Lunchcounters – SG Publishing Team

Object of the Game:

Overturn Unjust Laws and Practices to earn more points

than the other players by the end of the game.

Gameplay Beginning and Overview:

Each player chooses a player card, with five cubes and

a player piece that matches the color of that player card.

Each round begins with players selecting their daily

moves, secretly; then revealing at the same time.

Game play moves clockwise starting with the Soda Jerk.

The Soda Jerk for Round 1 is the youngest player.

Each round has three parts: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.

All Breakfast moves are resolved starting with the Soda Jerk and moving clockwise taking one move at a time until none remain. Each Breakfast move allows the player to select two Breakfast cards that can be used in the right combination with others to acquire a Lunch card.

All Lunch moves are resolved in the same manner. A Lunch Move allows a player to exchange the right number and combination of Breakfast cards for a Lunch card currently in the Lunchcounter area to the upper and right side of the game board. Negotiation Dice rolls determine if/when the unjust law or practice on the Lunch card is overturned. Once overturned, the player moves along the game board bar stools, and the Breakfast card icon in the upper left of the Lunch card becomes a bonus card for acquiring future Lunch cards.

Certain dice rolls can end negotiations unsuccessfully. When this happens, a Dinner Move may be used to reopen negotiations with a bonus for future Negotiation rolls. All Dinner moves are resolved in the same manner as Breakfast and Lunch rolls.

Finally, the Soda Jerk card is passed counterclockwise (unless it has been claimed via another game move) and that player becomes the Soda Jerk for the next round.

When the last card from any of the Kitchen Stacks is drawn (Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner Card Decks), that round is finished, and one final round is played. Whichever player has the most points at the end of the final round wins!!

Why overturn Unjust Laws and Practices in Lunchcounters?

Many of the more influential Nonviolent Campaigns in the early 1960s, took place at Lunchcounters across the United States.

Lunchcounter &reg

Serving up Breakfast, Lunch and Justice since somebody's gotta do it!

Lunchcounter Gameboard and Game Elements

Lunchcounter Gameboard with Playercards right2

Lunchcounter, Standard Edition……..$58.95

Add to Cart

Ballad of the Dented Entry Diner

There once was a diner

like jewels to a miner

that served hearty meals to the cold.

Smiles put you at ease

and burgers with cheese

for less than a quarter were sold.

The waitresses’ wisecracks

were warm as the flapjacks

and swell as the sizzlin’ bacon.

You ate all you could

the grub was so good,

and what you couldn’t,

you’d take home.

One day, job-starved and sick,

with an accent too thick,

someone busted the diner’s front door.

In spite of his work

they fed him, and made him a soda-jerk.

Now he serves malted-milk, floats

and more.

Then, a restaurateur

who cared more who you were

than your actions or virtues and vices

began spreading rumors

that some folks were tumors

and started a lunchcounter crisis.

The laws they enacted

said some folks were backward

and had to eat far from the rest.

But the diner refused

to segregate booths:

each patron of theirs was a guest.

From cities and hilltops,

from housework and sockhops

despised people came to confer

and, outcasts assembled,

we hardly resembled

an army, but fighters we were.

Folks down on their luck

now come spend a buck

crossing the ramshackle entry.

They chew meals with lust

and fight laws unjust

and go to sleep easy and gently.

But the owner’s made plans

to hang up his pans and

bequeathe his grill after a test.

Someone he’d conclude could

serve more than good food and

and organize people oppressed.

So if you’d like to try

something sweeter than pie

the diner could be in your forecast.

Don’t expect great applause as

you change hearts and laws just

the joy of a lunchcounter outcast.

Lunchcounter Game Premise:

John Dignity, the owner of The Dented Entry Diner, a 1950s diner, is retiring and giving the business to whichever player has the most success in overturning unjust laws.

Players use card-collecting, engine-building, resource management, some dice-rolling, and worker-placement features.

Game elements are based on Rev./Dr King’s criteria for distinguishing just and unjust laws, as well as his steps in any Nonviolent Campaign. Players take on the role of groups who have been the object of segregation or unjust laws and practices generally:

The Lunchcounter Outcasts!

