Totopoly

We finally got round to playing the Murder-Horse Race game (well, I insisted in the end).

12 horses, very simple rules. 4 for each player with the task to write orders for each jockey before each turn started. The orders were limited: R for ride hard, A for attack another jockey and D for defend against attack. Each jockey got 2 choices so there could be double R's, double D's and double A's as well as combinations. Impossible to do everything though.

We started each turn by announcing which jockeys had attack orders and then rolling for initiative. A single A got 1d6, double A 2d6 (same for D and R). The attacking jockey rolled the dice and so did the jockey attacked if there was a defence order in play. It just took a victory by more than one point to unseat, maim or murder a rival.

At the start, because all the horses were stationary, anyone could attack anyone. After that, jockeys could only attack rivals they were level with in the race.

After the attacks were done with, we got on to the racing. Each horse was rolled for with 1 and 2 indicating a forward gallop of 1 space, 3 and 4 2 spaces and 5 and 6 3 spaces. Then if the jockey had employed an R order, 1d6 was rolled for each order with 5 or 6 meaning an extra forward move. The most any horse could advance in a turn was therefore 5 spaces.

After a quarter of the race all bar 4 jockeys were down and out! By half way, only 2 were left. The additional rule that came into play after the carnage of the start was that each jockey had one Take That You Fiend to play. This could travel a maximum of 10 spaces so the leaders were always going to be in jeopardy. A TTYF involved a 1d6 roll off to see if it worked, the caster needing to have a higher roll.

Charlie and I ended up side by side in the final furlong after he reeled me in - he had used his TTYF so I didn't have to worry about being a sitting duck in the lead.

Not only did he catch my jockey, he slipped a blade into his back and was the only one to finish the race.

A quick and satisfying game and one open to all sorts of future rule tweaks. Thanks Mr Waddington!