Overview
This game combines a medieval theme with math word problems. "King Richard's Ransom" is designed to be collaborative, though the rules could be easily altered to turn it into a more traditional, winner-loser board-game. It is more sophisticated than most of the other games I've made, and it also took quite a while to make. We really like playing "King Richard's Ransom," though, so it was definitely time well invested.
Difficulty: 3rd grade and up.
Number of players: 2-5.
Duration: about 20-30 minutes for 2 players.
Game Materials
At least one set of dragon dice
One poster-board
One medieval-themed figure for each player
Seven sets of task cards (10 cards of each)
Making the Game
THE BOARD
"King Richard's Ransom" has six areas where players complete tasks: Town, Cathedral, Monastery, Tournament, Sherwood Forest, and Castle. These areas are connected by paths. Since I knew that my son would want to spend all of his time in the Tournament, Castle, and Sherwood Forest areas, I wanted to separate these areas from each other. Starting with a whole piece of white poster-board, I drew a picture for each area in pencil, then outlined these with a black pen and drew in the lettering. Next, I used piece of plastic with rounded-off corners as a template to create a "stepping stone" look for the connecting spaces. Finally, my wife and son colored the board with magic markers and crayons. This is what the board looks like:
THE TASK CARDS
Each area in "King Richard's Ransom" has its own type of tasks that must be completed. For example, the Town tasks mostly involve medieval crafts and buying/selling goods, the monastery has a scriptorium (where books are copied) and an herb garden, there is construction work going on in the cathedral, and so on. These tasks, which all involve solving math problems, are described on task cards.
Here are two typical cards from Castle and Monastery:
The first reads, "Battle! To flank King John's forces in battle, you should send 120 knights. Your flanking force currently numbers d100 and d12. How many more knights does it need?" (For an explanation of "d100" and "d12," see the section on dice.) For correctly answering this question, the player will receive 85 guilders. The second card reads, "The Scriptorium. A quire of quarto leaves often holds 8 pages. If d10 quires are bound into a book, how many pages does it have?" (50 guilders).
The seventh pile of cards contains events that are triggered when a player lands on a "?" space. For example, one card reads, "Abbot Heribert needs your help! Move your figure to the Monastery." Sometimes robbers steal a player's money, and at other times a benefactor makes a small donation. The point of the cards is for players to have something to do while moving from area to the next, and also to inject an element of chance.
To make it easier to distinguish the cards, I printed them on colored paper. I also made pictures of my drawings, edited them with a graphics program, and then printed these images on the reverse of each card. If you like playing around with Photoshop and duplex printing, this will be fun for you; if not, I'd recommend skipping this step and just writing "Monastery," "Castle," etc., on each card.
Scenario
The year is 1193, and King Richard I of England has been captured by Duke Leopold of Austria after returning from the Holy Land. The duke, who holds the king captive in his castle of Duernstein, demands an enormous ransom for the release of the Lionheart: 500 guilders (3 players: 750; 4 players: 1,000; 5 players: 1,250). Richard's brother, the interim King John "Lack-Land," refuses to pay the ransom, so it's up Richard's loyal retainers to raise the ransom. Traveling the land, they complete tasks for which they receive donations to this worthy cause. How long will it take to free the king and return justice to the realm of England?
(Duke Leopold VI really did capture Richard I after the Third Crusade. During the capture of Acre, Richard had mortally offended the proud duke by casting the Austrian standard down from the city walls, saying that the English had done all the fighting in taking the city. Leopold eventually handed Richard off to the Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich VI, who demanded 150,000 marks for his release; I used the "guilder" as unit of currency for the game because it sounds cool, and because there was an Austrian "gulden," though this is not a medieval currency. The story is best known from Sir Walter Scott's novel "Ivanhoe," whence also the involvement of Robin Hood.)
Set-Up
Shuffle the task cards and put them next to the appropriate areas. Put each player's figure on the Town, which doubles as the starting area.
Organize the money into a "bank" and place it so that all players can reach it.
Rules
Players take turns moving their figures from one area to the next. When their figure reaches an area they can draw a task card from the appropriate pile. If they successfully complete the task, they take the stated amount of money from the bank. They also remove the task card from the pile and place it in front of them. Players can have no more than two task cards of any one kind in their possession. (This keeps kids from just staying in one area for the whole game.)
If a player's movement ends on a square marked "?," they draw a card from the Event stack. In some cases, this will require an immediate action, like moving their figure to the Tournament area. (In this case, they can go ahead and draw a card.)
The game ends when the players have collected enough money to ransom King Richard.
Adjusting the Difficulty
It's easy to change the level of difficulty for "King Richard's Ransom." All you have to do is change the types of problems on each card.
Other Adjustments
If you'd like to make the game longer (or shorter), you can change the amount of money required to ransom Richard.