GB2250925A - Board or like game apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

A board or like game apparatus comprises a playing area (2) comprising a continuous serpentine track (4) divided into a large number of individual positions (6) numbered in sequence and being marked to represent rewards (12), penalties (14) and movement or rest (16), a plurality of play members to represent players on the playing surface, random number indicating means for indicating the number of positions a player may move his/her play member along the serpentine track (4), random decision means for varying the effect of a players move, a pack of reward cards each indicating a number of rewards to be awarded to a player landing on a reward position (12), a pack of penalty cards indicating a number of penalties awarded to a player who lands on a penalty position (14) and a plurality of scoring means by means of which a player can keep a score of the rewards and penalties awarded him. A similar apparatus can be used wherein real people can be the play members. <IMAGE>

Description

BOARD OR LIKE GAME This invention relates to a board or like game and more particularly to a board or like game relating to growing up According to the invention, a board or like game comprises a playing area comprising a continuous serpentine track divided into a large number of individual positions numbered in sequence and being marked to represent rewards, penalties and movement or rest, a plurality of play members to represent players on the board, random number indicating means for indicating the number of positions a player may move his/her play member along the serpentine track, random decision means for varying the effect of a players move, a pack of reward cards each indicating a number of rewards to be awarded to a player landing on a reward position, a pack of penalty cards indicating a number of penalties awarded to a player who lands on a penalty position, a plurality of scoring means by means of which a player can keep a score of the rewards and penalties awarded him and a set of rules.

Preferably the individual positions are of different sizes representing different numbers of reward for penalty cards associated with the particular position. Some of the reward and penalty cards may have an instruction regarding missing or gaining turns at the game and/or instructions regarding moving play members. All of the reward positions may be marked similarly as also may the penalty positions and the movement or positions. Particularly, the same type of positions may be marked out in one colour, for example green for rewards, pink for penalties and white for movement.

Further individual positions may be marked out as character positions associated with representations of good or bad people and with a number of rewards (good people) or penalties (bad people) to be awarded to the player who lands on one of these positions.

Where the game is a board game, the playing surface may comprise a board or where the game is not a board game, the playing surface may be represented by flights of multilevel stairs connected in circular fashion and up and down which the playing members are moved. In this latter case, the playing members may be an article of clothing or other indication worn or carried by the player him/herself.

Where the game is played on stairs, the individual steps constitute smaller individual positions while larger positions are formed as landings.

The scoring means may comprise a card marked towards opposite edges with numbers of rewards and penalties respectively and two clips with each card, one adapted to be clipped on to the card at the appropriate reward score and the other at the appropriate penalty score.

Alternatively, scoring means may be used having only one counting means, the counting means being increased for rewards and reduced for penalties.

Suitably the random decision means may comprise a six sided die two sides being marked to indicate double the number of cards, no cards, and the usual number of cards. The sides may be marked respectively "D" for double, "C" for cancel and "A" for acceptance.

The invention will now be described in greater detail, by way of example with reference to the drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a plan view of a playing board used in the board version of the game; Figure 2 is a perspective view of a play piece used in this version of the game; Figure 3 is a perspective view of a special die for use in playing the game, and Figure 4 is a view showing a scoring card for use in the game.

It is to be appreciated that while the game is essentially intended to be a board game, it can be played in a three dimensional form as will be discussed hereafter.

The board game is intended to be played by children aged from seven to adult. It represents a child's passage through life and provides rewards when the child is good and penalties when the child is bad. The number of rewards or penalties vary independence on how good or how bad the child has been.

Referring firstly to figure 1, there is shown a game board 2 on which is marked a serpentine or convoluted continuous track 4 which is divided into a large number of sequentially numbered individual positions 6, in the case of the present board, one hundred and thirty two individual positions. The positions 6 are basically of two different sizes, one (8) of which is a relatively narrow and is hereafter called a "step" and the other (10) of which is of square shape, the dimension of the side of which is equal to the longest side of a step. These square shaped positions will hereafter be called "squares In addition to the different types of positions the board has positions of different colours, for example green positions 12 representing rewards, pink positions 14 representing penalties and white positions 16 representing movement.The green and pink positions may be either steps or squares but the white positions are only steps. Two special squares exist - a pink square 18 forming a penalty box for a purpose as will appear hereafter and a green square 20 forming a reward box which is also the starting position of the game.

