Game: Stretch Run

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matthiske — 2008-11-10T00:14:32+00:00

Custom Painted Horses

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matthiske — 2008-11-10T00:13:38+00:00

Custom Painted Horses

Thread: Home rules

cube — 2008-11-05T15:37:35+00:00

Home rules

Running style cards variant handicapping
1 pt Outside Runner
2 pts Front Runner
3 pts Pace Horse
4 pts Burst of Speed
5 pts First Out of Gate
6 pts Stretch Runner

Conditioning rank
3 face cards is worth 4 pts

Payout for the third race
-first place 15 $
-second place 8 $
-third place 5 $

Betting

A player must bet at least 50% of the money on his own horse and the remaining on maximum two other horses.
Bets can be placed on win (gets full payout), place (half the payout) or show (a quarter of the payout) in any combination, as long as no more than three horses are bet upon.

Automaton horses

With 4 or 5 players, one or two horses are played with the following rules :
-they get the « Pace Horse » running style card
-they play their 3 cards as soon as they can, starting with the highest in each category, but they play the low card(s) only if the sum is 4 or 5
-they always try to run towards the inside lane at the start of the race and until they reach the end of the first swing
-thereafter they stay in their lane or go towards the outside when blocked
-they use their whip card as soon as they roll a 6
-if yet unplayed, they use their whip card in the homestretch whenever they roll a 4 or better

"Design your horse" variant

First, give the "Pace Horse" running style card(s) to the unplayed horse(s).
Then, put all the low cards in one deck and shuffle. Do the same with the middle cards. (No need to shuffle the face cards deck).
Draw a number of running style cards equal to the number of players and lay them face up on the table (the cards, not the players).
In random order, the players will now pick one of the running style cards offered to them and then take 3 cards from the the card decks of their choice.
Now roll for the lane positions, let the players place their bets and start the race.

A link to the complete rule book of the deluxe edition with the betting rules :

http://www.frontporchclassics.com/_storage/A2-StretchRunRule...

Thread: Re: A couple of questions

kduke — 2008-09-06T16:21:25+00:00

or as the last move the horse makes...

Thread: Re: A couple of questions

chewbaccapits — 2007-09-15T02:30:47+00:00

The whole stumbling rule does not make sense...There is no one character can land in front of you IF to lane change you HAVE to move up 1 space. By that rule no one could ever cut-you off, unless it is a move that can only be done if the opportunity is there.

Thread: Re: A couple of questions

Kevin_Whitmore — 2007-02-13T06:15:43+00:00

noisycrow wrote:
1. Horses can change lanes multiple times during their move. The rules don't say anything about this costing any movements points, so I assume this is free?

2. Horses cannot move diagonally. How are people handling changing lanes in the turns? It seems as though any lane change in either turn is going to be 'diagonal'.

1. No - you definitely must pay 1 movement point for each space you move through.

2. You simply move across a line into an adjacent space. As long as the two spcaes share a common line (border) they are orthogonally adjacent, and this is a legal move. If the two spaces only share a corner, they are only diagonally adjacent, and this sort of move is forbidden.

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Boomer — 2007-02-07T04:21:43+00:00

Derby Edition from Front Porch Classics

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Boomer — 2007-02-07T04:21:01+00:00

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thoia — 2007-02-06T01:06:16+00:00

The Old Century version of Strech Run includes these interesting "game care" tips.

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thoia — 2007-02-06T01:05:41+00:00

Whip card each player can play this once per race.

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thoia — 2007-02-06T01:05:09+00:00

Records various information for use over several races within one game

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thoia — 2007-02-06T01:04:42+00:00

Running style cards give each horse a particular flare and handicap

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thoia — 2007-02-06T01:04:17+00:00

Beautiful money

Thread: Re: A couple of questions

Domino Man — 2006-11-18T21:31:38+00:00

Answers:

1) I think so.

2) In the second turn it isn't a problem because the spaces are even through the corner. In the first turn we play that you're stuck if you can't move (trapped behind someone so you only move as far as possible).

Thread: A couple of questions

noisycrow — 2006-11-18T19:59:57+00:00

1. Horses can change lanes multiple times during their move. The rules don't say anything about this costing any movements points, so I assume this is free?

2. Horses cannot move diagonally. How are people handling changing lanes in the turns? It seems as though any lane change in either turn is going to be 'diagonal'.

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simonh — 2006-07-02T10:08:40+00:00

Thread: Session Report

Kevin_Whitmore — 2005-04-10T22:25:44+00:00

Stretch Run – is a game aimed at the family market. It comes in
an elaborate wooden case that folds out to become the gameboard.
The horses are elaborate, made of pewter & nicely painted. The
track is fairly short, in the standard horse track oval, with six
lanes. Each player is given a whip card, a racing style card, and
three random playing cards. The whip card is the same for all
players, while the racing style cards vary.

