London Cabbie Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• How the Game Works
• Reference Section
• 1. Setting the game up.
  • The cabs.
  • The cards.
  • The Traffic Jam Pieces.
  • Who goes first?
• 2. Driving your cab.
• 3. Rules of the road.
• 4. Heading for a passenger.
• 5. Heading for a destination.
• 6. When you may refuse to take a passenger.
• 7. Getting paid for the trip.
• 8. Running a second cab.
• 9. The Winner.
• 10. The contents of the game.

How the Game Works

Up to 6 players can play.

Each player has a cab which moves 20 spaces on the board each turn.

There are always 5 passengers available for players to pick up at all times during the game. Players compete to pick up these passengers and take them to destinations.

This has to be done as quickly as possible, avoiding both traffic jams (which occur in different places on the board each round of turns) and other players' cabs.

There is a standard fare for each trip, but not a standard tip. Players may get a good tip, a rotten tip, or no tip at all.

When a player's cab reaches its destination, payment is made for the trip. That player then heads, as fast as possible, to where another passenger is waiting. This is where the game is at its most competitive, as more than one player may be heading for the same passenger. (The player who gets there first picks the passenger up, of course.)

When a player has earned £3, another cab of the same colour can be brought into play. The 20 spaces allowed each turn, however, now have to make do for both cabs.

No oveall grand strategy is required to win the game: just simple, shrewd, and occasionally cunning tactics which can be changed to suit each turn.

This all goes to make "Cabbie" a highly realistic and enjoyable game.

Reference Section

To make things easier when questions or queries arise during the game, we have sectioned the rules into paragraphs.

1. Setting the game up.
   • The cabs.
   • The cards.
   • The traffic jam pieces.
   • Who goes first?
2. Driving your cab.
3. Rules of the road.
4. Heading for a passenger.
5. Heading for a destination.
6. When you may refuse to take a passenger.
7. Getting paid for the trip.
8. Running a second cab.
9. The Winner.
10. The contents of the game.

1. Setting the game up.

The cabs.

Each player takes a cab of a different colour. Each cab is placed on one of the six starting points on the board:

• Liverpool Street Station.
• Houses of Parliament.
• Hyde Park Corner.
• Paddington Station.
• Kings Cross Station.
• Tower of London.

Players may choose whichever starting point they wish, but no two players may start at the same point.

(The shaded square with the arrow pointing directly at the place is the square on which your cab starts.)

The cards.

"Passenger" cards. These should be shuffled and divided into five piles of more or less the same size.

These 5 piles lay face upwards. (It is important that each player has chosen a starting point before these cards are laid out.)

"Traffic Jam" cards. These are laid out in one pile, face upwards.

"Destination" cards. These are laid out in one pile, face downwards.

"Tip" cards. These are laid out in one pile, face downwards.

The Traffic Jam Pieces.

The traffic jam piece (or pieces) are placed on the board, in accordance with the instructions on the uppermost "Traffic Jam" card.

The traffic jam piece is placed in such a way as to block off both entrance and exit from the jam spot.

(The traffic jam card remains on the top of the pack until every player has taken one turn. The card is then placed at the bottom of the pack and a new card revealed.

The traffic jam pieces are then moved to the location on this new card. In this way, different jams occur every round of players' turns.)

Who goes first?

To decide which player starts, a "Tip" card is dealt out to each player.

The player who draws the highest tip starts first. (The cards are then put back in their pack.)

Players take their turns from the starting player's left.

2. Driving your cab.

Your taxi moves 20 spaces on the board during your turn.

The 20th space you move to is that in which the bonnet of your cab is situated.

You can use your quota of 20 spaces both moving towards a passenger and moving towards the destination after the passenger has been picked up.

For instance, you may move 6 spaces to pick up a passenger, and then move 14 towards the destination. Or you may move 18 spaces to pick up a passenger, and use up the remaining 2 spaces of your quota going on to the destination.

This same rule applies if you use up less than your quota of 20 spaces while getting to the destination. In this case, you can drop your passenger at the destination and use what is left of your quota to drive towards another passenger.

