Wriggle Roulette
Wriggle Roulette Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 68 Wooden Tokens — 51 eels and 17 snakes, all the same wiggly shape in two colours
- 32 Score Chips — in values 1, 2, 5 and 10
- 1 Cloth Bag
- Game Manual
Players: 2 – 8. Time: 20 min. Age: 7+
Object of the Game
Grab as many eels as you can from the bag, but watch out for the snakes hiding among them. Be the first player to reach 20 points to win.
Setup
Put all 68 wooden tokens — the eels and the snakes — into the cloth bag together and mix them up. Place the score chips where every player can reach them. Decide on a start player however you like.
How to Play
Grab some eels! But wait — eels aren't the only thing in the bag, there's dangerous snakes too.
A round is played out in a series of grabs. Each grab has two steps, carried out by every player at the same time:
1. Grab. Every player reaches into the bag and grabs a number of pieces of their choice, from 0 up to their maximum hand size (see below), keeping their hand closed so no one else can see what they took. Wait until every player has grabbed before looking at any hands.
- The maximum you may grab in one hand is 4 pieces — except in a 2-player game, where the maximum is 6 pieces.
- Grabbing 0 pieces is allowed, and is how a player exits the round (see "Exiting a Round," below).
2. Reveal. Once every player has grabbed, all hands are opened at the same time.
- Place any eels you grabbed in front of yourself, in your personal reserve. They are not yet scored.
- Place any snakes you grabbed in the centre of the table, for everyone to see.
Snake Outbreak
After every reveal, check the total number of snakes now sitting in the centre of the table against the snake threshold for the current number of players:
| Number of Players | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Snakes to Bust | 6 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 13 | 15 | 17 |
If the total number of snakes revealed has not yet reached the threshold, the round continues: every player still in the round grabs again, and the eels already sitting in front of players stay in their personal reserve, accumulating grab after grab.
If the total number of snakes revealed has reached or passed the threshold, a Snake Outbreak occurs and the round ends immediately for everyone still in it:
- Whichever player is holding the most eels in their personal reserve loses all of them — return those eels to the bag. (If several players are tied for the most eels, all of them lose their eels.)
- Every other player still in the round scores the eels in their personal reserve as points, taking score chips equal to that amount, and those eels are returned to the bag.
Exiting a Round
Instead of grabbing on a later turn, a player may choose to exit the round at any time by grabbing 0 pieces from the bag. When a player exits:
- They score the eels currently in their personal reserve as points, taking score chips equal to that amount.
- Those eels are returned to the bag.
- They take no further part in the round, while the remaining players continue grabbing and revealing until either a Snake Outbreak ends the round or everyone has exited.
End of the Game
The first player to reach 20 points wins the game immediately.