Round & Revel / Rear-player time-track selection
Back of the Queue
A bigger leap buys a better ticket, and a longer wait.
Choose how far to jump on a shared queue. Race for first-arrival stamps and collect ticket sets while the player furthest behind takes the next turn.
Original authored print-and-play game. Time is a planning estimate. This edition has not had a live group playtest.
How to play
The short version
The player furthest behind takes the next turn. Jump one, two or three spaces to collect a matching ticket. Small steps mean more turns; large steps buy different tickets. First arrivals also claim one-point stamps before someone else can.
Set up
Recommended ages 8+. Draw spaces 0–12 in a straight line. Each player puts a named paper pawn on 0 and draws three tally columns labelled A, B and C. Choose a random initial order for the pawns at 0, front to back. This order breaks ties: the front pawn at the lowest occupied space acts first. Put one small empty stamp circle beside every space 1–11; space 12 has none. Each circle can award one point once in the entire heat. Ticket supplies are unlimited tallies, not physical cards. Give every player a separate stamp tally starting at zero. Select one fare card from the materials; use Standard first. Keep it visible.
Take a turn
- Find the lowest-numbered space containing an unfinished pawn. Its front pawn must act.
- Move that pawn forward exactly 1, 2 or 3 spaces, without passing 12. A move of 1 earns one A ticket, 2 earns one B, and 3 earns one C. Mark it immediately. If your destination has an uncrossed stamp circle, cross it out and add 1 to your stamp tally. Only the destination counts; jumping over spaces does not claim their stamps.
- If the landing space already has pawns, join the back of its queue. A pawn at 12 is finished and takes no more turns. Check the track again; the same player may act several times in succession.
Players may discuss choices. Tickets cannot be traded or spent. You must move; there is no pass. Near the end, only jumps that land at or before 12 are legal. The track therefore always finishes. Finishing early has no extra reward.
Score and finish
After every pawn reaches 12, score tickets using the selected fare card. Each ticket can belong to at most one scoring set. Leftover tickets score zero. Choose the highest-scoring allocation if several are possible. Add your stamp tally to your ticket score. Highest total wins; equal scores share the win. Play a second heat if desired, reversing the initial queue and keeping separate scores.
Worked example
On Standard, Jo is on 3 and Kit is on 4. Jo jumps 1 to 4, takes A and joins behind Kit. The stamp at 4 was already taken when Kit arrived, so Jo gets no stamp. Kit acts next, jumps 3 to 7 and takes C. If 7 has not been visited, Kit also crosses out its stamp and earns 1 point. Jo is now furthest behind, so Jo acts again. At the finish Jo has four A, one B and two C: one ABC set scores 5, one AA pair scores 1, and the remaining A and C score zero, for 6 ticket points. If Jo also claimed three stamps, Jo’s final total is 9.
Replay
The three fare cards change which jumps are attractive. Initial queue order and opponents' landings change when you act again and which first-arrival stamps remain. To compare strategies fairly, replay the same fare with reversed starting order. Do not change fares during a heat.
Phone, print and access
Keep these rules and the selected fare on one shared phone; draw the track and record tickets on scrap paper. Or print the materials and write on them. No screen needs to be hidden. A player may direct another person to move their pawn or mark tallies.
Original Round & Revel design. Estimated time includes one heat after setup. Not human-playtested; balance and timing remain provisional.
Printable materials
Print this page or copy the materials onto paper. Use your browser’s Print command to save a PDF.
What you need
- Paper, pencils and one named paper pawn per player.
- One track labelled 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
- Each player's record: Name / A tickets / B tickets / C tickets / Stamps / Score.
- One empty stamp circle beside each space 1–11. Cross out each circle when its stamp is claimed; reset them all before another heat.
Fare cards
- Standard: each ABC set = 5 points; each AA pair = 1 point.
- Express: each BC pair = 4 points; each AAA set = 2 points.
- Local: each AAB set = 4 points; each CC pair = 3 points.
All sets are repeatable. No ticket scores in two sets. Unused tickets score zero. You need only one copy of the chosen fare.