Grand Prix - Variant rules A.J.Merritt ========================== Betting ------- You'll need to mark the 1/5, 2/5, and 3/5 points on the track, however they don't need to be exact. When the first car crosses each mark, players bet by choosing a car. At the end of the race, bonuses or penalties are awarded based on the order the cars finished and at which point in the race you made your bets: Bet 1 Bet 2 Bet 3 1st 90,000 60,000 30,000 2nd 60,000 40,000 20,000 3rd 30,000 20,000 10,000 4th 0 -10,000 -20,000 5th -10,000 -30,000 -60,000 6th -30,000 -60,000 -90,000 Note that bets are kept secret until the end of the race, and you may bet on the same car more than once. You do not have to bet on a car you own. Slip streaming -------------- Whenever a car moves and a second car is directly behind it, move the second car forward one space. If there is a whole row of cars and the front one moves forward then all those directly behind it will move forward one space. This helps make it less of an advantage to get ahead of the pack, and adds some interesting twists to the game play. (This is from Daytona 500). Card distribution ----------------- Remove the ten point cards, as they are too powerful, and generally get played on the first turn on any board with an early tight corner. However if you have a board which is very hard to finish without them, then consider giving each one to the owner of that car to even things up. My suggestions for different tracks: Formel 1 (with my mods to make it somewhat trickier). This is an easy course. Give 1 x Wild 5 to the purchaser of the most expensive car. Discard the other 2 wild 5's. If equal the car in the worst position gets the bonus card. Cleveland (long): Give the wild 10 to the purchaser of the most expensive car and the wild 5 to the next most expensive. Discard the other two wild 5's. Detroit (medium): Discard the wild 10, give 1 x WIld 5 to most expensive car, discar other two wild 5's. Switch cards ------------ Ideas from various sets: * Allow a car to catch up with the other car. The rearmost car of the two moves forward as far as it can or until it draws level with the frontmost of the two cars. Thus if there is a blockage the car doing the catching up will halt behind the blockage. * Causes a car to breakdown. The foremost of the two cars is moved to the side of the track (off the track), it can no longer move (points on cards for this car are now wasted when played) until the other car on the card has reached or passed the broken down car's position. It then returns to the track where it came off, or to the side if that space is taken or behind if this is not possible. I prefer the Detroit/Cleveland standard rules in which the switch card simply changes over the colours on cards played in the next round, including for the player who played the switch card. The effect then ends. A switch card can still be played when one of the cars has finished, but it does nothing at all. End of the Race --------------- When a player has got all of the cars they own past the finish line they still continue to play cards - after all they may well still have bets outstanding on other cars. Play continues until either all cars are past the finish line or all cards have been played. Note and Ideas From Various Tracks ---------------------------------- Top Race ........ 3 Wild 5's, 0 Wild 10's, 74 pts per car Track - shortest route 56 spaces, board looks very nice. Corners: 5x1, 5x1, 4x2, 5x2, 3x3 A very vicious board - very easy to congest the narrow corners Detroit / Cleveland Grand Prix .............................. 3 wild 5's, 1 wild 10, 74 pts per car Detroit: 56 spaces minimum, board looks a bit scrappy - odd buts stick out! 10 spaces of 1 width corner Cleveland: 60 spaces minimum, board looks a bit scrappy - odd bits stick out! 8 spaces of 1 width corner. Both tracks have the 1 width corners spread out over several corners. Nikki Lauda's Formel 1 ...................... Even with my mods it is only 52 spaces, making it short and easy. Daytona 500 ........... Daytona 500 uses a different and intriguing cornering mechanism - the corners are typically of width 2, with the outer lane much longer (twice as long ?). The outer lane is also marked red, and no care may finish moving on a red square - it must duck into the inside lane. If a car cannot make a legal move around a corner in this way then its extra points are useless.