However, you must use your full quota of 20 spaces, unless blocked by a jam or another player's cab, during your turn.

3. Rules of the road.

The game's Highway Code has 7 rules:

1. Your cab can only travel in the direction of the arrows. On a square with arrows pointing in more than one direction, you have a choice of directions.

2. In a road with 2 lanes going in the same direction, you may, if you wish, change lanes by moving sideways. This move counts as one space.

3. You cannot overtake another cab. If you are stuck behind another player's cab you have to wait until the cab moves. (Except that you could overtake as in rule 2.)

4. If you are stuck behind a traffic jam, you have to wait until the jam moves.

5. If a traffic jam occurs in a place after you have entered it, your cab must stay there until the jam moves.

6. Any spaces that you lose from your quota because of being stuck in a jam or behind another player's cab, you lose for good. Spaces lost cannot be re-claimed next turn.

7. Only one passenger may be carried by one cab at one time. A player cannot, on the way to a destination, pick up another passenger.

4. Heading for a passenger.

Having decided from the 5 "Passenger" cards on show which is the one you want to go for, you take to the road.

(At no time do you have to reveal to the other players which passenger you are going for.)

You have to drive towards the passenger as quickly as possible. Other players may go for the same passenger. You must beat them to it.

You should also, if you can, avoid the traffic jams.

Once your cab enters the street the passenger is on, and no other player having claimed the passenger, the passenger is yours.

You claim it by picking up the "Passenger" card. You keep this card until the subsequent destination is reached.

5. Heading for a destination.

Having claimed a passenger and picked up the appropriate "Passenger" card, you now take the topmost "Destination" card.

And off you drive towards the destination on the card.

You want to get to the destination as fast as possible. You have to find the quickest way to the destination avoiding, if possible, both other players' cabs and traffic jams.

Once at the destination, which is indicated on the board by a shaded square with an arrow, you can claim money for the trip.

(It is important to note that a cab has not arrived at a destination until it lands on the shaded square with the arrow pointing directly at the place. At a destination with more than one shaded square you have a choice.)

6. When you may refuse to take a passenger.

There are two occasions when you may do this. Firstly, if you draw a "Destination" card which says "Tourists offers you £2 for a trip."

You may decide that the trip in question isn't worth it. In which case, you can turn it down.

You also have to refuse a passenger if you draw a card which refers to the street you are already on.

(There isn't an amount on the Fares Table to meet such a situation.)

If you refuse to take a passenger, take another "Destination" card.

7. Getting paid for the trip.

To prove that you have made a trip, you show the "Passenger" card and the "Destination" card.

There will be a standard fare for the trip on the Fares Table on the board.

You collect this fare, and place the "Passenger" card and the "Destination" card on the bottom of their respective packs.

You now draw a "Tip" card.

And depending on the luck of the draw, you take the tip money. The "Tip" card is then placed on the bottom of its pile.

You are now free to drive your cab off to where another passenger is waiting.

8. Running a second cab.

Once you have earned £3, and only then, you may, if you wish, run a second cab of the same colour as your first. (The extra cab is free.)

However, the quota of 20 spaces that is allocated to your turn now has to be spread over both cabs.

A player who runs 2 cabs must move both cabs during his or her turn, unless prevented by another player's cab (or cabs) or traffic jams.

A cab must move at least 5 spaces, if it is free to do so.

9. The Winner.

The winner is the player with the most money earned in a specific time. Say an hour and a half, or two hours.

Or a money limit can be set on the game. The first player to make £15, or £20, being the winner.

10. The contents of the game.

• 1 set of rules.
• 1 game board.
• 4 sets of cards: "Passenger" (47), "Tip" (16), "Destination" (30), and "Traffic Jams" (13).
• 12 cabs (of 6 different colours).
• 2 Traffic Jam pieces.
• Money: £5 notes (8), £1 notes (30), 50p pieces (10), 10p pieces (20), and 5p pieces (10).
• 1 tray to hold money and sets of cards.