Ratman feeds rats. Ratman getting hung for some reason. You are a rat. You save ratman so rats get more food. You beat other rats to chew rope first, maybe get extra food.
OBJECTIVE:
Race against the other rats to save the "ratman" from being hung, by reaching the end of the path first and chewing through the rope.
HOW TO PLAY:
Youngest player goes first, followed clockwise around the table.
Each player takes turns to flip a coin. On your turn, if it come up heads, you move 1 space up the gallows towards the rope. If tails, you slip back one space.
If you move onto a space aleady occupied, the attacker flips a coin, which the defender calls "heads" or "tails". If the defender gets it right, the attacker moves back one space. If the defender gets it wrong, he moves back one space instead.
HOW TO WIN:
When a rat reaches the last space, he can toss the coin on his next turn to chew through the rope. The other players vote on heads or tails before the coin toss to chew the rope. If they are right, you slip and fall to the ground. Start again from the start position. If they are wrong, you successfully chew through the rope saving the Ratman.
THE BOARD:
Comments (8)
Dan Kelly said
at 10:48 pm on Jun 30, 2009
Upon play-testing (I had to try it out), the game has many issues. Coin flip is way too unreliable, and there are too many spaces. If I was going to make more of it, I'd probably try a spinner instead of a coin-flip. The idea was well received by my family as a fun silly game though.
Kalle Miller said
at 6:58 am on Jul 1, 2009
I like the board, and the theme as well actually, but well, as you said, the game has issues. You can't expect to get very far if half the tosses take you forward and half backward. Also the game offers players no choices, it's just toss-a-coin-then-move-accordingly, albeit amusing.
One solution to the first problem could be to make it so that heads takes you 3 spaces forward while tails only 1 backward. Still, landing on same space with someone takes one of you down, so maybe 3 is not enough.
Mike Haverty (SiddGames) said
at 3:56 pm on Jul 1, 2009
A+ on the theme, though.
Kalle Miller said
at 6:01 pm on Jul 1, 2009
Indeed. =)
Dan Kelly said
at 7:45 pm on Jul 1, 2009
Thanks for the comments. I normally go overboard to attempt perfection, which leads to lockdown and the inability to get anything done. This time I went with the challenge exactly as it was laid out, and ran with ideas, thinking it could always be improved later.
When I did a playtest (after posting) with my wife, we halved the number of squares, but with a coin toss it seemed that about 70%-80% of the tosses came up tails. So much for 50-50 :)
Kate, I like your solution of moving 3 spaces, but I don't think it would be enough. The board probably needs more spaces, with dice. Possibly 1d6 with bonus for rolling a 6 and penalty for rolling a 1.
It could also use some hazard squares on the board... some giving bonus moves, some skipping a turn or moving backwards.
If the next lesson has us continue to develop the same game as an exercise, I'll see what I can come up with :)
Dan Kelly said
at 7:48 pm on Jul 1, 2009
Hmm, apparently I can't edit a comment. Sorry I misread your name Kalle :(
rbrock said
at 1:45 am on Jul 2, 2009
It seems that since the whole group of rats would benefit from saving Ratman, there seems to be an opportunity to incorporate some cooperative play. This would allow groups of players to form alliances and possibly double-cross each other. For example, if two rats are behind, they could team up to thwart the rat in the lead by rolling to "shake" the gallows and force him back the number rolled.
Dan Kelly said
at 1:29 pm on Jul 2, 2009
Good point rbrock. I had 2 players in mind when I spat the idea out, so didn't consider cooperative play originally, but it could spice things up a bit, as long as there were some controls in place to prevent abuse. Perhaps some risk, that two rats shaking the gallows run the risk of falling themselves...
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