Renfield PDF
This is the mostly-original version of Renfield from Cheapass Games, with PDF files for cards, envelope, and rules.
As with all our print-and-play files, the price for this product is strictly optional. You may also download it for free using the first link below.
Renfield was one of the original Cheapass Games, #019.
Release Year: 1998
Game Type: Card Game
Designer: James Ernest
Artist: Michael O’Connor
Players: 4 to 7
Playing Time: 30 Minutes
Components to Print: Cards, Rules
You Also Need: Chips
Mmm, Bugs. You can’t eat just one.
Did you ever wonder what the gravediggers in Parts Unknown do in their spare time? Of course not! But we suspect that they play this game from dawn to dusk.
Renfield is trick-taking gambling game, where the goal is to eat the fewest bugs (i.e., score the fewest points), as long as you eat at least one. One interesting upshot of the “at least one” rule is that shooting the moon (that is, winning by taking all the points) is built into the core rules. If you take all the bugs, then nobody else got any, so they don’t qualify to win.
The Renfield deck has three suits numbered 0 through 17, for a total of 54 cards. The game has a pretty decent flow and was once called “too good to be a Cheapass Game” by someone who should have known better. This version includes many variants on the core game, just as you might expect in a well-aged card game.
Links:
Related Games: Crab Fragment makes another three-suited deck, called Fairmarket. We’re not sure if it can play Renfield, because it doesn’t have the markings for dollars and bugs. We’re still working on it.
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