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MISCELLANEOUS RAIL GAME VARIANTS 
Submitted by Roger Horner (Roger_Horner@mitel.com) 
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Slow Down for Cities 

In real life, trains must slow down when traveling through a city. We simulate 
this by having trains count two spaces per dot inside a city (small, medium, 
and major). This encourages people to build bypasses around the cities. 

Building in Major Cities 

We found that no one was ever paying the 5 million to build into a major city 
since you could build out of it for less. We figured that the 5 million was to 
build a station, stock yard, and round house (all of which are important) so we 
decided to only allow you to build out of a major city to which your track is 
not connected on your first turn. The disadvantage of this rule is that it 
prevents people from building unconnected segments of track. To get around 
this, another variant I thought of, but haven't had a chance to try, is to 
charge an additional 4 million to build out of a city to which you don't have 
any track to. 

Circus Markers 

We found that the circus wasn't used very often so we expanded the rule so that 
the circus can be delivered to any destination on a card which has a number 
divisible by 10. The delivery is worth $20 million regardless of where it is 
dropped off. 

Picking up/Dropping off 

The game slows down when someone drops off a load since the player wants to 
investigate the new card before continuing. To speed things up, when a load is 
dropped off for payment: The player doesn't receive his new card until the end 
of his turn. The player may postpone the building part of his turn until the 
beginning of his next turn. 

Railway Overpasses 

When a player builds across an opponent's track he MUST build an overpass at 
the cost of 1 million. Since the tracks do not connect at this point, the 
player may not change to an opponents track outside of a city. 

End of Game. 

When a player announces that he has enough money to win the game: Play 
continues until all players have had an equal number of turns. All players 
receive half the value of the loads they have on board, providing they have 
track to the destination. If they were planning on renting another player's 
track to deliver the load, they must pay the rent to qualify for this payment. 
The player who goes out, may also receive half the value of any loads he has on 
board (same conditions as above), but he may not use this money to reach the 
required 250 million. 

Speed Rules. (by Andrew Osterburg)

A train can move an additional milepost for each empty load it has at the 
begining of a turn. For example, a speed 9 train with 2 load can move 11 
mileposts if it remains empty for the whole turn. If a load is picked up the 
train slows to 10. Likewise if two loads are picked up the train now moves its 
normal 9. 

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Empire Builder Auction Rules
Description by Bill Ingram

First, set up any Crayon game. 

Give each player $10 more than the rules call for. 

Don't deal out any load cards. Instead, flip over just the top card. Players 
now bid whatever amount they want for that card, paying the bank. Turn over a 
new card and begin another round of bidding. 

If no one wants a particular card, it will go into the "Open Contracts" area 
and be covered by the regular Open Contract rules. 

Only five cards are allowed in the Open Contracts area. If there are already 
five cards in this area, discard any new ones to be added. If, for example, 
there are four cards in this area and you need to put in three more, choose one 
at random to add. 

Each player may have a maximum of five load cards in front of him. Players may 
not enter a bid on a new card if they have five already. 

Auctioning stops when all players have at least three load cards in front of 
them. Note that this means that players will have three, four, or five cards 
when the game starts. 

If all players but one have five cards and the last player has less than three, 
that last player can have the shown card for a bid of zero or let it go to the 
Open Contracts area and turn over another one. 

When making deliveries, only turn over a new load card if that delivery brings 
that player below three cards. Anyone with less than five cards may bid on that 
new load card. If the drawing player does not win, another card is turned 
until, once again, all players have three to five cards. 

Players may trade or sell cards among themselves. A player with five cards 
cannot buy another one. If selling a card drops a player below three cards, he 
just has to wait until the next auction to replenish his hand. 

Players may still throw away all their cards. These cards are placed in the 
Open Contracts area and and bidding takes place until all players have at least 
three cards. 

Disasters occur at the time they are turned up. You don't bid on disasters. 
Although that might make an interesting twist. Hmm. 
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World Rails
Description by Bill Ingram

World Rails is not a specific new game, but a new way to play the current rail 
games you have. Here are the rules I invented,

Pick out any two Crayon games and lay them out side by side on a large table. I 
recommend North America Rails and Eurorails (hence the name World Rails).

