.

• If two or more shouted out numbers but only some were correct, the Orchard Keeper may award apple tokens to the correct players but also collect apple tokens from those who shouted the wrong number.

Examples:

The correct number of apples shown is 4. Each face down apple counts as one whole apple (=4). Each face up apple counts as half an apple (2 halves = 1). Subtract one apple because the worm appears. The Orchard Keeper puts one apple token in Granny's Basket because she appears.

The correct number of apples shown is 1.5. Each face down apple counts as one whole apple (=2). Each face up apple counts as half an apple (3 halves = 1.5). Subtract two apples because the pie appears. Bird cancels out worm.

End of the Game

The game is over as soon as Granny's basket has 12 apple tokens.

Alternately, the game may end when there are no more apple tokens left in the orchard. At either point, all players count up their apple tokens and whoever has the most wins.

For a longer or shorter game, decide on a different number of apples for Granny's Basket before playing.

For Younger Players

Play according to the above rules, except that it's not a race to count apples. Instead, players each take turns rolling and counting the apples. All other players check to verify the correct number rolled.

For Advanced Play

There are plenty of different ways to make the game trickier.

Feel free to try these rules or make up your own!

• When the bird appears at the same time as the worm, count the apple with the worm on it as half an apple.

• When the bird appears at the same time as the pie, the bird eats the pie and cancels out the pie's power.

• When Granny appears at the same time as the bird, she scares away the bird. (Ignore bird but count worm if it also appears).

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