Rrrum um's Eck! (1931)

"Rrrum um's Eck!" or "Rrround the Corner!"

Over the years Spielbox magazine has published some great games in its magazine. Usually they are originals by well-known authors that have appeared nowhere else, and at times they were so good that they were later appeared in full-on productions. Sometimes they were welcome reprints of highly regarded and hard to get games (3m's Jati). Exactly what prompted the republication of this old German children's game is better left the mystery it is, as there is very little remarkable about it. Maybe it was a great game by 1931's standards, but the German market by 1986 should have left a game like this in a corner best forgotten.

It is what can be typified as a Snake-and-Ladders game without the ladders, or 1-pawn Ludo with traps in which the prettiest girl may start. Players make their way with a single pawn from start to finish along a track of 6 rows, each 7 spaces long. The last square (on each row end before turning the corner) is a trap. When a player's pawn lands in one of those traps it will be sent back to square one, but not before a 6 is rolled to release the pawn from the trap. The only quicker way to start all over again is when another player lands in the same trap, because any player ending a move on another pawn's square sends that pawn back to the very beginning. Can it get worse? Yes, by landing in the last trap, because you get an immediate "mercy" die roll. A 6 means instant victory, any other number rolled will mean permanent removal from the game.

Maybe it was a reminder how far German game design had progressed in the 55 years since 1931. Saying that, it probably takes some considerable skill to make a game that is worse than Snakes-and-Ladders into a classic that warrants a reprint in one of Germany's most respected game magazines. What were they thinking.

Publishing history: this classic German family game can be traced back all the way to 1931 and appears to have been in print for a while. Much later it was reprinted by Spielbox magazine (4/1986 Aug-Sep) as one of the earlier entrants in the "Spiel zum Herausnehmen/Game to Remove" series. It was presented with the original artwork and with an exact replica of the original rules.