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Elevator |
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Story
The game is set in a skyscraper in an American city, at the end of the working day. The skyscraper has a bank of elevators (lifts to us English folk), one elevator for each player. The object of the game is to make your elevator pick up passengers and deliver them to the floors they want to go to. The player whose elevator delivers the most people is the winner. The players whose elevator carries the second most people comes second, and so on. Setting Up LAYING OUT THE FLOORS Lay 11 straws (or pencils) horizontally one above the other to mark out the 10 floors of the skyscraper. It should look something like this:
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10th Floor
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9th Floor
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8th Floor
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7th Floor
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6th Floor
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5th Floor
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4th Floor
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3rd Floor
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2nd Floor
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1st Floor
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PLACING THE ELEVATORS IN STARTING POSITION Each elevator (e.g. each player) occupies a column in the stack of floors. Each elevator begins the game stationary on a particular floor. The players now need to decide who will place their elevator first. They should each select a card from the shuffled pack. The person with the highest card goes first, then the person with the next highest card, and so on. After you've determined the order of play you should shuffle the cards back into the pack. (Aces count as high, any ties, draw again). The player who drew the highest card picks up the token (e.g. the matchstick) representing his elevator and places it horizontally in the first column, on any floor he wants to. (It is placed horizontally, e.g. pointing sideways, to indicate that the lift is stationary). Example: There are four players, Rachel, Michelle, Avril and Samantha. Rachel draws a 3 of clubs, Michelle draws an Ace of diamonds, Avril draws a 5 of spades and Samantha draws a King of clubs. The order of play will be Michelle, Samantha, Avril then Rachel. Michelle places her token on the 4th floor. Samantha places her token on the 10th floor. Avril places her token on the 6th floor. Rachel places her token on the 1st floor. The playing area will then look like:
M S A R
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<- 10th Floor
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9th Floor
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8th Floor
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7th Floor
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<- 6th Floor
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5th Floor
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<- 4th Floor
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3rd Floor
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2nd Floor
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<- 1st Floor
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Playing The Game Play consists of a series of rounds. Each round consists of two phases:  Placing Passengers
Moving Elevators, Picking Up
Passengers, Dropping Off Passengers
In both phases the players go in the order that they placed the elevator tokens. PLACING PASSENGERS Each players draws a card off the shuffled deck then, without looking at it, places it face down on one of the floors (placing it just to the side of the straws). It is entirely up to the player on which floor they place the card. Once all the players have drawn and placed a card, the cards are turned over, to reveal how many passengers there are and where they are going. The number of the card is which floor they want to travel to, with picture cards and aces counting as the first floor (it is the end of the day and most people are going home). The suit of the card indicates how many people are in the group. Club: 1 person Diamonds: 2 people Hearts: 3 people Spades: 4 people If when a card is turned over, the number indicating the destination floor is that of the floor in which it was placed (e.g. a 6 of diamonds was placed on the 6th floor, or a King of clubs was placed onto the 1st floor) it is immediately discarded. It indicates that a group of people got confused and pressed the button for no apparent reason. In game terms, a card such as this is known as "Morons". Example: Since this is the first turn, and the elevators are both empty and stationary, each player chooses to place the card they drew onto the same floor as their elevator (so that they can pick it up in the next phase of the turn). Michelle, Samantha, Avril then Rachel each draw a card of the top of the pack and then place it face down alongside the floor stack. Then they turn them over. The result is that: On the 10th floor there is 1
person wishing to travel to the 5th floor (5 of clubs).
On the 6th floor there are 4
people wishing to travel to the 1st floor (King of spades).
On the 4th floor are a bunch
of morons who play no further part in the game (4 of diamonds).
On the 1st floor are 3 people
who want to travel to the 3rd floor.
