Slipmax

by Jonathan Leistiko

Object

End the game with more money than anyone else.

You Need

• A jar of change.
• A pawn for each player.
• A six-sided die.
• A 1,000 Blank White Questions board.
• At least twenty Slipmax strips, separated.
• A Slipmax register card.

The Slipmax pieces are bundled in the following file: slipmax.pdf

The game board is in the following file: Color Blank White Questions board.

Setting Up

Use an art knife to cut the dashed lines on the Register Card. Fold back on the long line.

All players start with 10 cents and a pawn.

Place all pawns off the board, next to the corner marked “START.”

Pick six Slipmax strips at random. Slide them into the six registers on the register card so that just the title of the strip is visible along the top of the card.

Choose a player to go first.

Play

On your turn, roll the die and move that many spaces. The space closest to the striped corner is the first space. Movement on the board proceeds clockwise.

When you land on an unoccupied space, look at the register for the shape in that space. Each numbered statement on a strip is a step. Pull the strip for that register out until you can read the next step. Obey the newly-revealed step. A register strip never modifies itself. If the strip is at its last step, then replace it with an unused strip; advance the new strip to the (0) register and obey that register.

If you can not meet the fee required by a space, then move backward one space for every cent you owe.

When you land on an occupied space, you can take the effect of that space for yourself, or you can apply it to any player in that space.

If you’re about to move past the end of the board, collect three cents from every other player who has not reached the end yet, then spend your remaining steps moving backwards. For you, forward is counterclockwise instead of clockwise from this turn onward.

If you land on one of the three spaces in the center with two shapes on it, then obey both, starting wth the circle and ending with the hexagon. Once you’ve obeyed both registers, your turn ends.

Locking: After taking the effect of a space, you may spend cents to lock that space’s register. Every 2 cents you spend prevents that register from advancing the next time it is used. Put the cents you spend to lock the register on the register. If you land on a locked register you can do one of two things:

1. Take two cents off the register, then take the effect of the register.
2. Spend 3 cents to remove 2 cents from the register. You may do this as many times as you with to. If the register has no cents on it when you’re done, then advance the register one step and take the effect of the register.

Your turn ends once you’ve finished obeying the register for your space. Play passes clockwise.

Slipmax Strip Shorthand:

Flip n [heads]; [tails]: Take n cents from your stash and flip them. Take the heads result for every head and the tails result for every tail.

nd: Roll n dice.

nd>x [win] [lose]: Roll n dice. If result is greater than x, take the win effect, otherwise take the lose effect.

Winning

The game ends when all players have passed through one of the three spaces at the end of the board. The player with the most value in change wins.

Variants

Tidal: If you land on a space with an even roll, then advance the register strip one step. If you land on a space with an odd roll, then decrease the register strip one step.
Cycles: If you have to advance a strip and it is on its last step, place a nickel on that register and decrease that strip one step. Any strip with a nickel on it decreases one step instead of advancing one step when it is landed on. If you have to decrease a strip with a nickel on it and it is on the (0) step, then remove the nickel and advance it one step.

Origin and Credits

I came up with this variant on August 7, 2003, while writing up the rules for Payout! (A 1,000 Blank White Questions variant.). I was revising the Origin and Credits section, re-writing the part about not wanting to make additional parts for the game, when I realized that you can hide little strips of paper under the board for each register and pull them out as the game progresses to reveal new effects. This has the nifty effect of gradually transforming the game as it gets played. It also makes it easy to customize the game by mixing and matching strips or printing new ones.

The working name of this game was Dynamix, but a quick Google search showed that name was already in use by far too many other businesses. I proceeded to enter virtually every other funky hi-tech word I could think of into Google. Eventually, my choices boiled down to Haplodyne or Slipmax. The victor is obvious.

Nifty Trivia Point: With the initial set of 20 Slipmax strips, there are 27,907,200 possible combinations of Splipmax strips at the start of the game.

Slipmax was first played on August 9, 2003 with Sharon, and again on August 18th, 2003 at the Monday Night Gaming Group. Thanks to Dave, Frank, Kathy, Mike C., Mike F., Paul, and Sharon, for playtesting.

Unedited as of July 24, 2005.