rat race description v5.2.doc

'Snake Pit' has been re-themed!

It is now called 'Rat Race'.

Below you find a short description:

Rat Race

Will you become the new CEO of Mus Muris Pharma?

3-5 players age: 12+ duration: 60 - 75 min.

The battle is on! On his 75th birthday, Freddy Muris, director and founder of Mus Muris Pharma, has announced that he will step down. But who will become his successor? This question has caused a major outbreak of nervousness among the heads of the five main departments of Mus Muris. They all want to become the new CEO of Mus Muris and they will stop at nothing to gain this position.

To win the battle it is important to make your own projects a success, but it may be more effective to just frustrate the projects in which your opponents are participating, and if everything else fails there is always the option to suck up with the boss or blacken your opponents.

Rat Race is a game about in-company politics. You, the player, are the head of one of Mus Muris’ main departments. The goal of the game is to become the new CEO through earning the largest number of credits with the current boss. The best strategy is of course to make others do the dirty work, while you take the credits.You can earn credits through your subordinates, who each participate in one of five projects: the Take-over project, the Systems Upgrade project, the New Factory project, the Reorganisation project and the New Medicine project. The bigger the success of the projects your subordinates are participating in, the more credits you will gain.

The success of a project grows faster when there are more project members. However, only one of them can be the project leader. What is more, the bigger the success of a project, the more attractive it becomes for your fellow players to throw out one of your subordinates.

Play summary

In Rat Race players control subordinates (pawns) that can join several projects. During the game credits are scored for each pawn, depending on its position in the project hierarchy. The player who has earned most credits at the end of the final round is the winner.

Rat Race is a board game that is played with pawns, action cards and voting disks. The central part of the board consists of five project ladders representing the five projects. The pawns will be placed on these project ladders. Players try to maneuver their pawns up as highly as possible. Each position on a project ladder corresponds with a number of credits: the higher up the ladder the more credits the pawn occupying this position will score. Besides the project ladders the board consists of a scoring track and a phase trail. On the scoring track the credits for all players are scored. The phase trail is used to keep track of the game progress.

Rat Race is played in rounds. Each round consists of seven phases. In phase 1 players must join one of the projects with all of their pawns not yet on the board. In phase 2 all players draw new action cards. Phase 3 is the “project evalutation”-phase. It consists of a vote for every project, which can result in the eviction of one of the project members or in the termination of the project. In phase 4 projects progress; all pawns on the board are moved upwards as many steps as there are pawns in a project. In phase 5 a vote is held among project leaders that may result in the boycott of one of the projects. In phase 6 players play a fixed number of action cards in a turn-based way. With the action cards players can influence the situation on the board or directly help themselves or hinder one of their opponents. In phase 7 credits are scored, based upon the position of each pawn on the project ladders. After phase 7 has ended a new round starts, beginning with phase 1. When a new round starts, the pawns remain on their current position and players retain any unplayed action cards!

The game ends when at the end of a round one or more players have earned more than 80 credits. Now all players reveal their unplayed action cards. The credits that are stated on these cards are added (or subtracted in case of negative points) to the score, to give the final score.

Become a test player!

To design and fine-tune a new game, the game needs to be played, and played, and played again... For this I need test players who like playing games and who like trying new things. Do you like playing games? Did you play one of my games and enjoy it? Do you want to know more about my games? Do you live in the neighborhood of 'Capelle aan den IJssel'?

If all of this applies to you, you may want to consider helping me by becoming one of my test players. If you are interested, please send me an e-mail at mailto:jeroenspeelt@gmail.com. I will then contact you with an invitation to join me in one of the testing sessions.

'Snake Pit' demo at ducosim 'spellenbeurs'

On Saturday 8th of March I will be demo-ing the latest version of Snake Pit at the ducosim 'spellenbeurs' in Utrecht. Anyone who is interested is welcome to play a game or two, or just to get an explanation of the rules.

Snake Pit - Game description

Game description

Snake Pit

The nasty game of party politics

3-5 players age: 12+ duration: 60 - 75 min.

Introduction

Snake pit is a game about party politics, or rather, about the nasty behavior often associated with party politics. The goal of the game is to earn the largest number of influence points. You, the player, can earn the influence points through your pawns. Your pawns act as figureheads who can join one of five political parties: The Snakes, The Rats, The Wolves, The Sharks and The Raven. The bigger the success of the parties your pawns have joined, the more influence you will gain.

The political success of a party grows faster when there are more party members. However, only one of them can be the party leader. What is more, the bigger the success of a party, the more attractive it becomes for your fellow players to throw one of your pawns out…

Short description

Snake Pit is a game that is played in rounds. Players control pawns that can join several political parties. At the end of each round influence points are scored for each pawn, depending on its position in the party. The player who has earned most influenced points at the end of the final round is the winner.

Each round consists of seven phases. In phase 1 players must join one of the parties with all their pawns that are not yet on the board. In phase 2 all players draw a number of new action cards. Phase 3 consists of a vote for every party, which can result in the eviction of one of the party members or in the termination of the party. In phase 4 all pawns on the board are moved upwards as many steps as there are pawns in a party. In phase 5 a vote is held among party leaders that may result in the boycott of one of the parties. In phase 6 players play their action cards in a turn-based way. With the action cards players can influence the situation on the board or directly help themselves or hinder one of their opponents. In phase 7 influence points are scored, based upon the position of each pawn on the board.

The game ends when at the end of a round one or more players have earned more than eighty influence points. Now all players reveal the not-played action cards they have still got in their hands. The influence points that are stated on these cards are added to the score, to give the final score.

Game characterization

Snake pit is a family game for 3 to 5 players. Playing time is 60-75 minutes. The average game of snake pit provides a lot off excitement as it usually remains uncertain to the very end who will be the winner. The game play is a combination of two different systems: a traditional turn-based ‘action card’-playing part and an innovative voting-based part. The voting part consists of two different voting mechanisms which introduce a bluffing and double guessing element into the game. The card-playing part provides for some interesting strategic and tactical choices. Both parts mix very well to produce a fluent game that is a lot off fun to play.

The way the game is structured ensures a lot of player interaction. Because of the scoring mechanism you have to work together with the other players to get enough influence points. The voting mechanisms and action cards however, provide many ways to stab your opponents in the back.

Game components

• 25 pawns (5 of each color)
• 5 player ID stones (1 of each color)
• 5 scoring markers (1 of each color)
• 1 boycott marker
• 1 turn counter
• 1 phase marker
• 130 action cards
• 1 game board
• double sided voting discs