Mouse Trap/Revised Rules

Sometime in the mid-2020s Hasbro, for whatever reason, decided to completely overhaul the rules of Mouse Trap.

The objective of the revised game is to be the first player to collect six pieces of cheese.

Game Equipment

The revised Mouse Trap game comes with the following equipment:

• The gameboard. Its path is now circular instead of linear, and the spaces are different. It also has two mouse-hole tunnels connecting two spaces on opposite sides of the board.
• Four mouse pawns in the colours red, blue, green and yellow.
• The twenty-one parts of the Mouse Trap. The Trap itself has been modified as follows:
  • The helping hand piece has been replaced by a swinging broom attached to a ladder, held in place by a wrench.
  • The crank and gears have been eliminated - the Trap is now launched by directly pulling back on the stop sign.
  • The shape of the rain gutter has been changed.
  • One of the metal marbles has been eliminated.
  • Most notably, the Trap is now set up before the game begins, rather than during the game.
• One rubber band.
• Twenty-four cheese pieces.
• Instructions.

Setup

To prepare the game:

• The board is laid out on the playing surface.
• The Mouse Trap is assembled - building instructions here.
• Each player selects a mouse pawn and places it on the Start space.
• Each player is given one cheese piece.
• Two pieces of cheese are also placed on Start. These cheese pieces will be collected by the first player that makes it around the board back to Start.
• The remaining cheese pieces are placed in a pile next to the board.

One player is selected to take the first turn, then play proceeds clockwise.

Basic Gameplay

A player's turn consists of the player rolling the die and moving their mouse clockwise that many spaces along the board's track. They then take an action corresponding to the type of space they landed on. After this is resolved, that player's turn is over and play proceeds to the player left from them.

Types of Spaces

There are several different types of spaces, each with different actions a player must take when landing on them:

Start

Appearance: A circular wooden-looking space with the word "Start" and two dotted cheese slices.

This space is where the players begin the game. At game start two cheese pieces are placed on this space - the first player to make it around the board and back to this space will collect these cheese pieces.

Normal

Appearance: A purple space.

Nothing happens. The player will move from here on their next turn.

Launch the Trap

Appearance: A blue space with an illustration of the Mouse Trap's cage on it.

If a player lands here, they are allowed to select one other player and move that player's mouse to the normal space immediately underneath the Mouse Trap's cage, denoted by the wheel of cheese. Then the player may pull back on the stop sign and release it to set the Trap in motion.

If the Trap succeeds in capturing the other mouse, the player who was trapped must turn over one of their cheese pieces to the player who trapped them. If the Trap fails for whatever reason, they don't turn over any cheese. Unlike with the original rules, the player caught by the Mouse Trap is not out of the game.

Regardless of the outcome of an attempted capture, the player who operated the Mouse Trap must reset it by restoring the metal marble, diver and cage to their original positions and rotating the broom down, using the wrench to secure it.

If when a player lands on this space there is already a mouse on the trap space, the player may still select another player's mouse to move to the trap space. If the Mouse Trap succeeds in capturing multiple players, all of the trapped players must turn over one cheese piece.

Cheese

Appearance: A yellow space with an illustration of a piece of cheese on it.

If a player lands here, they may take one piece of cheese from the pile.

Steal

Appearance: A green space with the silhouette of a mouse and the word "STEAL!" on it.

If a player lands here, they may steal one piece of cheese from another player.

Lose Cheese

Appearance: A red space with the dotted line silhouette of a cheese piece bearing a sad face.

If a player lands here, they must return one piece of cheese to the pile.

Mouse-Hole Tunnel

Appearance: The entrance to a tunnel (arch-shaped in some versions, circular in others) with a mouse in front of it.

If a player lands here, they may, if they want to, travel through the mouse-hole tunnel to the space on the other side.

Winning the Game

The winner of the game is the first player to collect six cheese pieces, forming a complete cheese wheel.