Jolly Octopus

Your challenge in the Jolly Octopus mitbringspiel is the same as in the larger board game (namely Jolly Octopus): Don't tickle Jolly O, or else you're looking at a world of hurt. But while the board game uses a motorized octopus with sensitive anti-touch gizmos, the travel game uses only the eyes of the other players, who must watch for octopus movement in order to detect your crime.

Your goal in the game is to move your two crabs clockwise around Jolly O in order to reach the starfish at the goal line. Why not go counter-clockwise and travel only one space instead of seven? Because you have the brain of a crab and cannot reason that well.

To set up the game, you assemble the octopus, which has alternating high and low legs, place all the crabs to the right of the bandaged leg (when looking from above), place the starfish to the left of this leg, and place the shark opposite the crabs.

On a turn, you roll the two dice. If both dice show numbers, you can move one of your crabs ahead the sum of the two numbers or you can move each crab forward equal to the number on one die. To move, you must push the crabs gently under the arms of the octopus, not disturbing Jolly O in any way. If the other players do spot movement, then you return the crab to its starting location and lose the movement points for that action. If one of the dice shows a shark fin, you move one crab forward equal to the number on the other die, then move the shark clockwise that same number of spaces. If the shark lands in a space with a lone crab, that crab is moved backwards two spaces.

The first player to move both of her crabs to the starfish wins!

Reimplements Jolly Octopus