They say that cheaters never win. Prove them wrong in this game for 3 to 5 would-be unscrupulous financial barons.
by Jonathan A. Leistiko
inspired by comments from Leif Brown and Sharon J. Cichelli
Goal
End the game with the most points. Points come in two “flavors”: honest and cheater. Cheater points are easier to acquire, but have risks associated with them.
You Need
About 10 six-sided dice
An honest score track with one score pawn for each player.
A ten-turn tracker with a turn pawn.
A cheater’s score track with five sets of alliance pawns. Each set of alliance pawns has one tracker pawn, one leader pawn, and four member pawns.
Setup
Put the tracks, dice, and alliance pawn sets where everyone can reach them.
Give each player a score pawn. Put your score pawn at zero on the honest score track.
Put the turn pawn at zero on the turn tracker.
Pick a player to go first. Put the turn tracker to the right of the first player.
Play
On your turn, you can roll one die, then advance your honest score marker that far.
Alternately, you can form a cheater’s alliance with one or more other players. Put a cheater’s alliance leader pawn in front of you and a cheater’s alliance member pawn in front of each willing member of the alliance. Put a cheater’s alliance tracker pawn at zero on the cheater’s score track. If you’re the leader of one or more alliances, you roll one die for each member in the alliance. Sum the dice, then move the alliance tracker pawn that far on the cheater’s score track. You get to roll alliance dice on the turn you form an alliance. If there are no free sets of alliance pawns, you can not form an alliance.
If you roll dice and get duplicated results, sum all duplicated dice. This is a bonus pool. Split this pool in to two parts and offer one part to another player. If that player accepts the offer, they add the offer to their score and you add the part you kept to your honest score. If that player refuses your offer, the bonus points disappear. You may not negotiate with the other player; make one clear offer, then be silent until the other player accepts or refuses. If your offer is accepted, but the other player misunderstood your offer, the offer is neutralized and the bonus points disappear.
If you are in an alliance, you can turn your companions in (whistleblow) instead of rolling for points. If you do, add all the points the alliance made to your honest score. The other members of the alliance must subtract the same number from their honest score and must pass their next turn. Return all pawns for that alliance to the pool of pawns.
At the end of your turn, play passes to the left. When play passes over the turn tracker, advance the turn pawn one step. If the turn pawn lands on the space marked “end” (after the space marked “10”), the game ends.
Winning
Add your honest score to your cheater’s score. The player with the highest total score wins. If players are tied, the player with the most honest points wins. If players are still tied, all players with cheater points lose and the remaining player with the highest score wins. If all players are excluded, then all players lose.
Variants:
Win The Race: Instead of ending the game after ten rounds have passed, end the game if any player has more than 100 points at the end of a round. Calculate scores as you normally would.
Origin & Credits
Wrote the game up on Dec 18, 2008. Got the ideas for the game from Sharon and Leif on Dec. 17, 2008.
They say that cheaters never win. Prove them wrong in this game for 3 to 5 would-be unscrupulous financial barons.
by Jonathan A. Leistiko
inspired by comments from Leif Brown and Sharon J. Cichelli
Goal
End the game with the most points. Points come in two “flavors”: honest and cheater. Cheater points are easier to acquire, but have risks associated with them.
You Need
About 10 six-sided dice
An honest score track with one score pawn for each player.
A ten-turn tracker with a turn pawn.
A cheater’s score track with five sets of alliance pawns. Each set of alliance pawns has one tracker pawn, one leader pawn, and four member pawns.
Setup
Put the tracks, dice, and alliance pawn sets where everyone can reach them.
Give each player a score pawn. Put your score pawn at zero on the honest score track.
Put the turn pawn at zero on the turn tracker.
Pick a player to go first. Put the turn tracker to the right of the first player.
Play
On your turn, you can roll one die, then advance your honest score marker that far.
Alternately, you can form a cheater’s alliance with one or more other players. Put a cheater’s alliance leader pawn in front of you and a cheater’s alliance member pawn in front of each willing member of the alliance. Put a cheater’s alliance tracker pawn at zero on the cheater’s score track. If you’re the leader of one or more alliances, you roll one die for each member in the alliance. Sum the dice, then move the alliance tracker pawn that far on the cheater’s score track. You get to roll alliance dice on the turn you form an alliance. If there are no free sets of alliance pawns, you can not form an alliance.
If you roll dice and get duplicated results, sum all duplicated dice. This is a bonus pool. Split this pool in to two parts and offer one part to another player. If that player accepts the offer, they add the offer to their score and you add the part you kept to your honest score. If that player refuses your offer, the bonus points disappear. You may not negotiate with the other player; make one clear offer, then be silent until the other player accepts or refuses. If your offer is accepted, but the other player misunderstood your offer, the offer is neutralized and the bonus points disappear.
If you are in an alliance, you can turn your companions in (whistleblow) instead of rolling for points. If you do, add all the points the alliance made to your honest score. The other members of the alliance must subtract the same number from their honest score and must pass their next turn. Return all pawns for that alliance to the pool of pawns.
At the end of your turn, play passes to the left. When play passes over the turn tracker, advance the turn pawn one step. If the turn pawn lands on the space marked “end” (after the space marked “10”), the game ends.
Winning
Add your honest score to your cheater’s score. The player with the highest total score wins. If players are tied, the player with the most honest points wins. If players are still tied, all players with cheater points lose and the remaining player with the highest score wins. If all players are excluded, then all players lose.
Variants:
Win The Race: Instead of ending the game after ten rounds have passed, end the game if any player has more than 100 points at the end of a round. Calculate scores as you normally would.
Origin & Credits
Wrote the game up on Dec 18, 2008. Got the ideas for the game from Sharon and Leif on Dec. 17, 2008.
Invisible City Productions is a collective of game designers, writers, and artists who provide this as a space for the creators of secret media to come together and touch antennae.
help! the download link is broken…
— Jens Alfke Jan 1, 11:51 AM #I’m having trouble following the rules… * How is your dishonest score computed? Is it the total of the scores of the alliances you’re a member of at the end of the game? * Does every member of an alliance roll the multiple dice for the alliance on their turn? Or does the alliance only score once, on the turn it’s created? * Does the “offer” for a bonus just consist of offering them half the bonus points, or are you expected to offer other considerations too? * Are the duplicated dice still counted as part of the total roll for the alliance, or are they only part of the bonus?
This sounds like an interesting game, but I can’t really wrap my head around it. Maybe an example of play would help.
— Jens Alfke Jan 1, 12:05 PM #Thank you, Jens. The broken link is fixed now. Re-writing the rules wil have to wait for a bit (Sorry!). However… *** Your score is the sum of your honest score and the score of every cheater’s alliance you’re in at the end of the game. *** The only person to roll for an alliance is the leader of the alliance. Normal alliance members do not roll for the alliance. If you’re the leader of multiple alliances, you can roll for each alliance you’re leading on your turn, or you can just roll for yourself. *** When you offer bonus points, you can offer some, all, or none of the bonus points. You may not offer anything else, and you may not negotiate. The bonus point dice are still counted as part of the total roll for the alliance.
— Jonathan Leistiko Jan 2, 02:16 AM #