If I had a million ideas for a board game theme, I still would not have thought of “trading beans”. Uwe Rosenberg did, as his first published game, in 1997! He now has over 100 published titles, and one of the most popular and successful board game designers in the world.
That game is Bohnanza, so this year it is…
25 years old!
Bohnanza still stands up among all the new releases each year, and I would consider it one of the modern board game classics. It packs a lot of punch for such a small box, and it is a simple, yet very good, negotiation game.
Negotiation happens when at least two parties try to reach an agreement, aiming for acceptable terms for everyone involved.
We negotiate in real life all the time: an employee and employer discussing a flexible work arrangement; a team distributing their workload as evenly as possible; siblings deciding who does what chores; me convincing myself to go to bed by 10pm instead of watching another episode… (yes, rational self and emotional self could also count as two parties)
By definition, negotiation is not “winner takes all” or “one-sided”. If an employee seeks a flexible work arrangement but their employer simply does not allow it, no negotiation has taken place, and the result is only acceptable to one party. To some it might even seem like a victory at the time, but in the long-term a relationship without negotiation will never be healthy, compassionate, fair, or supportive.
Negotiation is a complex skill, and so far I am yet to find a game that could capture all the different aspects of it (and I doubt I ever will). But if we want to be good at negotiating, it boils down to these two principles:
understanding what the other person wants, and
be willing to offer something in return.
Bohnanza captures these two principles beautifully, and it will provide your family the perfect training field for Negotiation 101 (and growing beans).
Overview
Age: 8+ years
Skill Level:
Negotiation: 8+ years
Perspective taking: 8+ years
Planning: 8+ years
Players: 2-7 (best with 3-5)
Duration: ~45 mins
Learn the game
Before you read any further, make sure you have a basic understanding of how the game works.
You could watch a quick 5-minute video (thanks Teach The Table) to learn it, or have a quick read of the rules.
How to use this game
Tell the story
Here we prepare a script for you to tell the story and set the scene, making you the greatest storyteller in your kids’ eyes!
We are bean farmers searching for, and growing, all kinds of magic beans!
We are going to plant, trade, and harvest beans. The more beans you have in your fields, the more gold coins you get when you harvest them.
The farmer with the most gold coins at the end of the game will be crowned the best bean farmer and win the game!
Now during your search of beans, others will be doing the same! A good bean farmer will help each other out and at the same time make sure they are getting a good deal when trading.
Through trading and negotiating you will be able to collect the beans you want much faster and efficiently.
Can you master the art of negotiation? Let’s play Bohnanza!
Learning Points
Bohnanza is a very simple game.
Each turn you plant 1-2 beans, then trade as many beans as you want, and then pick up 2 beans. Done!
This fast pace cycle allows you to spend the most time doing the most fun part of the game: trading beans aka negotiation.
In Game & Learn we always talk about practising the skills you are teaching and learning. This is exactly why we are recommending Bohnanza for teaching negotiation: because you are almost constantly negotiating.
On your turn as the active player, you negotiate with the whole table; when you are not the active player, you still need to pay attention to what the active player is doing, try to catch a good deal, and prepare for your next planting. There is not much downtime in this game, which means you won’t get bored between your turns. This makes it fun, engaging and a great way to practice the art of negotiation.
How to use Bohnanza to teach?
Let’s face it, we often want to win it all!
It would be great if my employer completely shaped their work arrangement around my needs, if my team let me only do the work I am interested in, or if house chores got done magically without me lifting a finger… but life simply doesn’t work like that.
So in Bohnanza, we are teaching our children one simple life rule: you can’t have it all.
You and your kids will constantly run into similar situations like:
You’d like the Garden Bean that I have? Cool, but you will need to give me something for it in return.
I want to get rid of my Stink Bean but no one wants it… well I better sweeten the deal and add extra beans so someone will take it.
I am interested in doing this trade, but my Red Bean is worth a lot more than what you are offering, so what else can you offer me…?
How do I minimise my loss in this situation?
The family will naturally be negotiating when playing Bohnanza. If your child is a bit stuck and not willing to, they will soon find out that not trading, negotiating, or working with others is actually very bad for business. And through this low-stakes gaming environment, congratulations, your family is now learning how to negotiate.
In Bohnanza, the process of negotiation usually look something like this:
Articulate a need - “I want your Blue Bean”
Take other people’s perspective - “I can see you are collecting Coffee Beans”
Offer a trade-off - “How about I give you 1 Coffee Bean for your 1 Blue Bean”
Deal with a counter-offer - “Sorry, I can’t offer you what you want. Best I could offer is 2 Coffee Beans”
Accept a deal - “Excellent! Happy doing business with you”; or
Walk away from a bad deal - “Sorry this trade doesn’t work for me”
Now this all sounds great but you might be thinking: how does negotiating with fake beans actually help my kids in real life?!
Well, let’s imagine your two children both want to watch TV. Would you rather it goes like this:
Brother, “It’s my turn to watch TV!”
Sister, “No it’s not!”
Brother, “But it is!” (takes TV remote and change channel)
Sister, starts to cry and runs to you
You, “No one gets to watch TV!” then deal with the crying and screaming.
Or would you rather it goes like this:
Brother, “I would like to watch TV, Pokémon is on” (Articulate their need)
Sister, “But I am watching Bluey” (Articulate their need)
Brother, “I can see you are watching something you like (Take other’s perspective). How about I come back in 5 mins (Offer a trade-off)?”
Sister, “It goes for another 15!” (Counter-offer)
Brother, “Ok I will wait for 15 mins, but I get to choose what to watch for 30 mins after that. How does that sound?” (Deal with counter offer)
Sister, “Deal!”
Brother, “Great! I will be back in 15!” (Accept a deal)
You, watch all these in the background and be super proud, thanking Game & Learn for telling you about Bohnanza.
(Okay so I might be a bit optimistic about the very last bit, but hopefully you see how every negotiation can be breaking down to the similar steps captured by the negotiations play out in Bohnanza.)
Pro tips to game and learn
Here are a few pro tips for you to get the most out of Bohnanza in a classroom, corporate, or therapy setting.
The two general principles of negotiation
As you are teaching your children how to negotiate for best outcomes, remember the two key principles we mentioned earlier:
Understanding what the other person wants, and
Willing to offer something in return
What we say and do might take different forms in different circumstances; as long as we follow these two principles, we won’t do too badly.
Spell it out for your kids
Learning is heaps easier when you can see someone else doing it first. For your kids, that someone is you. If you want your kids to learn how to negotiate better, to take others’ perspective, or to articulate their needs, you can use our examples above and demonstrate them inside or outside of games.
Adapt the game length
Bohnanza generally goes for longer with a higher play count, we think it works best for 3-5 players. For 5 players, our experience is it lasts a bit over an hour, especially when there are new players to the game.
One way to adapt your game length is to take out a type of bean. For example you can take out Coffee Beans (24 cards) which will shorten the game by about 10 mins.
The second way is to adjust how many cards you pick up at the end of the round. If you adjust it from 2 to 3, it also allows more cards in circulation and makes the game shorter.
Great for travel
Bohnanza packs a big punch for such a small box, and it doesn’t require a large surface. Take it when your family is travelling, and it might just create some great memories!
We hope you enjoyed our second game recommendation in the communication series! Please help us out by giving us a rating and feedback below. We would love it even more if you share our newsletter with your friends and families!
Otherwise, if you have any questions or any suggestions on what educational skills you’d like to teach your kids then leave a comment below.
We will be back in a fortnight for another game recommendation!
Until next time, game and learn with Bohnanza!
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