TRADING PAINT – a Dice-Car Race
"Bumpers are for bumping." - Dale Earnhardt
Game- Trading Paint is a one lap car race on an oval track. Like Pass The Pigs or Cosmic Wimp-Out, Trading Paint is a Press-Your-Luck game. To move your race car along the track you may roll the dice as many times as you wish. But if you roll the X you spin-out, losing your progress for that round, and your turn is over. Unlike other press-your-luck games, Trading Paint features interaction with your competitors and your team. Thus there is strategy involved in your decision to either keep rolling or to pass the dice.
Players- This game is for 2 to 6 people, playing in teams. The track is six lanes wide with a checkered Pit Stop in the center and a solid Wall as the outer border. The lanes are divided into squares the size of the dice. You make your way around the track one square at a time, moving as many squares as you dare. Movement on the track can only proceed forward or to the side. Begin by each player putting their car behind the arrows at the double starting line. The player in the outside lane goes first. The player on the inside lane goes last.
If there are two players, one player's 3-car team starts on the odd numbered squares, the other on the even numbered squares. For three players their three teams are on 1&4, 2&5, 3&6. For four players, make 2 teams- Team A starts on spaces 1, 3 & 5, then when it's time for the 7th car to roll, place the car on any vacated start space. Team B places its cars on 2, 4 & 6 then when its time for the 8th car to roll, place the car on any vacated start space. For six players divide into two teams. Team A starts on the three odd number starting squares, Team B on the even squares.
Cars are dice-shaped and sized, with colored numbers on them.
The dice which you roll and place to form your path consist of 1 to 6 pips like regular dice but the pips are large and square. The numbers (black pips) on the dice are irrelevant to this game but will be used here to describe them. The white spaces on the dice form paths which a car can move along. You roll a die and place it on the square in front of your car. You may then move your car to the end of that path, advancing two squares and end your turn; or you may roll more dice, one at a time, placing each as rolled on a square adjoining the previous dice to extend your path. There are six black and white dice provided. If you wish to roll more just use the first die you rolled.
The #6 die is a straight only path. The #4 die lets you go straight or turn right or left. Lay these two dice next to each other with the white spaces touching and you'll see the path you create. The pips on the #3 die block you diagonally, forcing you to turn right or left depending on how you orient the die when you put it on the track. The #2 seems to give you free movement but the black pips on it can block your path on a #6 or #4, so be careful how you orient it. The #1 is the only path with no potential restrictions.
The #5 or X die is what makes this a press-your luck game. If you roll an X, your car spins out. You must remove all the path you created that round. Your turn is over with no advancement of your car. However, you can bank the dice you've rolled by by bumping or slingshotting (drafting).
Bumping- You bump by laying a path that reaches the back of another car, thus bumping or Trading Paint with them. When you do this, you pick up your car, bump your opponent's car back one space and advance your car to the space they had occupied.You have secured the path you made and you've penalized that opponent one space. Collect the dice and start your turn anew.
Bumping can only be done from the rear as you advance your path forward, not from the side, except when you're in a turn on the track (the area noted by the arrows) and moving to the left, counter clock-wise toward the finish line. It is also possible to bump a car by coming straight out of the Pit or off the Wall if your opponent's car is one space in front of the space you reenter the track on. However if that player's car was blocking your entrance to the track and you had to move backward to enter the track you may not bump them. Bumping a car that's in the outside lane sends them sideways into the wall.
You can double and triple bump. If two cars are bumper to bumper (usually from having bumped each other) and you build a path to the rear bumper of the rear car, you bump both of them, moving both cars back a space and moving your car to the their front. Your turn may then continue.You may also bump a team mate.
Drafting or sling shotting- To draft you build a path to within one space of a car on your team only, then move your car directly to the rear of that car and slingshot around them, ending in front of them. The car you shot around stays where it was. You collect your dice and start your turn anew. If there are cars in front of, and touching the car you draft, go to the head of that line. If on a turn you may choose which square to end at.
You may find after bumping or drafting, that you're set up to draft a car in front of you wihout rolling again, or after drafting you could be set up to bump a different car. You may do so without rerolling. However, you may not bump or draft when your turn begins without first rolling and placing a die.
Caution Flag- After the lead racer has entered the back straightaway, marked with a double line, if any driver rolls an X they may elect to roll once more. If that roll is also an X, creating a double spin-out, a caution flag goes up and all cars line up behind the lead car in the order they are in. If two cars are in the same pole position the car closest to the inside lane lines up ahead. The Caution Flag rule ends when the lead car leaves that straightaway. A driver may not invoke the Caution Flag if they have rolled more than six dice in their regular turn or if they're off the track.
Wrecks can occur after the caution flag ends but under the same circumstances. If you roll double Xs place an unused car-dice upside down on any of the three lanes in front of the finish line; No more than two wrecks in one lane. That square is now impassible with no bumping or drafting it. If a car enters or passes that lane those wrecks get towed off the board.
Pit Stop/Wall - You must play any dice you roll. If a dice (typically a 6) forces you off the track, either into the Pit Stop or the Wall, you must move your car to that place off the track and your turn is over. The only time you may place a dice that moves you backward is if you are off the track and blocked by an opponent's car from reentering In this case you must move backward to get back on the track if possible. You may not move forward while in the Pit or on the Wall. If you have no move you forfeit that turn. If you're in the pit or wall at a corner you must reenter on the side you left from. While in the pit or wall you may not participate in a caution flag realignment.
If you are forced to a space that's occupied and have no other move you lose your turn.
1st place car gets four points, 2nd gets three points, 3rd gets two points. The team with the most points win.
Joe Hall, mazedice@gmail.com, (828) 301-5116