Lastly the track has twelve character squares 21 marked out to represent good or bad people. The good characters are suitably a policeman, a doctor, a nurse, a fireman, a lollipop lady and a teacher while the bad characters are suitably a drug pusher, a drunk driver, a terrorist, a kidnapper a stranger and a shoplifter.

The board is also marked with two positions 22 and 24 to receive packs of reward and penalty cards respectively and a central position 26 to receive the random decision maker which will be described in connection with figure 3.

The cards of each pack of reward and penalty cards have identical backs, reward cards including a tick and penalty cards including a cross. The pattern of these card backs can be seen at positions 22 and 24 on the board. On the reverse of these cards are indicated a number of rewards or penalties together with the reason for which they are awarded. For example, a reward card might say: "Grandma suddenly has a stroke and you call the Ambulance. For knowing what to do in an emergency, collect THREE rewards." A penalty card might say: "For treading on the dog, collect ONE penalty." Some of the cards instruct a movement of the play piece as well as an award. For example: "You refused to stop and talk to a stranger. Go to the REWARD BOX and collect THREE rewards." "You have cheated in a school test.Go to the PENALTY BOX and collect THREE penalties." Some penalty cards cards include an instruction to miss a turn. For example: "For accepting an offer to sniff glue, go to the PENALTY BOX, miss a throw, and collect SIX penalties".

One reward card enables the player to collect a larger number of rewards during his/her turn viz: "Keep this card. At any time during the game, on your throw, you may roll one die for each of the players in turn. Whatever you throw they give back in rewards. (The players have the option of throwing the DCA die)." Figure 2 shows a suitable form of play piece 30 for use in playing the game. As the present game is intended for up to four players, the play pieces could be red, black, blue or yellow. They have the advantage of being upstanding and therefore are easier to use than disc type counters.

Figure 3 shows a random decision maker 34 in the form of a six sided die. Of the three visible sides, one side 36 is marked "D" meaning double, a second side 38 is marked "C" standing for cancel and the third side 40 is marked "A" for accept. The remaining three sides which are not visible are marked with the same three letters, thus providing two sides of each letter. The effect of this die, when used is to double the number of rewards or penalties awarded (D), cancel the number of rewards or penalties awarded (C) or to maintain the number of rewards or penalties awarded as they are (A). This die will hereafter be referred to as the DCA die.

In addition to the DCA die, two standard six sided dice (not shown are provided for determining play piece movement. Suitably these dice are of a different size and or colour to the DCA die. Particularly, the DCA die is larger than the two dice.

Figure 4 shows an example of a scoring device 44 for use with the game to enable players to keep an account of their awards. To this end, each scoring device 44 comprises a sheet 46 of a suitable material, such as a plastics and is divided centrally into two columns 48 and 50, the right hand column 48 labelled with a cross and having fifty divisions 52 being intended to hold the penalty score and (and suitably being coloured pink) and the left hand column 50 labelled with a tick and having fifty divisions 54 intended to hold the reward score and suitably coloured green). The actual scores are indicated on the device 44 by means of a pair of pointed clips 56, the clips being of the nature of paper clips and, when attached to the side of the sheet, will indicate a score as shown.

Also provided are a set of rules for playing the game. The way the game is played will now be described: The object of the game is to score fifty rewards and then to eliminate all penalties At the beginning of the game, each player is provided with one play piece (figure 2) and one score card and two clips (figure 4). The reward cards and the penalty cards are shuffled and placed face downwards on their appropriate positions 22 and 24 on the board. The DCA die (figure 3) is placed in the central position 26 on the board.

To determine the player who is to start, each player throws the pair of dice and the player with the highest score starts. The game commences on the green square 21 numbered 1 and labelled "The Reward Box". The player places his play piece in this square and shakes the pair of dice. He then moves his play piece by the total number of the two dice and takes the action appropriate to the position at which he lands. These actions are as follows: 1) Reward Step (Green Step 12) - He picks up one reward card and carries out the instructions thereon, adding the rewards indicated thereon on his score card.

