Roulette On the Back Side of Time
Game Rules
by Swansquarter, Ltd.
– a game for 1. 2, 3, 4, or 6 players
*Object of Game 1 is to have all (or most, if you get tired) of the little animals at the end of play!
*Object of Game 2 is to risk all the animals with the toss of a coin, and accept the outcome with abandon!
*Players decide up front if they are playing Game 1 or Game 2.
Game 1 is over when the winner has the largest herd of little animals.
Game 2 is decided when the winner of Game 1 risks Endgame, a possible reversal of fortune decided by a flip of the coin which, in this case, is the
1922 silver dollar!
RULES
*Divide the 12 little beasts among the players. These are your counters.
They can stand for pennies. nickels, dimes, dollars, peanuts, anything—or
for themselves.
*Each player chooses a marble marker.
*Silk thread spools are arranged in the 12 positions on a clock face.
*Players agree, by any means they choose, on a winning spool. This will vary from game to game.
*Players determine order of play by spinning the time-disk, and dropping the bead on the clock face.
Lowest # goes first and so on. Ties are broken by spinning again.
- First player spins the time-disk. While spinning. drop the bead. Note the # the bead lands on.
- Starting at 12 and proceeding counterclockwise, move your personal marker from spool to spool until you have moved the # of spaces you spun. Settle your marble on that spool. (Example: if the bead lands on #3 on the back side of the time-disc, you move the marble marker counterclockwise from #12 spool for 3 spaces.)
- The other players follow suit.
- If, after each player has had a turn, no one has landed on the agreed upon spool, each player decides whether or not to try another spin and risk overshooting or fouling out by landing a fiver.
- The game continues until someone lands on the agreed upon spool and the other players either overshoot or foul out by landing a fiver. If no one lands on the agreed upon spool, the winner is the player who is closest to the spool without overshooting.
- The winner receives a little beast from each of the loosing players.
- Play again until someone has the largest herd.
Special Terms:
+ Spill: Bead rolls off the time-disc. Player looses turn.
+Sloppy-drop: Bead lands on non-numbered flat interior of time-disc.
Player looses turn.
+Sudden Death: Instant loss, as when a player's bead drop lands on 5. This is a fiver.
Or when a player overshoots the agreed upon spool.
+Endgame: Also known as Extreme Abandon. Involves playing Game 2,
when winner of Game 1 decides to risk all on a toss of the coin. Possible reversal of fortune and forfeiture of the little beasts. There is nothing in it for the coin tosser except the excitement of risking all. If the coin-tosser loses the toss, all the little animals are distributed as equally as possible to the other players and the game could continue with the redistribution of "wealth." If the tosser wins the toss, the win in the original Game I is confirmed by the universe. The winner in Game I, then, is indeed the big winner- the gracious winner, the benevolent winner- willing to risk all, for nothing! (And everybody knows that the little animals will be redistributed equally in future games.)
What If:
.....If a marker lands on an occupied spool, it stays there, sending the former occupant back to the spool from where the new occupant has just come. The markers, in essence, change places.
.....If a player has lost a turn due to a spill or a sloppy-drop and another player overshoots, the first player cannot win until taking a turn and not overshooting. If they both overshoot, that game is a tie and no animals are exchanged.
