A table game for four about delays. Nobody does anything foolish, and still the farm ends up with lemons piled to the ceiling. It is a retelling of the "beer game" that Jay Forrester's group at MIT began using in the 1960s.
How to play · 4 players, about 30 minutes
Sit in a row: the stand, the shop, the warehouse, the farm. Each seat starts with 12 crates (coins or buttons).
Each turn the stand serves that turn's customers, and every seat ships what it is asked for, if it has it. What it can't ship, it owes.
Each seat writes an order on a slip and passes it up the line. Slips take two turns to arrive, and so do crates coming back down. The farm's own lemons also take two turns to grow.
Don't talk across the line. Each seat sees only its own slips and crates.
Customers: 4 a turn for the first four turns, then 8 a turn from turn 5. Only the stand knows this.
After twenty turns, lay everyone's orders side by side and talk about what happened.
Watch a run first
What happens when every seat orders sensibly
Each seat orders what it was just asked for, plus a quarter of the gap to its 12 comfortable crates. It doesn't count what is already on the way, which is what most of us do.
Customers at the stand
Stand orders
Farm orders
Customers at the stand: starts at 4, ends at 8, highest 8. Stand orders: starts at 4, ends at 8, highest 14. Farm orders: starts at 4, ends at 40, highest 49.
Biggest swing in orders: stand 10, shop 22, warehouse 38, farm 45 crates. The customers changed by 4.
Seat sheets
Print this page for one sheet per seat.
Stand
Start: 12 crates. Each turn: take in arriving crates, ship what you're asked, write your order.
Stand ledger
Turn
Crates in
Asked for
Shipped
Owed
Crates left
My order
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Shop
Start: 12 crates. Each turn: take in arriving crates, ship what you're asked, write your order.
Shop ledger
Turn
Crates in
Asked for
Shipped
Owed
Crates left
My order
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Warehouse
Start: 12 crates. Each turn: take in arriving crates, ship what you're asked, write your order.
Warehouse ledger
Turn
Crates in
Asked for
Shipped
Owed
Crates left
My order
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Farm
Start: 12 crates. Each turn: take in arriving crates, ship what you're asked, write your order.
Farm ledger
Turn
Crates in
Asked for
Shipped
Owed
Crates left
My order
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Afterwards: three questions
When did you first feel short of crates? What did you do about it?
Which seat's orders swung the most? Was anyone at that seat doing anything foolish?
What would have helped more: ordering harder, or counting what was already on its way?