Scotland Yard

[zyzzyva980]

In 1983, a new pursuit-evasion board game hit the market. Published by Ravensburger in Germany and Canada and Milton Bradley in America, it quickly became popular, and eventually won the Spiel des Jahres award- the German “Game of the Year” Award.

It is difficult to adapt a board game into a style fit for online forums, but I believe that with this game, I will be able to convert the popular challenge into an appropriate online game. Welcome to Scotland Yard! The next five people to post will be the players of the game. If you have played Scotland Yard before, please state this in your post. Once we have five, I’ll go over the rules. They are very similar to the actual board game version of Scotland Yard, with a few minor differences to account for problems the use of internet and lengthened turns may bring up.

[lllazar]

I'll play

[brobo]

IN! I wanna be mr. X!

EDIT: Never played, but I get it.

[frogzorz]

In!
...but I've never played this game before lol.
Don't be surprised if I don't post for a long time...I just don't have that much time.

[zyzzyva980]

You will need to get on at least once every two days. Your fellow detectives will be relying on you. If you aren't going to be on, it's not a good idea to join.

[AlphaTauri]

I'll join. This sounds interesting.

[RandomPerson]

In... I think?

[paleonaps]

Awww..... no chance we can have 6 right?

[zyzzyva980]

Well, paleonaps, if frogzorz becomes inactive, you'll replace him. Detectives must be active. Rules to be posted shortly.

[zyzzyva980]

The following are the rules for Scotland Yard:
The rules are fairly similar to the actual game. Here’s the backstory. Mr. X is a notorious criminal who has done some despicable act that, if I’m not mistaken, is not mentioned in the rules. Scotland Yard has sent out their best detectives to find him in a chase around the city. So here’s how the game will work: One player will be Mr. X. Four players will be the detectives. You will be able to keep track of the status of each player from this link:

http://oi52.tinypic.com/15q5ekw.jpg

This will be edited after each turn to display the map, the number of tokens each player has left, and the type of transportation Mr. X has used throughout the game. Now to the actual gameplay.

On your turn, everyone will make a move to a different spot on the board (you MUST move). Mr. X will move first, then the detectives will move. You can travel by taxi, bus, or use the London underground (abbreviated here as subway). Taxi routes are white, bus routes are blue, and underground routes are orange and dashed. Look at the map. From the space marked 2, you can travel to either space 20 or space 10 via taxi. You have to stop at the next stop, so you couldn’t keep going from 2 to, say, 11 or 21. You must stop at the first stop you come to. Here are some more examples: From space 3, you could travel to spaces 4, 12, or 11 by taxi, and 22 or 23 by bus, but not 13, because there is no bus route there. And from the space marked 1 (in the top left corner), you can travel by taxi to spaces 8 or 9, by bus to space 58 or 46 (BUT none of the spaces in between) or by subway to 46. Each mode of transportation requires one of the corresponding tokens to use. If you run out of tokens, you can’t use that mode of transportation. So be careful!

Now, Mr. X has a few more options. Mr. X can use taxi, bus, or subway, but he can also use a mystery move- in other words, a move that means that the detectives don’t know what type of transportation he used. The mystery move also allows Mr. X to travel by boat from either 194 to 157 (along the lines), 157 to 115, or 115 to 108. It can be very useful. Mr. X can also use a token labeled “2x” which enables him to make two moves a turn for one turn instead of just one. The detectives still get only one move. Finally, whenever a detective uses a token, it gets turned in to Mr. X, and he can use it. So while Mr. X starts with less tokens, he’ll actually get four new tokens each turn.

The detectives won’t know what space Mr. X is on, but they will be told what type of transportation he used. In addition, on each turn labeled in gray on the above link, the detectives will be made aware of Mr. X’s exact whereabouts. To catch Mr. X, all you have to do is land on the space he’s on, even if it’s by accident.

I hope that all makes sense. If you have any questions, by all means, ask! The person playing as Mr. X will be determined shortly. I know this looks complicated, but you'll get the hang of it.

EDIT: For further reference, here is the original game map: http://oi52.tinypic.com/ab1f9c.jpg