M S A R
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5C <- 10th Floor
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9th Floor
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8th Floor
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7th Floor
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KS <- 6th Floor
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5th Floor
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4D <- 4th Floor
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3rd Floor
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2nd Floor
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3H <- 1st Floor
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MOVING ELEVATORS, PICKING UP PASSENGERS & DROPPING OFF PASSENGERS Once the passenger cards have been placed, the players each take a turn to move their elevators, picking up and dropping off passengers as they do so. Picking Up Passengers: If you are stationary (your token is horizontal) at a floor at the start of your turn you can pick up any passengers at that floor if you are not already full (you can only hold a maximum of FOUR cards in your elevator). When you take passengers into your elevator, place the card at the top of your column (or under your token if you have room). However, that only applies if you are empty. If you already have passengers on board, then you can only take more passengers on board if you are moving in the right direction (and have the space). Example: John's elevator has picked up a group of 3 passengers from the 4th floor who are travelling to the 9th floor (9 of hearts). At the 5th floor are the 2 of clubs (1 person travelling to the 2nd floor) and the 7 of spades (4 people travelling to the 7th floor). Since he has already picked up the 3 passengers for the 9th floor he is committed to travelling there first. (He can't change direction until he has dropped them off). Since the lift is going up, the person waiting for a lift going DOWN to the 2nd floor won't get on. The 4 people travelling to the 7th floor will happily get on. So, John can add the 7 of spades to his elevator, but NOT the 2 of clubs. Moving Your Elevator: The rules for moving elevators are different depending on whether you have any passengers or not and whether you are stationary or in motion. If you have no passengers then you can make any legal move. If you have passengers then you are more limited (more on that later). Stationary Empty Elevators: If you are stationary (your token is horizontal) then you can opt to change your direction to either upwards or downwards). You indicate this by twisting your token to point either up or down. Moving Empty Elevators: If you are moving (e.g. your token is pointing upwards or downwards) then you have two options: You can move one floor in the
direction you are moving, or;
You can come to a stop (e.g.
turn your token to face sideways).
Loaded Elevators: If you have passengers, then you are committed to moving to the floor where they are going. You can come to a stop on floors between the floor where you picked them up and the floor where you are going. But you cannot actually reverse direction. When you get to the floor where your passengers are going, you have to stop to let them off. Dropping Off Passengers: If you are stationary (your token is horizontal) at a floor at the end of your turn you can drop off any passengers you have that are heading for that floor. When you drop passengers off, you put that card into a pile next to you (they are kept for scoring at the end of the game). As The Game Continues You basically repeat those two phases, placing passengers, and picking up, moving and dropping off. Pretty quickly the number of passengers waiting will start to build up. This is normal. Since you cannot simply pick up passengers as soon as you put them down, you have to think more about where to place them. Ideally you create groups which you can pick up in the future, but which are not conveniently placed for your opponents. Ending The Game When the deck of card runs out it means there are no more passengers to be picked up. You carry on playing until all of the available passengers have been picked up (you don't need to play out the dropping off of those final passengers since they can't be lost). The Winner When the game is over, each player should add up the number of passengers they carried. The person who carried the most passengers is the winner. Example Of Play Let's follow Rachel through the first few turns. In turn 1 she loads up the 3 passengers for the 2nd floor, then changes her direction to upwards. In turn 2 she moves from the 1st floor to the 2nd floor. In turn 3 she moves from the 2nd floor to the 3rd floor (note that her direction of travel is still upwards). In turn 4 she changes her direction to stationary (e.g. twists the token round to the horizontal) and then unloads the 3 passengers. Of course, while that is happening the others players are also moving their elevators, and all the players, including her, are drawing and placing new passenger cards. Optional Rules NO PICTURE CARDS OR ACES If you don't like having the preponderance of people travelling to the 1st floor, then you can simply remove the picture and ace cards before you play. EXTENDED GAME If you want a longer game then you can just use two or more decks of cards. Any Queries? I hope that's all clear, but if you have any queries or thoughts drop me a line at editor@criticalmiss.com. |
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