A spicy game of brewing and trading
4-8 Players · Ages 7+ · 5+ Minutes
Chai Wallah is a game about Indian tea vendors fulfilling rather particular orders for Chai — a bold, sweet, milky, spiced Indian tea.
- 20 Chai order cards
- 4-8 Tea dice (black)
- 4-8 Spice dice (red)
- 4-8 Sugar dice (brown)
- 4-8 Milk dice (white)
Shuffle the Chai order cards and place them face-down as a draw pile within easy reach of all players.
Each player takes a set of four dice, each representing a chai ingredient: tea (black), spice (red), sugar (brown), and milk (white).
Turn over the top three chai orders from the draw deck and place them so that they are visible to all players.
Each player is a Chai Wallah, a tea vendor, attempting to fulfill tea orders as quickly as possible.
There are no turns in Chai Wallah: all players play simultaneously.
The first player to fulfill 3 chai orders and yell "Chai!" wins the game.
Yell "Chai!" and the game begins...
All players simultaneously roll their four dice to determine what ingredients they have on hand to start with.
Game play consists of two simultaneous activities, performed simultaneously by all players: matching and trading.
Players fulfill tea orders by matching their four ingredient dice with one of the face-up tea order cards.
1s are wild, matching any number of the correct ingredient. For example, a tea order requiring 5 spice would be considered fulfilled by rolling a 1 on the red Spice die.
The first player to make a match yells "Chai!", halting the game temporarily...
- The player places their matching ingredient dice on the tea order card, allowing the other players to see that the correct tea was indeed prepared.
- The player takes their dice off the card and turns it over in front of them.
- Turn over the top tea order card on the draw stack to replace the fulfilled order.
- The player yells "Chai!", re-rolls all their ingredient dice, and the game resumes.
Players’ ingredient dice will not usually match one of the face-up tea orders by mere chance alone — that said, it can and will happen more often than seems fair.
To brew a matching tea combination will require holding some ingredient dice and trading others with your fellow players...
- Cover one or more ingredient dice you’d like to trade with your hand.
- Call out the ingredient or ingredients up for trade — only their type (e.g. "sugar" or "sugar and spice"), not their value.
- Find a matching trade: another player calling out one or more of the same ingredients or offering to trade with you.
- Agree on what ingredient or ingredients you’re trading. You must trade ingredients of the same type: sugar for sugar / sugar + tea for sugar + tea.
- Simultaneously place the ingredient die or dice you’re trading in front of the other player without changing their value.
- If the ingredient or ingredients match the type and value you needed for a match, continue playing. If not, you may roll any or all of the ingredient dice you received in trade and continue playing.
The only time you may re-roll any of your ingredient dice is when you’ve matched an order (see step 4 of "Matching" above) or after concluding a trade (see step 6 of "Trading" above).
Won’t the game get boisterous?
I would certainly hope so. You’re dueling tea vendors in an Indian market vying for business: if the game isn’t boisterous, you’re playing it wrong ;-).
Why is the sugar die brown?
Tea in rural India is traditionally prepared with Jaggery, a golden-brown unrefined whole cane sugar.
Can you trade any number of dice?
Yes. You may trade a single die (e.g. "sugar"), multiple dice (e.g. "sugar and spice"), or, indeed, all of your dice by calling out "everything." This is the only way outside of matching a tea order of re-rolling all of your dice — and a helpful way to reset after someone claims the order you were going for.
Game design: Rael Dornfest
Chai Wallah came to me over a boisterous meal of Indian street fare at Vik’s Chaat Corner in Berkeley, California.
BGG Category: Dice, Party Game, Real-time
BGG Mechanic: Dice Rolling, Set Collection, Trading
Symbology: "Cinnamon" symbol by Alessandro Suraci, "Sugar" symbol by Jakob Vogel, "Tea Bag" symbol by Kenneth Appiah, "Milk" symbol, and "Teapot" symbol from The Noun Project collection.