BLACKPOOL

Escape the dark waters

A race for two to four players, out of a whirlpool that pulls you back.

Play

In your browser, on one screen or each on your own phone, and any colour nobody takes can play itself. No sign-in.

2 to 4 players3 travellers each10 cardsFree to copy and share (CC BY 4.0)
The Blackpool board: a black and grey painted whirlpool in four rings round a centre square, with each colour's path spiralling out to its camp in a corner

The game

Each player has three travellers caught in a whirlpool. To escape, a traveller has to move faster than the water. The die, which the game calls the Oracle, gives you your Whiteforce for the turn. Each ring pulls back with its own Blackforce, strongest near the centre. Roll higher than a ring's Blackforce and a traveller there goes forward; roll lower and the water drags it back.

Unlike ludo, nobody is knocked off the board. A traveller that lands on another player's rides on it, and the one underneath carries it until it moves off on its own turn. A traveller carrying a rider goes forward less and is pulled back further, so it pays to climb onto whoever is ahead.

I made Blackpool with Priyamvada Gaur in 2019. It came out under Nonserious, the games brand of my company Storyflock Education and Design Services. The board and the cards are painted.

How to play

  1. Goal. Bring all three of your travellers into your camp, the corner square in your colour. The first player to do it wins.
  2. Your path. Each traveller follows the arrows in your colour: round its ring anti-clockwise, out to the next ring, then along the edge into camp.
  3. Roll the Oracle. The number is your Whiteforce for the turn.
  4. The water pulls back. Each ring's Blackforce is printed in its corners. The centre pulls 5, the ring round it 4, the next 3, the outer ring 2. The edge has none.
  5. Compare. Your Whiteforce higher than a traveller's ring, and it goes forward as many squares as you rolled. Lower, and the water pulls it back as many squares as you rolled. The same, and it stays.
  6. Move one traveller. If any can go forward, you move one of those; only when none can is one pulled back.
  7. Piggy-back. Land on another colour and you ride on it. A traveller carrying a rider goes forward less and is pulled back further. No more than two travellers can share a square, and they must be different colours.
  8. A six. Move six and roll again, or bring a traveller out of the centre (only a six can), or spend one of your three coins on a card. A charm helps you; a curse hurts someone else.

Charms and curses

Five charms help you; five curses hurt someone else. Each player has three coins, and a coin can be spent only on a six. Each card can be played only once in a game.

Gust of Force: use this charm to move all your travellers, outward by 6 spaces each.
Charm
12 - steps to Freedom: if a traveller is at the centre of the Blackpool, use this charm to bring it out by moving 12 spaces from the centre.
Charm
Piggyback Inverse: use this curse to change places with travellers of other player(s) who are piggy backing on your traveller(s). Now you piggy back on them.
Curse
Freeze: put any one traveller of another player to sleep, using this curse. Till the curse is lifted, that traveller cannot move from its place.
Curse
Reset: use this curse to move all travellers of any one player to their respective start points.
Curse
The twelve travellers, three each in red, yellow, green and blue The coins, three in each colour, each with a charm face and a curse face

Print it

The board, 360 mm square39 MB
The back of the board13 MB
The rules booklet, 36 pages; also as text13 MB
Charm cards, five, faces and backs2.2 MB
Curse cards, five, faces and backs2.2 MB
Travellers, three in each colour0.9 MB
Coins, three in each colour, a charm face and a curse face0.9 MB

You also need a six-sided die.