Is this where Parcheesi came from?

SiSi asked me if I wanted to play a game after supper yesterday.

“Sure,” I said, “Would you like to play Uno?”

“Nope,” she replied, “I have a special game. Come on!”

I go into the living room and sit down, and she explains the game to me. It doesn’t have a name, from what I can gather. The rules, as far as I understand them, are below:

MATERIALS: The game involves the board from the game Sorry!©™®, 5 wine corks, 16 pennies, 2 nickles, 2 quarters (dimes may be included as well, but we didn’t have any), two tiny toy clothes pins and one die.

SETUP: Two corks for each person go in the START space on the board. The clothes pins go 5 spaces back. Divide the change equally among the two players. The fifth cork is in case your little sister wants to play, but isn’t really paying attention to the game.

PLAY: Take turns rolling the die. You may advance any one of your corks around the board that number of spaces. If you land anywhere on a slide, slide to the end. When you finish your turn, you may ask the other person for some money. You may ask for any piece of money you like, and they have to give it to you. In turn, however, you must trade a piece of money back. It need not be of the same value.

As you go around the board, if you should end your turn on a space occupied by your opponent’s cork, you may return it to their START space. When you get all the way around the board to where the clothes pins sits, you try to land on that space by exact roll of the die. If you do, the clothes pin bounces (you have to actually bounce it) all the way to the end spot. The game ends at this point.

TO WIN: There are two victory conditions:

1. You are the first one to bounce your clothes pin to the end spot.
2. You have more money than the other person.

If you do only one, the game is a tie.

NOTE: If your little sister wants some of the money, give her only the pennies unless she snivels. If that happens, each person has to give her one of the shiny coins. The little sister can cause the game to be a tie if she has more money than the person who met the first victory condition.

We played two games of this. Both ended in a tie. The little sister may or may not have actually given the money back.

I’m thinking we can market this! We’ll make a boxed set of this and the marble soccer game she’s been developing, available in time for the holidays. Order the deluxe edition now!