Power Quest

Power Quest is an elaborate roll-and-move game with mechanics that will be very familiar to nearly everyone. There are elements here from backgammon, pachisi, Careers, you name it.

The vague back story has players controlling "agents" that move about the board "...in your struggle against the odds to obtain money, prisoners, and position".

The square gameboard is printed with four concentric rings of spaces. Each turn players roll two dice to move one of their three tokens - pardon me, "agents" - out of their headquarters on the outer ring and around the board. Agents can be sent back to HQ by enemy agents, can form blockades, can fall into traps and be captured, and in general are used to make money and harass the other agents.

Most squares are marked with actions that kick off when agents land on them. Many of these earn money for the players, either as a flat payment or by allowing a simple form of gambling involving the bank and the other players. Other actions include: allowing movement up to the next inner track, drawing "Fate" cards that dole out random goodness and badness, starting an auction that sells fallen agents to the highest bidders, and traps that may be inconveniently activated by other players.

The rings get progressively more generous and dangerous as agents move to the inside. Agents captured by an opponent's action (rather than a game mechanic) don't re-enter the game, so the number of agents in play gradually diminishes. The game ends when only one player's agents are left on the board. Players sell (ransom, I suppose) their captured prisoners, and the most money wins the game.

This appears to be a limited run home brew, but it comes in a sturdy box and the production values are good. Both the "Regular Play" and "Advanced Play" rules booklets are well-organized and pretty clear. Advanced rules include solitaire, partnership and a host of other variants.