I can't remember the first ever boardgame I played. It was probably Smakes and Ladders though I now know that it's not a game at all. It's a lesson in the ups and downs of life and practice in how to deal with them. It's a roll and mover with no decision making. The first real boardgame I had access to was Totopoly, a classic inspired by monopoly. Train horses by travesing a monopoly style layout gaining 'advantages'/fitness for the race to come in the finale. My parents and uncles would play this for shillings and pennies. I would play solo mainly with the horse race pages of the board until I was old enough to undestand the strategy and luck mitigation of the training page. The first game I inflicted on my friends was a simplistic football game drawn on the blank inside pages of my parents' Totopoly board.
'Turform' was the first horse racing game I designed. It was the first game I really playtested with a critical audience - school friends relaxing post A-levels. I took it to university and played it mainly with horse racing enthusiasts. I was invited to demonstrate it to the Marketing manager at John Waddingtons Ltd's offices in Leeds. This was in response to a letter about the potential for technology to augment games. I also mentioned I'd noticed their horse racing game 'Lose Your shirt' in the remainder bin in a local store. I had previously written to them about Turform but they said they already had a game in development and this was it. It actually wasn't a bad lightweight family game and was re-issued as 'First Past the Post'. My game was more about race-riding and horse ownership than betting. I pitched the game to the head of Marketing. Having listened patiently he said "We are not interested in the game but would be interested in working in our marketing department?" I learned JW Ltd at that time was more a licensing company than a design company. I declined the opportunity as I had been offered a PhD place to study computational models of stereovision and went with that instead.
Our Turform games came to an end as life moved on for our group of enthusiasts and we went our separate ways. I moved from University to Corporate Research, from South Yorkshire to Suffolk and then to Bristol.
I continued to play around with boardgame designs (mainly sporting themes). I returned to the horseracing theme a number of times and in 2009 I got the chance to playtest a deck-building game with a mixed group of gamers and nongamers and not racegoers. I was aiming for a the audience Waddingtons had aimed for with Loose your shirt and its more appropriately named First Past the Post (a title I thought emphasised the racing strategy over the betting element). The game was called Final Furlong. It is played with standard playing cards and runs over 5 races over varting distances and ending with the Epsom Derby over 12 fulongs.
I arranged the playtesting session as large group event where 15 players competed over three race courses to qualify for the final race. The organisation of play was similar to a whist drive. Five players at each of three tables raced their horses on the course at their table (Epsom, Ascot & Newmarket). These races were run simultaneously. Points were scored for finishing positions which also determined which players changed tables for the next race. Between races all players atempted to improve the performance of their horse by adding cards to their deck. After three races each horse's points were calculated and the top five qualified to race in the final race. During a race players played combinations of playing cards to move horses an number of spaces equal to the cards they played plus bonuses for certain sets. The four suits had different properties and picture cards were special cards that increased a jockey's abiiity. The post playtesting rules and required compnents will be posted after this section.
Since Totopoly I have played a number of published horseracing board and card games. My top 10 that I have consistently had fun with are:
1. Win, Place and Show (Dice roll and horse characteristics determine
length of move. Players plot movement around the course)
2. Turfmaster (more of simulation of tactical race riding card & dice roll)
3. The Really Nasty Horse Racing Game (roll & move with event cards
- lots of interaction to impact the outcome)
4. Ticket Gagnant (hugely fun take on interactive card play - loose control)
5. Grand National (Simulation of the famous steeplechase)
6. Winners Circle (delux edition of Turf Horse Racing - Knizia puzzling)
Roll special die and choose which horse to move based on horse's
movement card. Cannot move a horse already moved in the round.
7. First Past the Post (mentioned opposite similar movement mechanics
used later in Daytona 500 and Downforce)
8. Mint Julep (Clever use of 18 cards from Button Shy )
9. Jockey (Earlier version mechanic used in Lose Your Shirt/First Past
the Post - more complex and swingy movements, unique but simple
betting system).
10. Newmarket (traditional game with playing cards).
Special Mention:
Camel Up is not a horse racing game. It's camel racing but the movement rules and the betting opportunites make the game a lot of fun and tactically intesting yet accessible to new players.