A postal card game for 4 players by Alan Parr (drawing inspiration from Bernd Brunnhofer).
Each player has a team of three runners.
There are three simultaneous races: one of 25 spaces, one of 55 and one of 85.
Each team has one runner in each race.
1) A race ends when the first runner breaks the tape (i.e. reaches square 25, 55 or 85); the minor placings are decided by the positions of the other runners when this happens. The points won in each race are 5, 3, 2, 1; with the overall winner of the game being the team which has the highest number of points from the three races.
2) Each player has a set of 12 cards, one each numbered from 1 to 12. The players must allocate four cards to each of their runners - for example, one player might give 2, 4, 5, 10 for his runner in the 25 square race, 1, 6, 9, 11 in the 55 square race and 3, 7, 8, 12 in the 85 square race.
3) Each race should take about 20-25 turns, so it's best to play two turns in each zine issue. In each turn of each race each player must play one of his runner's four cards; after four turns, when all four of a runner's cards will have been played, they will be returned to him to be used again in the next four turns. This process continues until the race is over.
4) In each turn of the 25 square race, whichever runner plays the highest card moves the difference between his card and the next highest, e.g. if the four cards played are 3, 6, 8, 2, the player of the 8 card moves 2 spaces (8-6=2).
5) In each turn of the 55 square race, two runners will move. The runners who play the two highest cards move the differences between their cards and the third highest, e.g. if the four cards played are 3, 6, 8, 2, the player of the 8 cards moves 5 spaces (8-3=5) and the player of the 6 card moves 3 (6-3=3).
6) In each turn of the 85 square race, three runners will move. The runners who play the three highest cards move the differences between their cards and the lowest, e.g. if the four cards played are 3, 6, 8, 2, the player of the 8 card moves 6 spaces (8-2=6), the player of the 6 cards moves 4 (6-2=4) and the player of the 3 moves 1 (3-2=1).
7) When two or more equal cards are played the situation is resolved by commonsense means, e.g. if 9, 7, 7, 3 are played then in the 25 square race the player of the 9 will move 2 spaces; in the 55 square race the player of the 9 will move 2 spaces and no-one else will move; in the 85 square race the player of the 9 will move 6 spaces and the two 7s will move 4 spaces each.
8) A player may choose on two occasions to readjust his cards, but no more than one card may be moved from any one runner to another - in other words, after a readjustment each runner must have at least three of the cards he had before it took place.
9) Orders for the second move of a round may be made conditional upon the results of the first move.
10) Should a player NMR, his lowest available card will be used in the first move, then the next lowest in the second move.
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