2) Reward Square (Green Square 12) - He picks up two reward cards and carries out the instructions thereon in the order in which they were picked up, adding the rewards indicated thereon on his score card.

3) Penalty Step (Pink Step 14) -He picks up one penalty card and carries out the instructions thereon, adding the penalties indicated thereon on his score card.

4) Penalty Square (Pink Square 14) - He picks up two penalty cards and carries out the instructions thereon in the order in which they were picked up, adding the penalties indicated thereon on his score card.

5) Movement Step (White Step 16) - He moves his play piece to the next character square and carries out the appropriate action relating to this square (see 6 below).

6) Character Square (Illustrated Square 21) - He adds the indicated number of rewards or penalties to his score.

7) The Reward Box (Green Square 20) - If a player is sent to this square, he adds two rewards to his score.

If, on the other hand, he lands on or passes this square he adds five rewards to his score.

8) The Penalty Box (Pink Square 18) - Unless a player is sent to this square then it acts as an ordinary Penalty Square. If a player draws more than one penalty card in the course of one turn, he can only be sent to the Penalty Box once. However, all other instructions on the card such as missing a turn or being awarded penalties must be carried out.

The reward and penalty cards are picked off the top of the appropriate packs by the player to the current player's left and the contents of the card are read out aloud by the player who has picked the card up.

Unless the player has thrown a double, this completes his turn and play passes to the player on his left. If a double is thrown, the player has a second turn.

There is one further option open to a player if he lands on a reward position, a penalty position or a character square. This is to use the DCA die before any cards are picked up or any awards entered. He throws the die and depending on the- letter which is uppermost takes the appropriate action. These actions are: D).Double - The player must accept double the number of reward or penalty cards indicated, or double the number of rewards or penalties indicated on a character square.

C).Cancel - The player takes no cards and adds no awards to his score.

A).Accept - The status quo is maintained and the player continues to play as if he had not thrown the DCA die.

After a player has achieved fifty rewards, he must then eliminate the penalties which he has accumulated. When it is his turn to play, the player throws his dice as usual but instead of continuing around the board, he uses his score, if it is sufficient, to reduce his penalties. If he throws a double, his penalties are reduced by the total score. For example, if he throws two '3's, his penalties are reduced by six. If on the other hand, the total score of the two dice is greater than six then he takes away six from the total score of the dice and the result is the number of penalties to be-removed. For example, suppose he throws a '4' and a '5', this makes nine. He then takes off six, leaving three and he reduces his penalty score by three.

The first player to reach fifty rewards and eliminate all his penalties is the winner. It is not necessary for the penalties to be exactly eliminated, if for example, there were three penalties remaining and the player threw two '3's, making six, this would be sufficient.

Should a player reach fifty penalties before gaining fifty rewards, future penalties are ignored but all instructions must be otherwise obeyed.

As mentioned previously, the game can also be played in a three dimensional form, for example, as a party game in a hall or even as a television show game. A number of differences from the board game may then be suitably be incorporated. Firstly, the board may be a greatly enlarged playing surface marked out for example on a floor. Where the visual effects are of significant importance, the game may be laid out as a series of multi-level staircases, the smaller individual playing positions comprising steps and the larger individual playing positions comprising landings.

For party or like purpose, the individual players can be formed by teams of players, for example, three per team.

The teams may be designated by different colours, such as red, blue, yellow and black. The team colours may be depicted by an article of clothing or a symbol, carried or worn by the player. One of the players moves round the playing surface, in which case, the article of clothing or symbol constitutes the playing member. The other two members of the team are responsible fgor the operation of a scoring device and control of the DCA die respectively and both can assist the player who is moving around the playing surface as will be described hereafter.

In order to increase the interest in the team game, some o f the rewards and penalty cards may pose questions which can be answered by the team in collaboration. A correct answer on at reward position will enable the reward to be gained while a correct answer at a penalty position will prevent the loss of points otherwised demanded.

