Bag builder

Push your luck, in one bag

A whole family of games runs on one idea: keep going and the reward grows, but one bad draw takes everything. The decision is never about the token you are about to draw. It is about whether the points already on the table are worth the risk, and that is a decision you can only make well if you know what is left in the bag.

So the bag counts down in front of you and the log lists everything that has come out. Two stop tokens in a bag of twelve is a different game from two in a bag of thirty, and both are a different game again once four of the safe tokens are already out.

Designing a bag that feels right

Start with the bag it opens on: four gold worth two, six silver worth one, two stops. Draw a few rounds and you will feel where it sits. Adding a third stop token makes it mean. Taking one away makes the greedy strategy correct, and a game where one strategy is always right stops being a decision.

The add rule is the one worth playing with. A token that puts two more of itself in the bag changes the odds as the round goes on, which is what makes a late draw genuinely more frightening than an early one.

Playing it round a table

Pass the device round and take a round each, or play it as one shared bag where the table argues about whether to draw again. Both work, and the second is louder.

Keep the running totals on the scoreboard if the game lasts an evening. For a bag with no rules at all, just names and a draw, the bag of tokens is the simpler page, and the marbles show the odds changing as a fraction while you play.

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