Excape Board Game First Impressions

“I do everything I think possible or acceptable to escape from this trap.”

~ Jacques Derrida

This is Reiner Knizia’s answer to venerable gamer designer Sid Sackson’s Can’t Stop.

…and like Can’t Stop it’s a push-your-luck dice game. But here you’re moving a pawn around a board trying to get to the Exit first.

You have two dice numbered ‘X’ to 7, in the middle of the cross-shaped board is a track numbered 0 to 5. This track is surrounded by the spaces players need to move their pawn.

On your turn, you roll the dice, as many times as you like. When you’re happy with the roll you place it on the board on any of the 5 steps as long as another player isn’t there already. But of course, it’s not that easy…

If you roll double 1,2 or 3 you move 1,2 or 3 spaces and keep rolling.

If you roll an X at any point, you end your turn immediately… You also move back 1 space for each X rolled. (Unless you roll a double X on your first roll of a turn then this is worth the Magical 100!)

The numbers you roll affect where you will place your die. The two numbers you keep will determine your score so if you rolled a 4 and a 6, your score will be 64.

Also, when you place on the board, you ‘knock-off’ anyone higher up the track than you with a lower number.

You only move the number of steps around the board IF the dice are still on the track at the start of your next turn.

The first player to make it to the end wins…

Excape Positives

Actually quite tactical for a random game. If you roll high or roll a double X you instinctively want to take the 5 space to move the full 5 spaces on your turn. But it might be better to move 2 or 3 and return some dice to the player’s hands, maybe even move 0 and return ALL the other players’ dice! Mwah ha ha! Forcing you to make the choice to sacrifice your own gain to hurt other players is cruel, but fun 🙂

You’re invested in other players’ turns… You shouldn’t be, but you are.

Excape Negatives

Obviously, it can be lucky.

The game can take a while as everyone pushes too hard, or plays to just hurt the leader towards the end of the game, dragging it out a bit. (Making it longer than it should be which is 5-10 minutes too long)

It’s apparently VERY hard to get hold of.

Summary

Excape is a very fun, enjoyable push-your-luck game that’s so simple it makes you hate Mr Knizia for being so good 🙂