Open Rails Express: Cleveland Interurban

Push your luck and your opponent by taking part in developing Cleveland's early streetcar lines. Players roll dice to improve their portfolios, expand their railroads, harness new trains or force dividends. Play continues until three of the four railroads have expended their cubes. The most cash wins.

This game is an approachable, quick train game, similar to a lot of Winsome games. It uses cubes for track. It uses shares in a manner similar to Chicago Express. Payouts and dividend trigger in a manner similar to German Railways. The unique twist in this game is that there are no treasuries for each company - dice are rolled for any company the player has a share of - and actions are performed on behalf of that company by the player. Trains are also purchased which work similar to 18XX trains and also add bonuses to the company value as well. Dice may be rerolled, but 6's are automatically removed and one group of dice for a specific number must always be locked for each roll, like Pickomino.

There are choices to be made along the way - do you invest heavily and buy into shares? Do you force a swap with your opponent to ruin his position? Do you build into another railroad now to trigger a dividend or wait until your opponent goes to take it? Do you take a turn to send your opponent's company into the woods? How do you manage a poor roll?

This was designed for the 2011 One Sheet PnP Contest.