The character positions may not be related to a specific character but all of these positions represent a character in general. Thus when landing on a character position, a particular character is selected by any suitable random or semi random means. In some cases, the character may be represented by a madeup person, other than the players and may ask the particular player, landing on the character position, a question. A correct answer will gain points while an incorrect answer will lose points.

To simplify a team game, the scoring may be done with a single counter for each team, the counter being increased by points gained and decreased by points lost. In order to prevent premature loss of a team, each team woould be given a number of points to start with, such as ten points. With this single counter, the winning team is suitably the team with the highest score at the end of a predetermined time.

The movement steps may be modified into rest steps on which no action is taken. The DCA die may be used in the form of a "joker", it being arranged that it can be used either only a cetain number of times per game, when a team has reached a certain score or when a player lands on or passes a particular position on the playing surface. With a party or show game, it is useful to have a host who will read ot the vaious cards and generally oversee the operation of the teams It will be appreciated that other modifications may be made to the above described embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention. For example, a number of the variations introduced for the threedimen ;- version of the game may be incorporated in the board version. Also, the pair of dice used in both versions of the game could be replaced by any other random number selector such as a pointer and dial. Other methods of keeping scores could be used, for example, one or more settable dials could be used or a pin board similar to a cribbage board could be used.

Where a single counting arrangement is provided for each player or team, these could be in the form of a number of cards hooked onto a frame, the cards being provided with consecutive numbers and being flipped over the presently visible card to increase the score and the visible card being folded back behind other cards to reduce the score.

Claims (16)

1. !. A board or like game comprising a playing area comprising a continuous serpentine track divided into a large number of individual positions numbered in sequence and being marked to represent rewards, penalties and movement or rest, a plurality of play members to represent players on the board, random number indicating means for indicating the number of positions a player may move his/her play member along the serpentine track, random decision means for varying the effect of a players move, a pack of reward cards each indicating a number of rewards to be awarded to a player landing on a reward position, a pack of penalty cards indicating a number of penalties awarded to a player who lands on a penalty position, a plurality of scoring means by means of which a player can keep a score of the rewards and penalties awarded him and a sec of rules.
2. 2. A game as claimed in claim 1, wherein the individual positions are of different sizes representing different numbers of reward or penalty cards associated with the particular position.
3. 3. A game as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein some of the reward and penalty cards have an instruction regarding missing or gaining turns at the game and/or instructions regarding moving play members.
4. 4. A game as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein all of the reward positions are marked similarly, all the penalty positions are marked similarly and all the movement or rest positions are marked similarly.
5. 5. A game as claimed in claim 4, whwerein the same type of positions may be marked out in one colour.
6. 6. A game as claimed in claim 5, wherein the colours comprise green for rewards, pink for penalties and white for movement or rest.
7. 7. A game as claimed in any one of clkaims 1 to 6, wherein further individual positions are marked out as character positions associated with representations of good or bad people and with a number of rewards (good people) or penalties (bad people) to be awarded to the player who lands on one of these positions.
8. 8. A game as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the game is a board game and the playing surface comprises a board.
9. 9. A game as claimed in any one of calims 1 to 7, wherein the playing surface comprises flights of multi-level stairs connected in circular fashion and up and down which the playing members are moved.
10. 10 A game as claimed in claim 9, wherein the playing members comprise articles of clothing or other indication worn or carried by the player him/herself.
11. 11. A game as claimed in claim 9 or 10. wherein the individual steps of the stairs constitute smaller individual positions while larger positions are formed as landings.
12. 12. A game as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein the scoring means comprises a card marked towards opposite edges with numbers of rewards and penalties respectively and two clips with each card, one adapted to be clipped on to the card at the appropriate reward score and the other at the appropriate penalty score.
13. 13. A game as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein the scoring means comprises a single counting means, the counting means being increased for rewards and reduced for penalties.
14. 14. A game as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 13, wherein the random decision means comprises a six sided die two sides being marked to indicate double the number of cards, no cards, and the usual number of cards.
15. 15. A game as claimed in claim 14, wherein the sides of the random cdrecision die has its sides marked respectively "D" for double, "C" for cancel and "A" for acceptance.
16. 16. A board or like game substantially asdescribed herein with reference to the drawings.