Tortoise and Hare

Tortoise and Hare is a dice game where a tortoise and a hare race to the finish line. The tortoise is slow but steady. The hare can be fast, but the hare is undependable and overconfident. This of course comes from the Aesop's fable called The Tortoise and the Hare.

Components:
One white die
One red die
50 bingo chips (two colours?)

The components are stored in a little cardboard box that has hand-drawn pictures of the tortoise, hare and the name of the game. An Altoids tin would work, but you would lose the art. If you don't have bingo chips you can use pennies.

Goal:
An animal wins the race by laying down a line of 25 chips.

Play:
Both animals take a turn at the same time. There are two lines of chips showing how far each animal has moved.

The tortoise puts down one chip for each turn.

The hare puts down zero, two, three or six chips. The hare player uses the red die to mark how far the hare is to move, indicated by the number on the top of the die. This die is not rolled. The hare player rolls the white die during each turn to determine whether the hare moves for that turn.
The hare puts down two chips if the red die is two and the white die is 1, 2 or 3.
The hare puts down three chips if the red die is three and the white die is 4 or 5.
The hare puts down six chips if the red die is six and the white die is 6.

Often the hare doesn't move at all. The hare might sit back and take a nap, or it might stop to have a snack. Why bother? A hare could outrace a tortoise any day.
 


 

How good is this game?
Tortoise and Hare is thoroughly mindless. I like it. It could be a cute birthday present for you to make for your kid or, better, for your kid to make for you.