Entry #2 - Message in a Bottle

by Meldrum

So many people to meet, so little time…….

Overview:

You begin the game with only two friends in the whole world. Your goal is to compete with the other players to see who can gain the most friends and influence as you move from ancient times, where letters were delivered by foot, to the modern day when a letter can be sent by email in a second.

Components: 1 RISK game board with pieces and cards

Number of players: 3-6

Setup:

1. Each player chooses a colour of game pieces to represent their friends during the game.
2. Deal out 2 cards to each player.
3. Players place a playing piece (a friend) on each place that they have a matching card for.
4. The cards are then collected and reshuffled for later use.
5. Each player takes 10 friends out of their container to begin the game and keeps them in a pile off of the board. This pile is called their “Potential Friend Pool”
6. Choose a player to go first.

Rules:

The game is divided into 4 time periods (Eras), which each last 3 rounds. The time periods are as follows: Mailman Era, Boat Era, Airplane Era and Internet Era. The results of actions you take in the game change depending on the Era you are in.

• Mailman Era – letters must be delivered by foot so players can only make friends on lands that are adjacent to where they already have a friend and they cannot cross water.
• Boat Era – letters can be delivered by foot or by boat so now friends can be made across oceans but only using the dashed lines on the RISK board.
• Airplane Era – letters can be delivered by foot, boat or by air (air travel only allows you to travel within 3 regions freely: (1) North and South America, (2) Europe and Africa together and (3) Asia and Australia together. Ex. in the Airplane era you cannot travel from Alberta to South Africa).
• Internet Era – letters can be sent via the Internet, so you can make friends anywhere on the board!

On your turn you must first do 2 mandatory actions:

1. Write a letter – this adds friends to your Potential Friend Pool. In the Mailman Era add 2, Boat Era = 4, Airplane Era = 6, Internet Era = 8
2. Make friends – place friends on any one land that you are able to reach (depends on the era). You can only place 1 friend in the Mailman Era, Boat Era = 2, Airplane Era = 3, Internet Era = 4. When you make friends any other players on the board can also make friends (using friends from their Potential Friend Pool) at the same land so long as that player is legally able to reach that place.

After your mandatory actions then take 2 additional actions from the following list:

• Write a letter – same as above
• Make friends – same as above
• Put a message in a bottle – the player draws a card from the pile of location cards.
• Have someone find your message in a bottle – the player reveals their card and then can place as many friends from their Potential Friend Pool as they want in that land. No other players may respond to this action by adding friends. The card is then discarded until the beginning of the next Era, when it will be reshuffled into the deck.

After you have performed your 2 mandatory actions and your 2 additional actions the next player in a clockwise direction begins their turn.

After each round of play the player that goes first in the next round is rotated one player to the left.

After each Era return used cards to the deck and reshuffle.

Scoring:

Scoring is done at the end of each Era (4 times). The scoring is as follows:

• Score 1 point for each land that you have more friends on than any other individual player. It is said that you “control this land”
• Score 1 additional point for each friend of another players that is in a land you control.
• If there is a tie between two or more players in the number of friends on a land, no points are scored.

Ex. Joe has 4 friends in Ukraine, Sam has 3 friends in Ukraine, and Emily has 1 friend in Ukraine. Joe scores 1 point for controlling the land and 4 points for the 3 friends of Joe and the 1 friend of Emily.

Winning:

The player with the most points after the scoring of the Internet Era is the winner.

Entry #4 - Career

by RobertC

Overview

Number of players: 3-5

The players try to lead the most company departments by making good social connections (ordering rounds in pub), good boss relation (parking near his car) and good job (preparing the best reports).

Components

• boards - the pub, the parking lot with a gate, the company with department areas,
• wooden people - meeples in player colors,
• wooden cars - one per player in his color,
• cards - Report Request cards (depicting the icon of business activity in one of several department colors),
• markers - Business Markers (each marker depicts one icon of some business activity in one department color), Approach Marker (depicting the boss' car),
• money notes - notes of $100,

Preparation

The three boards (the pub, the parking lot and the company) are put in the center. All the Business Markers are sorted and put next to the boards. Each player receives markers (meeples) in his color, his car and 10 notes of $100.

The queue of players' cars is randomly created at the parking lot. Anyone can change the order of the cars in queue by paying $100 per one position switch. After the order is finally decided the players select and take any five Business Markers.

Gameplay

Following the inverse cars order (the last car owner plays first) the player decide to go to the pub for an evening or to the parking gate for being first the next day. Cars are put one after another at the appropriate places.

The Pub - Players at the pub bid simultaneously (using the $100 notes) to order a round. If all players bid the same amount the cash is lost. Otherwise the highest bids can buy drinks and in return that players can select one of available Business Markers (in order of cars queue at the pub).

At the moment of bidding anyone can decide to call it a day and to move his car to the parking gate.

