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How to Play the Board Game, Mouse Trap

Mouse Trap is a board game recommended for two to four players, ages 6 and older. The object of the game is to capture the other players' mice and to have your mouse captured last. During the game, players will move their mice around the board, while building the mouse trap and collecting pieces of cheese. Once the trap is complete, players can begin to try to capture their opponents' mice. The player who does not have his mouse captured wins the game.

Things You'll Need

Mouse Trap gameboard
4 plastic mice
rubber band
Mouse Trap accessories and building parts
2 metal marbles
52 cheese pieces
1 die

Instructions

- 1
  Place the gameboard on a flat surface and place all the trap pieces around the outside of the board. Place all cheese pieces in a pile near the board. Have each player select a mouse and put it on the "start" space.
- 2
  Decide who goes first by rolling a die or playing in order of age. Players always play in clockwise order. The first player will roll the die and move his mouse the number of spaces corresponding to what number he rolls on the die.
- 3
  Follow the instructions for the space your mouse lands on, which includes build spaces, lose cheese spaces, a dog bone space, safe spaces, cheese wheel space and turn crank space. Build spaces have numbers in them, such as 2, 2-3 and 2-3-4. In a two-player game, you can build a piece of the mouse trap if you land on any of these spaces. In a three-player game, you must land on 2-3 or 2-3-4 to build a piece to the trap. In a four-player game, you can only build when you land on the 2-3-4 space. Put trap pieces together in numerical order one at a time and collect a piece of cheese from the cheese pile after you build a piece of the trap.
- 4
  Miss your turn if you land on the dog bone space. If you land on a cheese space, add or lose the corresponding number of cheese slices. If there are no cheese slices left in the pile, you can take them from the opponent with the most cheese pieces.
- 5
  Turn the crank wheel when you land on the turn crank space only if the trap is complete and there is a mouse on the cheese wheel. If the trap operates correctly and you trap an opponents' mouse, he is out of the game. The remaining players will keep playing. If you land on the turn crank space and no mouse is on the cheese wheel, you can put a cheese piece back in the pile and roll the die to move an opponents' mouse. If the opponent's mouse lands in the cheese wheel, you can turn the crank wheel to try to trap him. You can do this as many times as you need, as long as you have cheese pieces to put back in the pile. Win the game by being the last mouse left on the gameboard.

Board Games