Café International Rules
Table for 2? or a seat at the Bar?

1. Preparation
With  /join you can join the game; 
With  /start  the game is started (2-4 players) 

Alternatively, you can use the game tool!

2. The game

In this international café, colorful ladies and gentlemen from 12 nations enjoy the company of each other at the various tables and the bar. Each player starts the game with 5 tiles, each representing one guest. Players then place guests at the the tables to score points.

3. The turn sequence

On their turn, a player may choose one of the following 3 actions:

  1. Place one or two guests at tables.
  2. Place one guest at the bar.
  3. replace a joker with a guest and bring the joker into their hand
After the player performs one of these actions, they refill their hand to 5 guests. Except when a player fills a "single nationality" table. They then draw one fewer tile. This is a permanent reduction in their hand size.

1) Placing guests:

Guests can only be placed at tables according to the following rules:

  • When seating guests at tables the player must score some points. If a player seats a guest at an empty table, they must seat a second guest at that table(on the same turn) unless the first guest scores points.
  • Guests can only be seated at a table of their own nationality, each table has a flag that indicates what guests may sit at that table. Some chairs face 2 tables and thus the player has a choice of nationalities that may sit there.
  • No guest may sit totally alone, they must be part of a group at at least one table.(there is one exception, the first play of the game)
  • Either an equal amount of men and women or at most one more than the other can be placed at a table. The following combinations are allowed:
    • 1 lady, 1 gentleman
    • 1 lady, 2 gentlemen
    • 2 ladies, 1 gentleman
    • 2 ladies, 2 gentlemen
  • A joker can be played as any nationality.

2) Seating guests at the bar:

In their turn, instead of placing a guests at tables, a player can place one guest at the bar. There are 20 seats at the bar, each guest is placed at the first open seat, scoring (some plus, some minus) the listed amount of points.
Jokers may not be seated at the bar unless the player has no other legal move.

If by placing a guest at the Bar, your point total goes negative, you are out of the game. The remaining players continue playing. If only one player remaining has 0 or more points then the games ends and that player is the winner.

 

3) Replacing a Joker:

A player may replace a joker, that is seated at a table, with the appropriate nationality guest and take the joker into their hand. This scores no points. At the end of the game, unplayed jokers score minus 10 points each.

4. Scoring

One guest at a table scores no points. With 2 or more guests at a table points are earned as follows:

  • 1 point per guest at the table, if there are different nationalities at the table
  • 2 points per guest at the table, if all guests have the same nationality

Guest seated at the bar, earn the points(either plus or minus) indicated on the bar seat.
At the end of the game players lose 5 points for each guest in their hand and 10 points for each joker left in their hand.

5. Game End

Café International ends when of the following 5 conditions occur:

  • All 20 bar seats are occupied
  • All chairs at the tables are occupied
  • Only 4 guest tiles are left
  • A player has a hand size of zero(having created 5 single nationality tables)
  • All players except 1 have a negative point total

Translated by TheBoomer