I once had someone e-mail and ask for Gold Rush instructions
so they could play at a family reunion. Here are my notes from Gold Rush week.
GOLD RUSH
(Here are instructions from the Oakcrest handout, you'll have to adapt it for
your group.)
Pre-party Prep:
Split your girls into 2 families and gather enough bandanas to tie the
individual families wrists together. This is called family bonding. Mamas and
Papas go on the ends so they have a free hand, all the "kids" are in
between. Each family also needs a stake with their family name on it to claim
gold. It is not necessary for the
stake/stick to be able to stand because you just lay it on top of the gold. The family needs to attach to the stick a
paper with their family surname on it. MANDATORY, each girl must paint 50
yellow rocks. (At camp we used yellow powder tempra paint. We'd mix it with
water in #10 cans and would put the rocks in. Then dump them on butcher paper
and they would dry in the sun. Often we
would run out of yellow paint and sometimes had to use orange too. It’s camp, you gotta be flexible right!)
The girls would paint their rocks the first part of the
week. The day of the event we would load all those painted rocks into crates
and load them into the gator. We would drive the paths of camp and sprinkle the
yellow rocks as we drove.
How to Play:
(I need to insert one of the best things about Gold Rush was
dressing up. You have to dress up, it
makes it so much more fun!)
1) Find a pile of gold and set your family stake on it to
claim it
2) Run to the bank and take out a loan (only done the first
time, they will have money after this)
3) Run to the General Store to buy mining equipment
4) Go to the Claims Office to buy a deed for legal gold
mining
5) Return to claimed pile with equipment and deed to collect
gold
6) Lay twine in a circle, all gold within it becomes yours,
put it in your bag, but do not move gold from outside the twine circle or you
can be arrested!
7) Go to the Assayer's to trade your gold for money
8) Repeat process (don't forget to pay off your debt ASAP)
BANK
At the beginning of the rush, the
families will come to you for a loan. Give each family $500
in $100
bills. After each family has received one loan, go to the Assayer's office to
help. For our money, we just photo copied different camp people's faces and put them in the center of the bill. Each bill increment was copied on different colors of paper so it was easy to tell the value of the bill based off of the color of paper.
GENERAL STORE
The families will come to you in search of mining equipment. They will pay you $100
each time in return for the bag with the twine in it so they can mine their
gold.
CLAIMS OFFICE
The families will pay $100
for a deed. Make sure they sign it, put it in their equipment bag and let them
go. They MUST buy a new deed for every pile of gold they mine.
ASSAYERS OFFICE
After mining the gold, they will bring you their treasures in return for
Oakcrest money. For each yellow rock give them $100,
for each gold rock give them $500.
For the BIG ONE give them $1,000,000. (We would spray paint a rock that was
larger than a softball but smaller than a basketball, we would hide the golden
nugget along the trail. This was the "big enchilada" they were all
looking for.)
JAIL
When robbers challenge a family, both parties must go to the jail to resolve
their dispute. Whoever wins the challenge receives the gold. If robbers lose
they must stay in jail for 3 minutes or pay $5,000
bail. Sheriff’s patrol and if a family is caught breaking any laws they are
also brought to the jail. Law breaking families must also pay $5,000
bail or sit in jail for 3 minutes. Be very stern.
ROBBER DESCRIPTION
Robber families are also tied by their wrists like gold rushing families.
Robber families spend the evening challenging other families for their gold.
After gold rushing families put their gold in their bag, robbers can declare a
challenge on that family. Both families report to the jail for a showdown
unless the gold rush family gives up their gold to save time. (For showdown
challenges you can do anything from rock, paper, scissors or minute to win it
challenges.) The winner now has the rights to the gold. If the gold rush family
wins, they leave in peace while the robbers wait in jail for 3 minutes or pay
bail of $5,000.
HOWEVER, if the robbers win, the gold rushing family must decide if they want
to re-challenge. If the gold rushing family doesn’t want to re-challenge, the
robbers leave with the gold peacefully and the gold rushing family restarts the
process of mining for gold. If the gold rushing family does want a
re-challenge, the robbers have 2 minutes to hide and the gold rushing family
has 3 minutes to find them. If the robbers are not found, good for them, the
gold is theirs and they are free to terrorize Gold Rock Gully again. If the
gold rushing family does find them, the robbers lose all rights to the gold and
the cycle begins again.
SHERIFF DESCRIPTION
Our kitchen staff would roam Gold Rock Gully looking for families to arrest. If
you are arrested you must stay in jail for 3 minutes or pay $5,000 bail.
You can be arrested for:
-Disturbing the peace (fighting 'n arguing)
-Speeding (running too fast for any member of the family to keep up)
-Breaking family bonds (your bandanas come off your wrists)
-Breaking the deed (putting gold inside your string circle that doesn't belong
there)
-Bagging the gold without a deed
We would set a time limit and after that time limit was up
all the gold was cashed in for Oakcrest money and then we would hold an
auction.