Each uses one of the undeserved names that members of these marginalized groups are sometimes called by those who do not support them:

Young Hooligans:

Rowdy kids who some wrongly believe only want to cause trouble are the Young Hooligans

Whining Weaklings:

People taught to think they have little physical or financial power are the Whining Weaklings

Pesky Parasites

People incorrectly seen as a burden on society’s resources are the Pesky Parasites

Half-Brains:

People called unintelligent by those who do not understand
them or their circumstances are the Half-Brains.

Gameplay Rules:

The standard rules for gameplay are called the 1956 Menu, while the advanced rules are called the 1964 Menu. While there are some opportunities for mutually beneficial trades and working together, this is a competitive game of nonviolent organization and action.

The Box

Other than housing game elements and having a cover image that gets you to buy and open it, (Thank you to graphic artist, Artem Shukaev!), the box doesn’t do much else for the game. This gamebox is made from repurposed, commercial glassware packaging: lighter than other game boxes, but strong, and since it is repurposed, better for the environment.

It takes some time and effort, but we think it’s worth it, and others do as well. In her May 2023 Grid Philly article, Dawn Kane writes “Reusing boxes doesn’t just save cardboard. According to a peer-reviewed study on the lifecycle of corrugated cardboard boxes published in Resources, reusing a cardboard box once instead of recycling right away cuts its lifecycle emissions by a third.” (Dawn Kane, Grid Philly, #168 May 2023, “A company with decades of reuse experience aims at zero waste” referencing “A LifeCycle Analysis and Economic Cost Analysis of Corrugated Cardboard Box Reuse and Recycling in the United States” by Harshwardhan Ketkale in Resources 2023, 12(2),22; https://doi.org/10.3390/resources12020022 – 01 Feb 2023)

So. . .what's in the box?

Lunchcounter, Standard Edition comes with the following:

17″ x 11″ Gameboard

Instruction Booklet: Lunchcounter 1956 Menu! Revised Edition

20 Daily Move Cubes

2 Negotiation Dice 4 player cards 4 pawns

1 Dented Entry Diner Cards 1 Soda Jerk Card 4 1956/1964 Reminder Boards

80 Breakfast Cards 16 Jukebox Cards

24 Lunch cards 24 Dinner Cards

Breakfast and Lunch Moves

and starts with the three Breakfast cards indicated.

At the beginning of each round, players cover their Daily Move area and use three Move Cubes to indicate their choices for that round.

This player uses the Breakfast Move to select two cards

When combined with the player's starting cards, the player has the required kind and number of Breakfast cards to acquire the Lunch card on their Lunch move.

Once the Lunch and Dinner Cards on the Lunchcounter area, above and to the right of the game board, are flipped over, Players look for Lunch cards they can try to acquire, given the number and kind of Breakfast cards they have.

The player on the left used a Breakfast Move to take two cards that then made it possible to claim a Lunch card from the Lunchcounter with the player’s next Lunch Move.

How a Dinner Move helps restart negotiations to overturn an unjust Law or Practice

When the authorities you attempt to negotiate with leave the table, or never take you seriously, negotiations have ended unsuccessfully. In Lunchcounter, that happens on a Negotiation roll of 2, 3, 4, 6, or 8. But Lunchcounter Outcasts will not give up until Justice is served. Instead, they will use one of ten forms of Nonviolent Protest, listed in the Dinner & Dessert Menu on their Player card to restart negotiations with a bonus on their Negotiation rolls. On the right, the player has a successful Dinner roll, moves the Lunch card to the Lunch Entree and rolls the negotiation dice. The roll of 8 (5 and 3) usually means negotiations end unsuccessfully. In this case, the player has earned a Dinner roll bonus, marked by the orange cube, that allows one die to be flipped to the opposite side. Flipping the 3, yields a 4. The total is now 9; one die can be rerolled. When the player rerolls the 4, and gets a 2, the total of 7 means the Law has been overturned. The Lunch card is moved to the Overturned Laws section, the player moves up the barstools on the board and can use the bonus, Breakfast card on the Overturned card in future attempts to acquire a Lunch card.