Emmett Kelly's Circus Game

From the Box:

"It's fun to see the Circus. It's more fun to be a part of the Circus. This game of mine takes you into circus life. You can follow the track around the 3 rungs with the Clowns and the Ringmaster. You can build the various circus acts - the animal acts, the trapeze acts, the tumblers, the jugglers and others. There's a prize for each act you complete and whoever gets the most prizes, wins. Let's play!"

This game uses a simplistic card drawing and set collection method to move players around the board. Movement around the board seems to serve no purpose other than to kill time, as all the game mechanic is from drawing cards and placing cards on the game board to make sets. Points are accumulated when sets are completed, or when indicated by the type of card drawn at the beginning of the player's turn.

OBJECT The object of the game is to win the most Emmett Kelly Prize Disks. A Prize is won when a player

     Plays a Circus Act Card that completes and Act.
     Draws an Emmett Kelly Prize Card
     Stops on an Emmett Kelly space in the game board track.

SETUP Place the Emmett Kelly Prize Disks in a pile to one side.

Mix up the action cards and place them face down in a pile near the game board

All players select a colored Playing Piece and place it on the matching Ringmaster space on the board. the player that chose Green goes first and then play proceeds to the left

Each turn starts by drawing an Action Card from the face down pile.

ACTION CARDS - WHAT THEY MEAN Circus Act Cards. Each Circus Act card has a picture matching a part of an Act in the Circus, menagerie or Side Show. When Drawn, the player looks on the board for part of an Act it matches and places the card on it. The player also moves the playing piece the number of spaces shown on the card. moves are always in a clockwise direction. Whenever a player draws and plays an Act Card that completes an Act, he takes one Emmett Kelly Prize Disk.

Emmett Kelly Cards. When drawn, the player moves ahead to the next Emmett Kelly space on the game board track and takes one Emmett Kelly Prize Disk.

Blue Clown Cards. When drawn, the player moves his playing piece the number of spaces shown on the card.

Red Clown Cards. When drawn, the player moves his playing piece the number of spaces shown in the card. Also if any player (whether the one drawing the Red Clown Card or not) has more Prizes than the others, that player returns one Prize to the Prize pile. If two or more players are tied for most Prizes, none is given up.

Ringmaster Cards. When drawn, the player moves to the next Ringmaster space and takes another turn.

Clown Dog Card. When drawn, the player moves to the next Clown Dog space and loses his next turn.

The Circus Act Cards are played on the board. All the other Action Cards are piled face up to one side after they are drawn and used.

WINNING When all the Acts on the game board have been completed, by covering them with matching cards, the player with the most Emmett Kelly Prizes is the winner.