At its heart, Stretch Run is a roll & move game. However, the racing
style cards and the random playing cards add a special twist. In
addition, a system of betting can be introduced adding a bit more
complexity to the game. For our first game, we omitted the betting
system – as we were just looking a little game to play while
other folks were due to arrive.

The horses are lined up at the gate, and for the first turn each
player must simply roll a die and move the stated amount.
However, the racing style cards affect movement in various ways.
There are 12 cards, two of each different style:

First out the Gate – Add 6 to your first move of the game.

Pace Horse – Add 1 to each roll.

Front Runner– Add 2 to each roll if you start in the lead, or
take the lead during your move.

Outside Runner – Add 2 to each roll if you are on the outside at
the start of your turn.

Stretch Runner – Add 6 to a roll when you begin a turn on the
homestretch.

Burst of Speed – Add 6 to one roll sometime during the race,
except on the home stretch.

I found these cards added a lot to the game. In addition, each
player has three random playing cards to use during the race.
When it is your turn, you can use one of these cards in lieu of
rolling the die. But you can only use certain cards
depending upon your position in the pack:

A – 4: Only use these when you are leading. You can combine
these, if you have 2 or more, so long as they don't total more
than 5.

5 – 9: Only play one of these so long as you are neither in the
lead nor trailing the pack. You move 5 – 9 spaces.

10 – K: You may only play one of these cards if you are solely
in last place at the start of your turn. Your horse moves 10 spaces.

Movement is orthogonal. After a horse moves sideways, it must
move forward one space before it may move sideways again. A
nice wrinkle on the board is mud. Various lanes have a few
spaces of mud. These patches of mud vary from 3 – 6
spaces long. A horse may freely move into the mud. But once
in it, the horse must stay in that lane, and must clear the mud
with a single move. If it cannot, then the horse does not move at
all. This adds some interesting positioning consideration
through the curves and the backstretch.

We played twice inside of an hour. I really enjoyed myself with
this game. I don't mind the roll & move mechanism, especially
modified by all the chrome I just described. I now want to
implement the betting system, and see if that adds to the fun.

In the first race, I did laughably bad, rolling a series of 1's and falling far off the pace. Worse, I had no 10-K cards to help me catch back up, and my special ability was to move strongly on the home stretch. By the time I got to the home stretch everyone else had finished. Despite my woes, everyone else had an interesting race with multiple lead changes and an exciting finish.

I did much better in the second race coming from worst to first! Once again we had an exciting race with lots of contenders for the victory. When done one fellow had come in first & third of the two races and thus had won the most prize money to claim the overall victory.

I seem to be in the minority, but I quite like this game!

- Kevin Whitmore

Ratings:

1 vote for "Excellent"
2 votes for "Good'
2 votes for "OK"

Thread: User Review

Steve Leach — 2005-04-02T02:11:45+00:00

Stretch Run from Front Porch Classics is simple roll and move race game with a twist.

The components are some of the best seen in a game. You get 6 metal horses with jockeys that are hand painted. A standard deck a cards. Whip cards and cards representing different racing styles. You also get paper money and score cards. All this is stored in a solid wood case that becomes the race track gameboard.

There are 3 styles of game play, basic, payouts and, advanced.

in the basic game you roll a six sided die and move that many spaces. You may also play one of three cards you are dealt at the beginning of the game. You can play 10, jack, queen, or king cards to move your horse 10 spaces but only if you are in last place. You may play a 6-9 card to move the number of spaces on the card, but only if you are in the middle of the pack. You may play an ace-5 to move the number on the card, but only if you are in first place.

Once during the race you may use a whip card, this allows you to roll the die add the result to your move and roll again. If the result of the second roll is a higher number than the first you may add this number to your move and roll again. You do this till you roll a number lower than the last rolled.

The first to pass the finish lane is the winner, but all other horses get one last move. If two horses pass the finish line then there is a photo finish. Each player gets one more turn, if there is still not a winner, then another turn will need to be played until there is a clear winner.

In the payouts game you run 3 races and the value of them increases.

The advanced game offers differnet racing styles that are randomly determined at the outset of the game. They give speacial powers to a horse based on where in the pack they are running. This cards also give the horses odds that you may use to place bets on the horse.

The gameplay is pretty much what you would expect from a game of this type. The quality of the components however make this a fun experience, and one that you play more than it deserves just to play with the nice bits.

The rulebook is very well written and clear with many examples.

in the end Stretch Run is a game with lackluster gameplay and stellar bits. If only you use the Royal Turf rules set to play this one.

In the end despite it's lukewarm game play