Payday

The board game of Pay Day was invented by Paul Gruen in the early 1970’s and published by Parker Brothers in 1975. In its first year it managed to outsell tycoon favourite Monopoly. Gruen has since also designed other games including Temptation and Voyage of the Dawn Trader. As with Monopoly, Pay Day is an economic genre board game and follows the player as they try and make money whilst paying bills at the end of each month. As usual, the player with the most money at the end is the winner.

Playing Pay Day

The rules of Pay Day were revised from the original 1975 rules in 1994 by Parker Brothers. This article will discuss the revised edition rules given this is most likely the game people will purchase.

Setting up Pay Day is simple, players decide on how long they want to play. As the game is based on a calendar week and month it is fairly simple to gauge the overall length of play, with each month taking approximately 45 minutes to play in a group of four players. Once the game length is decided players shuffle the cards and place them on the board face down (Mail and Deal cards) - one Deal card is placed near the Yard Sale space. Players choose their tokens and a banker is chosen (as in Monopoly the banker can also play) and also a Loan director (who can also play). The Loan director takes note of any loans players take out during play. Each player is given a total of $3,500 (two $1,000, two $500 and five $100.

Players begin at start and play commences with the first player (chosen however the group decides) rolling the die and moving the number of days shown (since the game runs on a calendar basis). Each space will have some sort of instruction which the player follows. This may be drawing cards, paying bills, taking loans or paying other players. Once the instructions have been fulfilled, play moves onto the next player. The strategy of Pay Day comes in the form of knowing when to make deals, and take out loans, though there is also a large element of luck with the card draw and what the player is awarded.

Scoring in Pay Day

Scoring in Pay Day is based on money (as with Monopoly). The player that amasses the most money at the end of the month or months is the winner. Each month a player has his / her Pay Day. Their pay is collected from the bank and as in real life bills are paid including loans. If a player is paid and cannot pay all of their bills, they take out a loan to cover the amount and the Loan director marks this on the loan pad. Players who reach their last Pay Day of the month(s) agreed in play time retire from the game and wait until all other players have also reached their final pay day. Money is counted and the winner determined.

Pay Day Variants

There are no variants in play with the game Pay Day with the only real variationbeing the number of months decided by the players at the beginning of the game.