Give each player $60 million.

Before any cards are dealt, Ferry lines between the maps must be drawn. 
Starting with the first player, each player chooses one coastal milepost (a 
clear milepost, at least two miles from any city) on each map. Major lakes 
connected, by river to an ocean, count as coastal. These two points are 
considered to be connected by a Ferry line. Use a black (or nuetral color) 
crayon to draw a large number or letter at each end of the Ferry line. All 
players, in order, get to build such a Ferry line.

Shuffle the delivery cards, keeping them in separate piles, and place them on 
the board. Designate one pile "heads" and the other "tails." Whenever a card is 
needed, flip a coin and draw from the indicated pile. Do this three times for 
each player to start the game.

Play the game as normal with the following additions,

Ferries. The cost to build to one of the new Ferries is $20. Only the first two 
players to build to a Ferry line are allowed. When moving across a new Ferry, 
you end your movement when your get to a port (like regular Ferries). You must 
spend your entire next turn riding the Ferry. On the next turn after that, you 
may move at full speed.

Loads. Loads are interchangeable between the two boards. Tourists picked up in 
Chicago may be delivered to Vienna, for example. Commodities that have the same 
(or very similar) name or picture are interchangeable (Pigs=Ham=Hogs=Swine, 
Fruit=Oranges, etc.). Also, any load that crosses a new Ferry can be used as 
the pictured commodity or as Imports! If your load chips from the two games 
look exactly alike, you may want to mark the bottoms of one set of chips with 
paint.

Winning. To win, you must accumulate $250 million and connect all-but-two of 
the major cities in the World.

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Public-Locking Rules for Crayon Games
description by Don Woods & Larry Rosenberg 

Public locked cards.

Instead of each person having his/her own cards, there is a public pool of 
cards. We originally had people "claim" cards from the pool, but in order to 
fix a couple of game balance problems we modified it slightly. Here's how it 
works, modulo some special cases at startup.

The idea is to allow competition for the "good" cards, to reduce the luck of 
the draw (though not entirely, since where you are when cards come up is still 
important). But we don't want to let someone get screwed by making a long trip 
only to have someone else deliver a cheap load on the same card and use up the 
card. Therefore cards can be "locked" for particular demands.

For N players, there is a pool of up to 3N public cards. At times there can be 
fewer cards available, down to a minimum of 2N. Any player may make a delivery 
on any card, whereupon the card is removed and (usually) replaced by a new 
card. (Note: We haven't played many large games with this variant; possibly the 
number of cards should be reduced for 5-6 player games.)

At any time during a player's turn, until he starts building track (or upgrades 
his train), he can "lock" a card for a particular demand. To do so, he must be 
carrying the necessary load, and the load must not already be locking another 
card. Once a card is declared to be locked, 

no other demand on that card can be delivered,
and 
the load used to do the locking cannot be voluntarily jettisoned nor delivered 
elsewhere. Other players can still deliver on the locked demand, in which case 
the load used to lock the demand becomes available for other use.

In the original variant, when you locked a card you took it, and nobody else 
could deliver that demand. The load doing the locking can then be placed on the 
card to indicate that the load is locked in your train. This makes for an okay 
game, but it does sometimes have problems, e.g., one of the frustrations we're 
trying to address is when you carry a load a long distance "on spec" and then 
someone else draws a card that would pay off for that load. In the basic game, 
there's nothing you can do. If cards are claimed when locked, the person 
drawing the card (or someone else who goes after that player but before your 
turn) can lock the card for the same demand, and they (later) get the money for 
it even though you already had the load at the destination. By having locked 
cards stay public, someone may still be able to steal the card before you can 
lock it with your spec load, but they have to do so using one of the other two 
demands on the card, so they usually don't get a good run in addition to making 
trouble for you.

When the locked cards stay public, you need some markers to indicate which 
player has locked which demands. Small flat chips work best; three of each 
color.

If a player is derailed, he can give up a locked load. If he does so, this 
unlocks the card (unless somebody else has also locked the same demand). 
Derailment and having somebody else deliver the demand are the only ways you 
can "free up" a locked load.

