Ali Baba
Variant for the board game by
Abacus
Introduction
In this variant, all players take on the role of an Ali Baba
as in the
famous story,
seeking to gain wealth at the expense of the Forty Thieves.
Argument
The existing game comes with materials appropriate to a true
Arabian Nights adventure, but the actual play more resembles
a modern insurance theme. The idea of this variant is to restore more
of the flavor of the original tale.
Extra Materials
- Each player should supply some tokens unique to them
Before the game
- shuffle and deal movement cards to each player as usual
- shuffle the thief cards into 4 stacks by color, all face down
- determine the turn order as usual
- each player receives cash equal to their position in the turn order:
- player 1 receives $1000
- player 2 receives $2000
- player 3 receives $3000
- etc.
Players take turns as usual, but with an altered structure:
- Decide how much treasure to steal from the cave.
- Play a movement card.
- Resolve the space moved to.
Decide how much treasure to steal from the cave.
The player decides how much he would like to steal. The amount dictates
how many turns they must spend gathering jewels and coins in the "Open Sesame"
cave, prolonging their risk of being caught by thieves.
| Amount | Turns |
| 1000 | 1 |
| 3000 | 2 |
| 6000 | 3 |
| 10,000 | 4 |
| 15,000 | 5 |
| 21,000 | 6 |
| 28,000 | 7 |
| 35,000 | 8 |
| 43,000 | 9 |
| 52,000 | 10 |
| 62,000 | 11 |
| 73,000 | 12 |
After the player decides how much treasure to take, count players clockwise
the listed number of turns and place this amount of cash in front of this player
with the current player's token covering it. If the number of turns is greater
than the number of players, place an extra token for each time this number has been
exceeded.
Players may not take an amount for which the number of turns
would exceed the number of spaces which could be visited
in the remainder of the game.
Players wanting to take more treasure while they are currently in the cave
waiting to claim treasure, may do so by extending their stay. However,
this is re-calculated from a zero base. Thus, if the player wishes to extend
their stay by 1 turn, they may add an extra 1000 to the stack under their
token.
Play a movement card.
The player plays a movement card and moves the figure appropriately as normal.
When the figure crosses the halfway mark of the board in the first round, the
discarded movement cards are shuffled and dealt out to the players so that all
have the same number of cards as they began the game with.
This same process is conducted again when the figure reaches or crosses the start space
and again when it again reaches the halfway mark.
Resolve the space moved to.
If the space entered is a jewel, then any players currently in the cave, i.e.
any player with cash under a token, is now in danger of being caught. The
current player decides whether to turn up 1, 2 or 3 cards of the corresponding
deck (on some spaces more than one deck) of thieves and then rolls the dice.
(The player must announce the number of cards before seeing any and adhere to
this decision.)
If the dice indicate a number on any of these thieves, then any player currently
in the cave has been caught. They lose all the funds under their tokens to the bank.
In addition, they must pay 1000 from their holdings, unless they are bankrupt.
If a player has not been caught and the cash is sitting in front of the current player,
he removes a token from the cash. If this is the last cash, he now claims it as his
own.
Then the player who has lost the most money receives the just turned up thief
of his choice and keeps it face-up in front of him. If there are more thieves,
they may be taken by other players who have been caught in descending order of
cash lost. If there are ties, then cash is claimed in order beginning from the
player to the left of the current player and progressing around the table.
No player may claim a card of the type he already has.
Cards not claimed are used to form a discard pile which, when the deck is
exhausted, are used to form a new deck.
In subsequent turns, if a player is caught by a thief of a type which he has
previously claimed, he may ignore all thieves of that type.
Note that for the purposes of the above two paragraphs, matching "type" means
that the thief must be not only the same color, but also contain the same name
and symbol on the card.
Ending the Game
The game ends when the Start space has been reached or passed for the second time.
The last space moved to is resolved as usual.
Victory
The player who has stolen the most treasure, i.e. has the most money, wins.
Optional Rules
Devising meanings for the Grafitti Symbols in this variant is left to the reader.
Last updated:
Tue Nov 16 16:41:06 PST 1999
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Rick Heli