Mouse Trap (board game)

Mouse Trap

Mouse Trap playing board and box.
Players	2 - 4
Age range	6 +
Setup time	5-15 mins
Playing time	30 mins approx
Random chance	High (dice rolling game)
Skill(s) required	Careful finger dexterity

Mouse Trap (originally titled Mouse Trap Game) is a board game first published by Ideal in 1963 for 2 to 4 players. The game was one of the first mass-produced, three-dimensional board games. Over the course of the game, players at first cooperate to build a working Rube Goldberg-like mouse trap. Once the mouse trap has been built, players turn against each other, attempting to trap opponents' mouse-shaped game pieces.

The basic premise of the game has been consistent throughout the game's history. However, the turn-based gameplay has changed somewhat over the years.

The original version, designed by Hank Kramer of Ideal Toy Company, allowed the players almost no decision-making, in keeping with other games for very young children such as Candyland, or Chutes and Ladders (Snakes and Ladders). In the 1970s, the board game surrounding the Mouse Trap was redesigned by Sid Sackson, adding the cheese pieces and allowing the player to maneuver opponents onto the trap space.

Each player is represented by a mouse-shaped game piece which travels along a non-continuous, roughly square-shaped path around the game board from the start to a continuous loop at the end. The path is segmented into spaces, some of which are marked with instructions, and "build" spaces that are marked simply with numbers ("2", "2-3" and "2-3-4").

A player's objective is to trap all of their opponent's mice using the game's Rube Goldberg-stylemouse trap, which is built upon the board during the course of the game. The trap begins with a crank which turns a set of gears. This begins a series of stages which ends in a cage being lowered over the "cheese wheel" space on the board, which is one of six spaces in the ending loop of the game path.

Players roll the six-sided dice in turn-based play, and move their mouse the number of spaces rolled. If a player lands on a "build" space that corresponds with the number of players in the game (e.g. only "2-3-4" spaces for a four-player game), they must build the next unbuilt piece of the mouse trap, and take a piece of cheese, represented by cheese-shaped tokens. If the players reach the final loop of the board, they continue around it until the game ends; each "build" space in the loop requires a player to build two pieces of the mouse trap, and take two pieces of cheese.