2017 MGS Holiday Swap Event Cache

The schedule:

11.30am–Noon: Set-up
Noon–1pm: Registration and potluck meal
1pm: The games begin!
3–3.30pm: Clean-up (many hands make light work!)

What to bring:

• Yourself, family, and geocaching friends
• Food for a potluck meal; please post what you will bring with your attend log or separate write-note
• A wrapped gift for the Holiday Swap (optional)
• Trackables and coins to trade and discover

Gifts:

• If you wish to participate - the theme is Geocaching!
• Gifts should be valued around $10 to $15
• Gifts should be wrapped or in an envelope before arriving at the meet. Gift bags are okay as long as the wrapped item is inside
• As guests arrive the gifts will be placed in an area where few people can see who brought which gift. All efforts will be made to conceal who brought which gift

Last year we adjusted the rules in the interest of streamlining the game and maintaining the excitement level throughout the afternoon. Since the new rules were well-received, we will use them again this year.

The gameplay:

1. All participating guests will draw numbers when they enter and retain the slips of paper.
2. The playing field consists of a gift table and 10 chairs arranged side-by-side in a single row.
3. On the first turn, Player 1 (the guest with slip #1) will choose a gift and open it for all to admire. Player 1 then sits in the first chair.
4. Each successive player has the choice of choosing a wrapped gift from the table or ‘stealing’ an unwrapped gift from a seated player.
   • If the new player chooses a wrapped gift, the turn ends. All seated players move over one chair with the gifts they are holding, and the player with the recently chosen wrapped gift sits in the first chair. If there was a player in the tenth chair, that player leaves the game with the gift he was holding. The next turn commences.
   • If the new player decides to steal a gift from a seated player, the seated player surrenders his gift AND SEATING POSITION to the new player. The new player sits in that same seat with the stolen gift, and the bereft player now has the option to select a wrapped gift from the table or steal a gift from another seated player. (He may not steal back the same gift.) The turn ends when a wrapped gift is chosen from the table.
5. The gift exchange continues until the last wrapped gift is opened. Guests are encouraged to perpetuate the gift stealing while gifts are in play, but no one is obligated to do so.

Points of clarification:

• When a gift is stolen, the ‘thief’ sits in the chair vacated by the player from whom the gift was stolen.
• If a gift is stolen, the player from whom it was stolen may open a wrapped gift or steal a gift from another player.
• Once a gift is stolen from a player, that player may not steal it back in the same turn.
• Each gift may be stolen a maximum of 3 times per turn.
• Players holding gifts in play must keep them visible and display them when requested.
• Each gift moves down the line with every turn (chair 1, then chair 2, and so on) regardless of which player is holding it. The gift never moves back to the beginning of the line; only the players do. This means that (with the exception of the final 9 gifts chosen) each gift is in play for exactly 10 turns.

We hope you will join us in December for good friends, good food and good fun!