New Rule

Introduction: Wriggle, shuffle, and slide along! In this unusual race-to-the-end game, players must manipulate their candies both individually and as part of a collective to propel them to the end bowl first.

Players: 4+

Materials:

• Regular-sized bags of identically-shaped, multicolored candies (such as M&Ms or Skittles), at least two bags per player.
• Cups or bowls to hold the candies for random drawing — one per player and two for the start and finish bowls.

Setting Up: Combine the contents of all bags of candy in a common pile. Each player chooses a candy color and retrieves all the candies of that color, keeping them in a personal pile in front of them. Ensure that each player has the same number of candies (feel free to eat any extras). Set out the bowls into a circle: one bowl situated in front of each player, and the start and end bowls in the center spaced a short distance apart. Designate which bowl is the start: each player places on candy of their color in this bowl. Youngest player present goes first; play proceeds to the left.

How to Play: The objective of each player is to move all their candies into the start bowl, around the ring of player bowls, and into the end bowl. Movement around the ring is in a counter-clockwise order beginning with the first player’s bowl and ending with the bowl for the player to their left. Each turn, players may make any of the following moves:

1. Shuffle: The player may move a single candy from any bowl into the next bowl in the sequence as long as that bowl has no more than five like-colored candies in it already. The first bowl in the ring counts as being “next in sequence” from the start bowl, and the end bowl is next in sequence from the last bowl in the ring. Similarly, players may move candies from their personal pile into the start bowl in this fashion.
2. Slide: The player may move two candies from any bowl into the next bowl or bowls in sequence: they may move either both candies into the next bowl or one candy into the next bowl and one into the bowl following that. However, they must also move one candy belonging to one of their opponents ahead one bowl. As with Shuffle, the player may not make this move if the destination bowl or bowls already contain at least five of their own colored candies.
3. Wriggle: The player may move two candies forward one bowl in exchange for moving a third candy backwards one bowl. Similar to Shuffle and Slide, the destination bowl must contain no more than five of the player’s candies, however: in this move, the destination for the candy moving backwards is the critical bowl. The two candies moving forward are not considered when determining whether a player may make this move.
4. Lunge: The opposite of Wriggle, the player may move one candy forward two bowls in exchange for moving two candies backwards one bowl. Follows the same rules as the previous three moves, though in this case, the candy moving forward two bowls is the critical destination to consider.
5. Slither: Only usable on a bowl with exactly five player candies in it: The player removes all five of their candies from the bowl and distributes them one each to the next five bowls in the sequence. Any candies that would be placed beyond the end bowl are placed into it instead.

Note that a players moving candies forward from their personal pile move them into the start bowl. Moves that would move candies into or out of the start bowl may treat the personal pile as “the bowl earlier in sequence” from the start bowl. There is no position earlier than this pile, however, so any move that would move a candy backwards from the pile is disallowed. Any of these moves can be made if their conditions allow, but when they are done each bowl on the table must hold ten or fewer candies, total. Thus, if a player’s move places more than ten candies in a bowl, they must move candies out of that bowl and redistribute them as follows:

• The player must remove candies that are not their own color if at all possible. If only candies of their color remain, only then do they move those.
• The player must place as many candies as possible in the two bowls adjacent to the target bowl in the sequence. If both the bowl before and the bowl after the target bowl have ten candies and the player still has candies she needs to distribute, she may place them in any bowl on the table that already has at least one candy.
• Players may not redistribute candies to either the start or end bowl.
• If every bowl on the table has ten or more candies (not counting the start and end bowls), the player removes the surplus candies entirely and returns them to the player that owns them. These must be started afresh in the start bowl before they may return to play.

Winning the Game: Play continues until one player has moved all the candies of their color to the end bowl. The first player to accomplish this is the winner.

Tags: Game Design //