Thirty 2010

EQUIPMENT: six tokens of the same color and an 18 card deck consisting of three each of aces, twos, threes, fours, fives and sixes. What suits you use does not matter. Aces have a value of one.

SET UP: shuffle the cards then lay them face up in a circle or square to form the track. Then one player decides to be Odd, the other Even. Both take three tokens. Odd places one token on the odd numbered cards of the same number, either all the aces, threes or fives. Even does the same, just on even numbered cards (twos, fours, or sixes).

MOVEMENT: The number value of a card determines how far a token is moved. Who moves which token doesn't matter, only that the Odd player moves an odd number of spaces, and Even an even number, both moving in a clockwise manner. Occupied cards in the path of your token are hopped over and not counted when moving, only one token can occupy a card at any time.

SCORING: at the end of your turn, count how many spaces you moved in total, including occupied cards you skipped over. An odd number scores points for Odd, an even number for Even, regardless of who moved the token. For example, if Odd moves a token on a 5 card, but is forced to hop over an occupied space in the way, this equals six spaces moved, so Even receives six points, though it was not his or her turn. The round ends when someone has gained 30 points, the winner receiving the difference between the winning and losing scores. For example, if Odd has 30 and Even 28, Odd gets 2 points for that round.

GOAL: to gain 30 points after a series of rounds. The loser of a previous round starts the next one. Tokens are not rearranged between rounds, and both players start the round with zero points.