Presenting CamelLots

TBD

Designer(s): RedsToad Match Type: MM (for 5 players)
Featured in: The Genius Puzzler

F5: Presenting CamelLots

Summary:

The goal of this match is to have the most money by betting on and influencing the movement of the correct camels.


Gameplay:

Board and Camels

There are 7 different camels participating in the race: 5 colorful camels that you can bid on and 2 crazy camels that make the race more chaotic. The colors of the camels are Red, Blue, Green, Yellow and Purple for colorful camels and Black and Gray for crazy camels. These camels will be racing around a 20 space circular track. Colorful camels will start at space 1 and go clockwise to space 20, while crazy camels will start at space 20 and go counterclockwise to space 1.

**When any of the camels reaches their goal, the game ends. **

Camels may move using a piggyback. If two camels land on the same space, the camel that arrived later will piggyback the other camel. When a camel moves, all camels on top of it move as well. This can move the camel forwards for free, or even backwards if it lands on a crazy camel (that moves back along the track).

Camels are not piggybacked on spaces 1 or 20.

As this game has simultaneous submissions, multiple camels may move at once. In that case, crazy camels always move first, then colorful camels move starting from the camel that is further back. If two camels are on the same space, the one at the bottom of the piggyback stack is considered the furthest back.


Player Actions

At the start of the game each player receives 1 Influence Tile, 10 coins and 1 stock of every color.

Presenting CamelLots is split into a 24h pregame and a number of rounds, each lasting 24 hours. Every round a player can submit one of the following actions:

  • Move camels: A player selects 3 camels to move 1 space each. At the end of the round, a camel is moved the sum of all moves for that camel that round. Every player that moved a camel that round receives a garnet immediately.

  • Influence the track: Each player has a +1 tile that can be placed on the board on any space that doesn't have a camel, except spaces 1 and 20. If a player's tile is already on the board, it is moved instead.

When any camel lands on the space with a +1 tile, the camel moves 1 space forward and the player that puts that tile gets 10 coins.

Influence tiles do not stack and don't chain. If multiple people place a tile on the same space, only 1 is shown on the update and camels only move 1 space after landing on it. All players that put a tile there get coins though. After moving with an influence tile, camels become immune to other influence tiles for that turn, not moving more than 1 space and not giving additional coins to other players.


  • Buy Stocks: The main way to get money is through buying and selling stocks.

There are 10 stocks total of each of the 5 colors. At the start of the game, 5 stocks are available in the market, and 5 are held by the 5 players. If there are 10 stocks in the market, the price of each stock is 5 coins. For every stock missing, the price goes up by 1 coin, which means stocks cost 10 coins at the start of the game.

To buy stocks, simply state which color and how many you want to buy. Note that you can only buy a single color stock in a round. Even if you want to buy multiple stocks, all of them will cost the same amount that was shown at the start of the round; the price will update after the round ends.

If there is more demand than stocks available, then the demands are sorted from lowest to highest, after which everyone receives one stock in turn order until a group of identical submissions can’t evenly distribute the remaining stocks. As an example, say there are 7 stocks total and there are 5 players asking for 1, 1, 2, 3, 3 stocks. Everyone takes 1, so now there are 3 people and 2 stocks left. The player who asked 2 can take theirs as it’s their turn and then the 2 people that asked for 3 can’t split the last stock evenly, so neither of them gets it. As a result, the stock distribution is 1, 1, 2, 1, 1.

:garnet: A garnet can be traded in for 2 phantom coins at any time. These coins will be prioritised when buying stocks and if unspent these coins disappear at the end of the game.


  • Sell Stocks: The last action players can take is to sell stocks they own. To sell, choose a camel color and how many stocks you’re selling. You will receive coins based on the position of the corresponding camel. If the camel is first, each stock is worth 13 coins, 2nd - 10 coins, 3rd - 7 coins, 4th - 4 coins, 5th - 1 coin.

  • Bet on the winner: You may invest any number of coins on any combination of camels in a single round. The only restriction is that a camel that's on space 17 or further cannot be bet on.

If you are correct and the camel finishes first, the amount you bet is doubled. If you are incorrect, the coins you bet are lost.

If a Crazy Camel ends the race instead, all bet coins are lost.

Phantom coins cannot be used to bet on the winner.


The game ends when a camel crosses the finish line. At that point all coins are tallied and revealed. The player with the most coins wins 2 ToLs. In case of a tie, all players get a ToL (but at most 2 total).

The player with the least coins is the EC.


Administration

Timing:

This game will have a 24 hour pregame and 24h rounds.


Submissions:

During every round submit one of the possible actions. Failing to submit will move 3 random camels.


Information:

Revealed to everyone, at the start of the round:

Camel positions, current stock amount, buy and sell prices.

Revealed to you, at the start of every round:

Your current coin and stock count.

Revealed to everyone, at the end of the game.

Bets on the winner of the race, final coin counts


Garnets:

Players can trade a garnet for 2 phantom coins.

Players gain a garnet every time they move a camel.


Round Updates:

The board will look like this.

Remember that camels aren't piggybacked on spaces 1 and 20. Stock prices are accurate as a camel at the bottom of the stack is considered further back.

Spaces with Influence Tiles on them will be outlined in blue. In the below examples, those are spaces 3 and 10.

Every space isn't limited to 5 camels. In a rare case that there are more than 5 camels on a space, it will be extended vertically.



Private updates will look like this (only the correct column though)



Clarification: Player actions are processed in order of

Place Influence tile > Move Camels > Buy Stocks > Sell Stocks > Bet on the winner.


Clarification:

The starting position isn't entirely symmetrical.

Red is furthest back, followed by blue, then green, then yellow, then purple. This affects movement order and stock selling prices.

Note that piggyback doesn't occur on spaces 1 or 20, so every camel will move on its own, but the order of camels still applies

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