CRITERIUM DE FIGUERES
Oriol Comas and Anki Toner, 2007
 

A cycling criterium is a short bicycle race often run on closed-off city centre streets. Criteriums are traditionally associated with village fairs, when a bike race is another attraction. In Critèrium de Figueres the players race to be the first to complete one lap around the worldwide famous Rambla de Figueres. The fastest rider will be he who gets more help from the other players, but of course he will have been helping them in exchange.

This game was originally produced for the "Pedalant Pel Tauler" cycling board games exhibition held at the Museu del Joguet de Catalunya (Figueres) in october 2007.

 

The original version of the game featured in Figueres.

 

RULES (for 4 players) Game material 6 cyclists; 53 cards: 6 decks of 7 cards numbered 0-6, in colors matching the riders’; 1 deck of 9 black “water bottle” cards, numbered 1-3 (three cards of each number); 1 game board Preparation Each player chooses a colour and takes the matching deck of cards. The two remaining riders (for instance, grey and orange) will be “neutral” and their decks will be shuffled separately and placed face down on the center of the board. The six riders are placed at random on the starting square (Museu De la Joguina de Figueres). “Water bottle” cards are shuffled and placed face down near square 15. Game turn In each turn, players show simultaneously one card. At the same time, the topmost card of the neutral riders ( grey and orange) is also shown. Three things can happen: a) All cyclists (including neutrals) play a card with a different number. Each cyclist advances the number shown on his card. b) Two or more cyclists (including neutrals) play a card with the same number (this number not being 0). These cyclists advance the number shown on the card plus one additional square for each card showing that number, including his own card. (Example, if three cyclist play card 4, each of them advances 7 squares). c) Two or more cyclists (including neutrals) play card with number 0. Nobody moves in this turn. In a given turn, cyclists advance starting by the head of the race. If there are two or more riders in one square, the leftmost moves first. Cyclists arriving into a square place themselves as far left as possible. Played cards are left in front of the players, face up, so everybody can see all cards that have been played. Special squares Refreshment (Square 15): Once in the game, cyclists take an extra card from the “water bottle” deck. This happens when cyclists reach or go past square 15. This card is added to their hand and can be played at any moment. When a neutral cyclist reaches or goes past square 15, the water bottle card is added to his face down deck (and the deck is resshuffled) Sprint Bonus (square 21) After the turn in which the first cyclist(s) reach or go further than square 21, the cyclist(s) leading the race advance one extra square. End of the race The race ends as soon as one cyclist reaches the finishing line (after square 32). The first cyclist to go past the line wins the race. If after eight turns (seven cars in the initial deck plus one refreshment card) not one cyclist has reached the finisging line, the race is won by the most advanced cyclist (or, in case of a tie, by the leftmost rider between the most advanced). Rules for 3 players: Only 5 cyclists take part in the race. Two of them are neutral. Rules for 5 players: Only one cyclist is neutral.

 

 

  

Playing the original version of the game: the bald head in left's picture is Oriol Comas'. You can also see Raimon, Silvia, Marianna, Alberto, Angelica and myself. On the other picture you can see Ludo, Carmen and (again) myself.

 

 

 

Alberto Quintairos has sent this picture of his hometown self-made version, "Criterium de Ourense"

 

 

LICENCE: This print-and-play edition of the game is released under an "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike" Creative Commons license, which allows you to: Share: to copy, distribute and transmit the work Remix: to adapt the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Noncommercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. Share Alike: If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

Click here to download the free print-and-play version of the game (zip file, 7MB, English rules)
Click here to download the Catalan rules (pdf file, 9KB)
Click here to download the Spanish rules (pdf file, 17KB)

 

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