Pay Day

Pay Day – a game review

I don’t know about your children, but my son does have a habit of thinking that money grows on trees and he can just click his fingers and funds will appear in his piggy bank.  We’ve had the opportunity to play a fun game called Pay Day recently, which might have helped the penny to drop (excuse the pun) that money has to be earned and bills have to be paid!

Pay Day

Pay Day is aimed at players aged 8 years and over and can be played with 2-4 players.  The game comes with a fold out game board, 100 themed cards – 35 Bargain, 31 – Event and 34 – Mail, 1 numbered die and 1 Pay day die, 4 coloured playing pieces, loan pad, money pack and instructions.

Pay Day

Rather like Monopoly (made by the same company) Pay Day is all about handling finances and trying not to go bankrupt.  The idea of the game is to be the player with the most money at the end of the game.  The game board is set out as a monthly calendar, so before the game starts you decide how many months you want to play.  With a four player game a two month game will take approximately an hour.  You also have the option of using just the numbered die or both dice as each player takes their turn.

Pay Day

Having the flexibility to play as many months as you like and to use or not use both dice is a great idea, and one which certainly helps when introducing younger players to a new game.

Pay Day

Especially an 8 year old who still really struggles with the idea of losing or, god forbid, handing over his cash!

Pay Day

If you choose to roll just the numbered die on your go, you roll it and move on the relevant number of days of the month and follow the instructions for the space you land on.  If you decide to roll both dice, you have to pay £100 into the Jackpot, roll the dice and then decide whether to move the relevant number of spaces first or complete the action on the Pay Day die – selling one of your Bargains, buy a Bargain, move 3 spaces more than the number rolled or re-roll the numbered die.  It’s a gamble which doesn’t always pay off, so beware.

If you land on a Bargain space you can select a Bargain from the pile and decide if you want to buy it or not.  If you don’t have enough money, you can actually take a loan out.  If you don’t want to buy it, you need to Auction the Bargain and others players can bid to buy it.  There are also specific Auction Bargains cards in the Bargain pile which all players can bid for blindly.

Pay Day

If you land on Mail you will either pick up Bills to be paid on Pay Day, Insurance (which protect you from bills) or Markups (which increase the value of your Bargains).  If you land on an Event which gives you instructions including Bargain Swaps, Market Hit which reduces the selling price of other players Bargains and you might even get to help a friend move and be able to charge another player £800 for the privilege.  My son wasn’t a fan of the Event cards until he realised it was a two-way street when he got to pick one up and take my money.

Landing on the Lottery space has always been a popular point of any Pay day game here. The banker places £1000 in the centre of the board and each player decides whether they want to take their chances, if they do they add £100 to the pot.  Once all players have decided to play or not, each player picks a number between 1-6 and players then take turns rolling the die. If you pick a number, and anyone else rolls that number, you win the lottery.

There’s lots of fun to be had with Pay Day before you’ve even reached the end of the month.  it might be your birthday, there’s daylight savings to be enjoyed as well as yard sales. Then when you do finally reach Pay Day, you receive your wages and then have to pay off your bills and loans before starting the next month.

Pay day

The winner is the player who reaches their final Pay Day and has the most cash left.  We’ve enjoyed playing the game and it’s certainly helping with my son’s maths skills! Every game is different and I can see my son really growing into this game as he starts to play more strategically.  It’s a winner.  I’ve included my Amazon Affiliate link below in case you fancy trying Pay Day for yourselves.

disclosure:  we were sent the item mentioned in exchange for an honest review

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