How to Play Life

Objective

Traverse the game board earning money and collecting life tiles. The players with the most value after retirement wins.

Gameplay

All players spin the spinner one time with the highest score going first, then order goes clockwise of the player who goes first. On your first turn of the game, decide to either Start a career or go to college. On all other turns spin the spinner and move your car that many spaces forward following the arrows unless you hit a stop sign. If you land on a space occupied by another player, move your car one space forward. Follow the directions of whatever space you landed on, ending your turn.

If you decide to start a career you start with your car on the START CAREER space on the board and draw a career card. Have the banker hold up the career cards facing away from you and pick one randomly. This card will show your career, salary and taxes. Your career card is placed face up in front of you and your turn continues as normal.

If you decide to start with college, place your car on the START COLLEGE space on the board and borrow $100,000 from the bank as a loan (tuition). Now spin the wheel and play your turn as normal. When you reach the JOB SEARCH space stop there, have the banker hold up the college career cards. Draw 3 career cards at random and choose which one you like best returning the other 2 cards to the career card deck. Now have the banker hold up the Salary cards and follow the same process you just did for careers.

Along the path of the game you will see different colored tiles. These colors annotate different events that can happen in each space.

Gold spaces:

• Collect/Pay Space – Collect or pay to the bank the amount of money listed on the space.
• Life Spaces – Take one of the Life Tiles from the draw pile, if the pile is empty take any one tile from an opponent.
• Taxes Due – Pay the bank the amount of taxes shown on your career card.
• Tax Refund – Collect from the bank the amount of taxes shown on your career card.
• Lose your Job – Trade in your career card for another, only draw from the non college careers even if you started the game going to college. You also lose any pay raises you may have accrued.
• Babies and Twins – Whenever you land on a baby boy or baby girl space add one of the people pegs to your car and collect $5,000 from every other player and draw one life token. If you land on the twins’ space the same rules apply but you add 2 people to your car.
• Spin to Win – All players get a chance to Spin to Win. All players can play a Spin to Win card to increase their chances. Take one Spin to Win token from the draw pile that matches the color of your car and place it on any number on the Spin to Win strip. You may now pay an “investment” to the bank of up to $50,000 and spin the spinner. If the number the spinner lands on matches the number you choose with your spin to win token , the bank must pay you 10X your investment. If the number does not match the bank keeps your investment. Place your spin to win token back in the draw pile.

Green Spaces:

• Pay Day – Collect your salary from the bank.
• Pay Day Pay Raise – Collect a pay raise from the bank and place it near your career card. Collect your new salary from the bank with the pay raise added. If your salary is already at its maximum, collect your maximum salary and ignore the raise.

Orange Spaces: Whenever you reach an orange space stop there even if you have more moves left from your spin. Follow the directions on the space and then spin again.

• College Career Choice – Choose your college career card.
• Buy a Starter Home – Take a look at the available starter home cards and choose the one you like best and pay the bank for it. If you do not have enough money you must borrow money from the bank.
• Return to School – Choose to return to school or continue on the path of life. If you choose to return to school pay the bank $50,000.
• Change Career – Choose to change your career card to a college career card or take a $20,000 salary increase.
• Family Path – Choose to take the family path to increase your odds of having children or continue on the path of life.
• Buy a Better House – You have the option to sell your starter house and buy a “better” house. If you decide to buy a better house, sell your starter house to the bank for the price listed on the card then pay the bank the amount for the new house. If you do not have enough money, you may borrow from the bank.
• Risky Path – Choose to take the risky path or the safe path.
• Get Married – Add one peg to your car take a life tile and then spin for your wedding gifts. If you spin a 10, 9, or 8, all players must give you $10,000. 7, 6, or 5 and all players must give you $5,000. 4, 3, 2, or 1, and players give you nothing.

Blue Spaces:

• These spaces are lawsuit spaces. When you land on them, collect $100,000 from the player of your choice.

You may borrow money from the bank at any turn. Each loan is worth $20,000, and you must repay them with interest of $5,000. So every loan you take for $20,000 must be repaid to the bank with $25,000. You can repay these loans on any of your turns or wait until retirement to repay them.

Share the Wealth Cards: There are 6 different Share the Wealth Cards; keep these cards face down in front of you and use them when you choose. These cards are listed below.

• Highway Patrol – If there is a police officer in the game you may play this card anytime someone spins a 10 and they must pay you $5,000. If you do not notice when someone spins a 10 you do not get the money.
• Collect Card – You can play this when an opponent lands on a collect space and they must pay you half of the money they collect. Discard this card after playing it.
• Pay Card – You can play this card when you land on a pay space and give it to any one opponent. This opponent must pay half of what you owe to the bank. Discard this card after playing it.
• Exemption Card – These cards allow you to be exempt when an opponent tries to give you a collect or pay card. It may also be used for lawsuits. Discard this card after playing it.
• Spin to Win 2 and 4 – These cards can be used before a spin to win and allow you to place more (2 or 4) spin to win tokens increasing your odds of winning spin to win.

When you finish the path of life and reach retirement:

• Repay any loans you have to the bank
• Sell your house for the amount listed on its card to the bank
• Collect a $10,000 retirement bonus from the bank for each child that you have
• Choose to retire at either Millionaire Estates or Countryside Acres. If you are the first to choose Millionaire Estates pick up the 3 life tiles and choose one of them then return the other 2 tiles. The second player to retire there gets to pick from those 2. If you retire at Millionaire estates your life tiles can still be stolen by players who have not retired yet. If you choose to retire at countryside acres you do not get to choose any additional life tiles but your life tiles cannot be stolen.

Endgame

Once all players have retired:

• Count your money
• Add in the money value from your life tiles
• The player with the highest value wins.

Life Strategy

• Choosing not to buy a house and instead paying rent every time you spin a 2 or a 3 can save you a lot of money throughout the game.
• Choosing the college path is often more lucrative than starting with a career.
• Getting married can earn you more life tile points helping you win the game.

Example/ Demonstration

Players spin the wheel and move their car the number of spaces forward the wheel lands on. The space you land on will have direction on what to do to end your turn. Stop at all STOP signs along the game board and spin again after landing on them. Continue your path of life, making decisions along the way towards retirement. After retirement, sit back, relax, and watch your opponents fight to retire.