Academic Marathon Rules

Academic Marathon Rules

Number of Players: 2-5

Synopsis: Youre a college student. Youve got tons of classes in front of you, but hopefully theres some fun along the way. You can play Academic Marathon in one of two ways. The first way is to start your freshmen year with a group of friends and help each other study. This way, you can use the Cheat Sheets included with the game and assist other players in answering questions. The other option is to go it alone, and in this version the first player to graduate wins. So register for classes, buy your books, and grab your meal card, cause youre about to begin an Academic Marathon.

Competitive Version!

Playing the Game: Playing Academic Marathon is easy. Each player is represented on the board by a small tile and these move forward (and sometimes backwards) across the board attempting to reach graduation. To see who goes first, players should each roll a dice, and the player that rolls highest goes first (roll again if the highest players tie). Play then proceeds clockwise.

A player starts his or her turn by rolling the dice and moving the number of spaces shown on the roll. The Academic Marathon board is covered with six different colors of tiles. Five of these represent subjects available to you during your college career, and one is a free space.

Academic Marathon Tiles:

Black: Free Space (Just hang out here until your next turn)

Red:

Silver:

Gold:

Green:

Blue:

The color of tile that you land on dictates the Subject Card you now need to draw. Most cards are Question Cards and, as such, will require that you answer a question. If you get that question correct, you may move as normal next turn. However, if you miss the question, then youll have to remain on that tile each turn until you can answer a question correctly or draw an Action Card.

Action Cards represent the exciting aspects of college life, and they are there to keep studious players on their toes. Sometimes these cards will move you forward along the board, and other times they will be short term set backs. Regardless, after you complete the action required by the Action Card, you are free to move as normal next turn.

The first player to reach the graduation tile wins. Does this sound too easy? Well, most freshmen think the same thing, but Id assume youll feel differently after attempting to answer a few questions. If you need some help, grab a good study group and try playing the cooperative version.

Cooperative Version!

The cooperative version of Academic Marathon is exactly the same as the competitive version of the game with a few exceptions. The first exception is that no one can graduate until everyone reaches the graduation tile, so it is in players best interests to help each other with questions, but there are a few rules for this.

This is the second exception, while players can help other players to answer questions, players answering the question cannot be given the exact answer by another player. This means a player cannot be told the exact answer by another player, and the exact answer cannot be pointed out on the Cheat Sheet by another player.

The last, and most important, exception is that players may use Cheat Sheets to help them answer questions. Cheat Sheets have the answers to all of the questions in Academic Marathon and a few more. These Sheets, paired with your fellow players, should make these tough questions a little bit easier, and hopefully you can all make it to graduation on time.