Race Track

Players: Two or more

The players take turns in plotting the position of their racing car around a track.

Description

One of the players draws a track on a piece of squared paper, with a line representing the start/finish line and two dots on the start/finish line representing the cars; for example:

Description

The players then take turns in moving their car along the track according to the following rules:

  • Each car is initially stationary.
  • The car moves the same direction and distance as it did in its previous move, or can accelerate or decelerate by one square in any direction.

For example, suppose in the previous move Blue moved three squares right and two squares up:

Moves

The next move can be three squares right and two squares up again, or any of the eight positions around this:

Moves2

For example, this would be one possible move:

Moves3

At each move the starting point, end point, and line segment joining them, must stay within the bounds of the track. So, as in motor racing, a player must judge their acceleration carefully to win the race without going off the track.

Also, a car may not move onto a grid point currently occupied by the other car. This allows one car to force the other car off the ideal route.

The first player to complete a lap and reach the finish line without crashing into the sides of the track wins.

Example

The following diagram shows a finished game in which the players raced clockwise around a circuit, and Red, the second player, won by one move:

Example

Variations

Players have developed several variations that can add to the challenge of the game:

Track shape

The track can be any desired shape. An entertaining shape is a figure-of-eight track, with a pre-agreed route around the circuit.

Oil slick

A portion of the track can be coloured to represent an oil slick. A car can't change its speed on the oil slick, even if it results in a crash.

Hill

A section crossing the entire track (both sides of the loop) is shaded and marked with a direction. Going uphill subtracts one from the speed in that direction, or both directions if the car is moving diagonally. Going downhill optionally adds one to the speed in that direction (because the cars have brakes).

Thanks to Stuart D. Gathman for these last two variations.

Other topics

History

BlogRSS FeedAbout Pencil and Paper GamesContact Us