How to Create Your Own Roller-Coaster Board Games

Roller coasters can be a fun ride for all ages.

Roller coasters are thrill rides commonly enjoyed at amusement parks, carnivals and fairs. Craft your own game inspired by coasters with a new spin on the children's board game, Chutes and Ladders. Chutes and Ladders is a game where players roll dice and either climb a ladder or drop down a chute depending on roll of the dice. The object is to get to the top first. Use this same concept, but in this case the ride down is the one that will lead you to victory.

Things You'll Need

• Cardboard
• Paint
• Paint brushes
• Index cards
• Pen or pencil
• Toy cars

Instructions

1. Cut a piece of cardboard in a square that is approximately 18 inches-by-18 inches.

2. Paint the starting point at the top left corner of the board and the finish line at the bottom right corner. Create a trail of colored squares or tracks zigzagging from the starting point to the end.

3. Add in half-loops, resembling the climbing tracks of a roller-coaster peak that will bring players back closer to the start. Add downward sloping tracks that will ride players down closer to the finish. Connect the up and down sloping tracks to random spaces on the board.

4. Paint decorative details to the game board as well, following a carnival-oriented theme. This could include cotton candy, corn dogs, a Ferris wheel, balloons and stuffed animals.

5. Paint or write a number from one through five on each index cards. There should be at least 50 index cards.

6. Instruct players to choose a card from the stack to move their toy cars across the board. Whatever number they choose will be however many spaces they go. If they land on an upward slope they must move back to the space it connects to. They can achieve shortcuts by landing on a downward slope that leads them closer to the finish.

7. Declare the first player to reach the end the winner.

References

• Board Game Geek: Roller Coaster Tycoon
• Discovery: Build a Coaster