Bohnanza is the first in the Bohnanza family of games and has been published in many different editions. In the game, you plant, then harvest bean cards to earn coins. Each player begins with a hand of random bean cards, and each card has a number corresponding to the number of that type of beans in the deck. Unlike in other cards games, you can't rearrange the order of cards in hand, so you need to use them in the order that you've picked them up from the deck — unless you can trade them to other players, which is the center of the game.

On a turn, you plant the first one or two cards in your hand into the "fields" in front of you. Each field can occupy only one type of bean, so if you must plant a type of bean that's not in one of your fields, then you need to harvest a field to allow room for the new arrival. This is not usually good! Next, you show two cards from the deck, you can trade these cards along with any card in your hand for cards from other players. You may even make future promises for cards received!

After trading is finished — and all trades on a turn must involve the active player — then your turn ends by drawing cards from the deck and placing them at the back of your hand. When you harvest beans, you get coins based on the number of bean cards in that field and the "beanometer" for that specific type of bean. Flip over 1-4 cards from that field to change them into coins, then place the remainder of the cards in the discard pile.

When the deck runs out, shuffle the discards, playing through the deck two additional times. At games end, everyone can harvest their fields, then whoever has has the most coins wins.