The parking lot - When all players arrive at the parking gate they can make additional negotiation. Anyone can change the order of the cars in queue by paying $100 per one position switch.

After the order is finally decided the cars enter the parking lot. The owner of the car that is able to park nearest to the boss receives 2 Approach Markers, the second and the third receive one Approach Marker.

The company - The conference takes place and the boss needs reports. One Report Request card is displayed.

Any player can use his Approach Marker to change the displayed card.

After the Report Request card is finally displayed all players can bid for the best report.

At the Report Request card there is an icon of business activity in one of the department color depicted. Players can bid any number of Business Markers of the same department color or of the same business activity. Each matching color or icon counts as one Report Point. The players bidding the most Report Points are rewarded with making the big time. They can use as many of their meeples as is the difference between the highest bid and the second one. The meeples are placed around the company - players put them on the board in chosen company departments. There can be more than one players' meeple in any department.

The players who didn't make good enough report to the boss are motivated for the future. The worst report receives $300, then $200 and $100.

The workday comes to the end and the next round begins.

Game End

There are several company departments on the company board. The game ends when one of players leads in more than a half of departments. To lead a department the player's meeples need to outnumber others in the appropriate department on the board.

Entry #6 - K Street

by comfect

A game of lobbying in bureaucratic Washington DC.

Players: 2-4

Equipment: 2 decks of cards (A-K) and one joker, 3 lobbyist meeples/player

Goal: To have one of your lobbyists be the first to contact the President.

Play

Players are dealt 5 cards - these represent people at different levels of the institutional hierarchy in federal offices, from the lowly administrative assistants (A) to the the cabinet-level officers (K). Each turn, a player plays a card, if possible (see legal plays), has one of their lobbyists call a new contact (see calling contacts), then draws a new card. If at the end of a turn, one of that player's lobbyists has called the president, that player wins.

Legal Plays

Each suit represents the hierarchy of a single government agency from Ace (administrative assistant) up the pay grades to King (cabinet-level). 4 Aces, one in each of the four suits, begin in play, in the order (from left to right) Hearts, Spades, Diamonds, Clubs. Each turn, a player may play any card, although some cards may not be accessible to lobbyists (ie, a player might play the Jack of Spades, even if neither the 10 of Spades nor another Jack was in play). A play may start a new hierarchy of any suit, either at the Ace level or by branching off of the Clubs or Hearts (or any new hierarchy already formed to the left or right of them) at a higher level. In this case, the new hierarchy must be contiguous to a card already played in another hierarchy (although a path need not be traced down to the Ace level). The hierarchies formed by these cards are the board on which the lobbyist pieces move.

Calling Contacts

Each player begins with 3 lobbyists off the board. On their turn, a player may move any one of their lobbyists to another card. However, because each lobbyist is dependent on their current contact for further references, a lobbyist can only call (and move onto the card of) a person with whom their current contact has a relationship. They can move upwards one space in the hierarchy (from 8 to 9, for example) or get referred horizontally to an equal contact in an adjoining hierarchy to the left or right (from the 8 of Diamonds to the 8 of Spades, for example). They may only move to a card that has already been played. Subsequent plays may open up a path to a previously played card, but until they do that card is inaccessible (because there is no one to refer your lobbyist to that person). Each contact is also exclusive - they are only willing to help one lobbying firm at a time. So if there is already a lobbyist on a card, your lobbyist may not move there, even it would be an otherwise legal play. Once the lobbyist in question has moved, however, that contact is willing to help another lobbyist and can be used.

The President

One joker is used to represent the President. He does not have to be played from a player's hand, and unlike all other cards, he connects to every King, not just those directly to his left or right. The first player to move a lobbyist onto the President's card has won the game!

Special abilities

Each color of suit has a special ability, regardless of whether it is the original hierarchy of that suit or a new hierarchy branched off to the left or right. When your lobbyist is referred from a red contact(Hearts or Diamonds) to another hierarchy that lobbyist can be fast tracked up the other hierarchy vertically (from the 8 of hearts to the 8 of spades and on to the 9 of spades, for example); when your lobbyist is referred from a black contact (Spades or Clubs) to another hierarchy, that lobbyist can be fast tracked across to another agency (from the 8 of clubs to the 8 of diamonds and on to the 8 of spades, for example). These abilities stack (a move from clubs to diamonds to spades would permit a further vertical move within spades, for example, because of the move from diamonds to spades). Note that these abilities do not trigger if simply moving up within a hierarchy .

Hierarchy Control

Only the player with the most lobbyists in contact with a specific hierarchy may move vertically within that hierarchy (moving from 0 to the Ace is not included in this category; however, contacting the President is included). However, other players may move horizontally into the hierarchy in order to break up the plurality control. If two players have an equal number of lobbyists in a hierarchy, neither may move vertically within that chain.