The limits on the number of cards are: There are never more than 3N total cards 
visible, and there are never more than 2N *unlocked* cards. Thus, if there are 
2N unlocked cards and someone makes a delivery, no new card turns up. A few 
side effects worth noting:

If 2N cards are unlocked and you make a delivery, no new card turns up. The 
next time you or anyone else locks down a card, a new card immediately turns 
up. This leads to a couple common tactics: 

You're carrying two deliverable loads. One you're about to deliver and you've 
got the card locked. The other goes to another city, and nobody is currently 
threatening to lock either of the other demands on that card. Including this 
latter card, there are 2N unlocked. If you lock down the second card, then when 
you deliver the first load a card will turn up and possibly be a derailment or 
strike that will screw you. Instead, you can deliver the first load (no card 
turns up), pick up a new good, and then lock down the second card (so you get 
to see the new card and maybe act on it while it's still your turn). 

There are 2N unlocked cards, and you have goods that could lock some down, but 
nobody's threatening to lock those cards for other demands. Someone else is 
going to make a delivery on his next turn. By not locking down the cards, you 
can sometimes keep that person from getting to see new cards when he delivers. 

If there are 2N unlocked cards and fewer than 3N total, and someone makes a 
delivery on one of the unlocked cards, it is in fact a two-step operation: Lock 
the card, make the delivery. And locking the card causes a new card to appear, 
which may affect the ability to make the delivery. You can never deliver a load 
for a payoff without first locking the card. 

If a new card turns up and it is an event, another new card normally turns up 
after the event has been dealt with. However, if the event is a derailment and 
someone unlocks a card (by losing the load from it), that may bring the 
unlocked pool up to 2N, in which case no further card is drawn. 

The startup is delicate, lest one player start building track for something and 
the next player swipe the card using a different load. The first player is 
given 4 cards and chooses any two. The next player gets the 2 rejected cards 
plus 2 new cards, and chooses two. This proceeds until each player has chosen 2 
out of 4 cards. The two cards rejected by the last player start the public 
pool, and new cards are added to bring the total to 3N (the 2N limit won't 
apply). These initial cards are privately locked; only the player who took them 
can deliver those demands. (And, as with the public locking, he must deliver 
those demands before he can carry anything else in that part of his train.)

When a player chooses his initial two cards, he must declare which loads he 
intends to deliver for them. He takes the loads and places them face down on 
his train; the cards are locked, and the loads are reserved for him, but he 
must still get to a city where he can pick up the load. When he does so, the 
load gets flipped over to show he's really got it. Reserved loads count against 
the counter limit in the usual way (two players can't both lock down 2 sugars). 
Reserved loads also count against the capacity of the freight, so the holds 
cannot be used for other loads until the reserved loads have been picked up and 
delivered. As with all locked loads, reserved loads cannot be voluntarily 
discarded. Reserved loads that have not yet been picked up cannot be selected 
for loss in a derailment. If the load for a privately locked card, after being 
picked up, is lost in a derailment, the player may choose to retain the card as 
a privately locked card (in which case he must as usual go back to pick up the 
load again), or let the card go into the public pool.

You don't have to choose two cards from your initial four. You can choose to 
take only one card, or none. Any cards you do not take are given to the next 
player, who still receives two additional cards and may then choose up to two 
from the combined set. So, though you might not want to commit yourself early 
to a particular pair of cards, you have to be wary of passing good cards to the 
next player in line. The last player may be willing to lock no cards, provided 
all players in front of him have locked two, because he can then wait to see 
any additional cards that turn up before committing himself. (He may have to 
worry about someone ahead of him upgrading to a Heavy Freight right away, and 
locking a third card before the last player gets a chance to move. Usually, 
though, nobody can afford to spend 20M for the upgrade and still make any of 
the three deliveries.) If enough players choose not to take two private cards 
at the start, then it is possible for the 2N limit on unlocked cards to apply, 
and additional cards are not turned up until more cards get locked. (I don't 
think this situation has ever arisen in practice.)

