The Clockwork Conundrum

In The Clockwork Conundrum, after each player receives 3 cards and 3 pawns, a modular board is formed 5 cards wide x 5 cards high (cards are left face down), surrounding a single victory card. All players besides the start player may examine their cards, and place these however desired. The start player may only see his cards after choosing which card to begin with. He places his pawn on this card.

Most cards have a L, M, R, or C in their upper right corner. These stand for Left, Middle, Right, and Choice. When the start player reveals his start card, it determines where the next player places his pawn. This unleashes a chain of events. The last player's pawn placement will indicate the two to four movement options for the start player. (These are indicated by direction markers on each card.) His subsequent move will indicate the next player's move and so on. This can be treacherous given the players don't know the cards they are moving to until they make their moves. It is entirely possible that a player may be forced off of the board, or onto one of the more bizarre action cards.

1. FREEZE: If a player settles on this card, the next player in turn order may not move. Instead whichever card he previously settled on will indicate the next player's movement options.

2. LAVA: If a player stumbles into a lava pit, he loses one of his three pawns and starts over on the start card indicated by the lava card.

3. MIRROR MIRROR: If a player settles onto a Mirror Mirror card, the next player in turn order will move across the board to the card in the mirror position.

4. +PAWN: If a player settles onto a +Pawn card, he adds a second pawn to the start card of his choice. This increases his movement options, since he will still only move 1 pawn at a time. Therefore, his likelihood of reaching his destination is significantly increased.

5. REVERSE: If a player settles onto a Reverse card, the turn order is reversed, and the player who preceded him must move in the direction indicated by the card on which he is currently settled.

The game only uses 37 cards. There are 41 in total. But the remaining cards are not totally useless. While increasing the variety of the modular board, the cards also help to resolve conflicts if a player has settled onto a card where his opponent is currently positioned. Each card, excluding the Victory Card, has a number 1-40. When players are involved in a conflict, each draws a card at random, and the player with the higher card gains the space, whereas the player with the lower card loses his pawn.

Usually any cards revealed are left face-up, but there is also a Memory Variant where after moving to a new location, any cards not currently active are flipped back to face-down.

Due to the unique design of the game, it may also be played cooperatively, as players work together to lead one to the Victory Card.

The Clockwork Conundrum is an intense puzzle game. And due to its featuring nearly 100,000 ways to set up, it is highly replayable. Who will gain the victory in a game where your next moves are triggered by your opponent?