Typical strategic scenario: You'd like to lock down a tobacco load, but if you 
head in that direction, someone will lock the card with machinery. But if you 
don't head for the tobacco, nobody has to lock the card with machinery, and 
eventually someone else may get the tobacco (or perhaps the third demand on the 
card). So you sometimes find you have to build bits of track or tweak your 
movement in order to threaten to pick up an expensive load so as to force 
someone else to commit to stopping you, etc.

Finally, to prevent screwy end-game maneuvers, you cannot win if you have any 
locked loads. This means that someone who's in the lead can't lock down loads 
that he has no intention of delivering (he might not even have the necessary 
track!) just to keep other people from doing other loads on those cards.

Addendum: Pitching cards. A player who has no locked loads may give up his 
entire turn and pitch three randomly selected unlocked cards. The player may 
not lock any cards that turn.

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Team Rails
Rules by Richard Kaszeta(bofh@me.umn.edu) and Rob Humfeld(rhumfeld@vt.edu). 

TEAMS: Team rails is to be played with two or more teams with two people on 
each team. 

RAILS: Each team shares two trains and one color of track. Trains may pass each 
other on the track. 

BEGINNING: Each team begins with $60. Teams do not have to place both trains 
into play on the first turn. 

CONTRACTS: Each team has four contracts at all times. Whenever a contract is 
fulfilled, that contract's card is discarded and replaced as normal. Either 
train may fulfill any or all of the contracts as the team sees fit; a new 
contract is not devoted to a given train. 

LOADS: Each train may carry two or three loads (determined by train type). 
Trains may switch loads if they end their movement in the same city. (Care must 
be taken to ensure that loads do not "accidentally" jump from train to trian.) 

TURNS: Each train may choose (independently) either to move or to spend money. 
If a train chooses to spend money, it may spend up to $10 building or $20 to 
upgrade itself (not the other train!) Money may never be spent in the same turn 
in which it is earned. Trains may never ride on track built on the same turn. 

MOVEMENT: Each train may move 9 or 12 spaces (determined by train type) on the 
team's turn. The trains are considered to be moving simultaneously. Disasters 
affect trains on the same instant - therefore, a disaster card is assesed at 
the locations where both trains have moved the same amount. For example, a 
team's train 1 draws a new card after moving four. Their train 2 moves four 
before the card is drawn - if it is a disaster card, it is assessed before 
either train may continue moving. Movement is completed and disaster cards are 
assessed before the team does any building. 

WINNING THE GAME: A team wins when it has amassed $400 and connected to all 
major cities on the continent. 

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Gambling on Crayon Games

This is a pretty simple idea I had to turn any of the regular "Crayon" games 
into a gambling game.

Most of the Crayon games involve starting with $40 to $60 million. Someone wins 
the game when they reach $250 million. 

Everyone brings $30 in real money to the game (someone should bring a roll of 
dimes and a bunch of $1 bills). All the money is put into a shoebox or 
something. 

Play the game as normal, giving each player $40-$60 in play money, and 
finishing the game when one or more players go over $250. 

Everybody counts their money and is paid off from the shoebox at a dime per 
dollar of play money they earned. Thus, the person who finished with $265 in 
play money gets paid $26.50 and the player with only $85 in play money gets 
$8.50. 

Whatever money is left in the shoebox is divided up as follows, 

First place gets 50% 

Second place gets 30% 

Third place gets 20% 

Consider a typical five-player game. Figure that Players 1 through 5 finish 
with $265, $240, $185, $170, and $85 million, respectively. The players would 
leave the game with, 

Player 1: $26.50 + $27.80 = $54.30 

Player 2: $24.00 + $16.70 = $40.70 

Player 3: $18.50 + $11.00 = $29.50 

Player 4: $17.00 

Player 5: $8.50 

Instead of giving people bonuses for finishing first, second, or third, you can 
just keep playing the game until all the money runs out. You'd have to make 
sure the bank starts the game with exactly the right amount of play money. 

For the cheapskates, you can have each player bring $3.00 and pay off each 
person 1 cent per dollar of play money. 

For the really strong of heart, each player can bring $300 in cash and use 
real, actual money to play the game. Imagine spending a real $20 bill to build 
track to Holy Head! 

Be sure to check your local gambling laws before you try this. If police break 
down your front door while you are playing, remember, I told you to check 
first.