Designed by: Reiner Knizia
Rapido – also published under the names Excape and Exxtra above – is a silly, fast-moving dice-chucking game where players race to be the first to 20 points.
Everyone starts at the bottom of the ‘stairs’ on the board, on zero points. On your turn, you roll your two dice: one maxes out at five, the other has a seven on one side! Both dice have an X on one side. If you roll doubles (possible with 1s 2s and 3s) you move your piece the matching amount of steps along the path. Otherwise (or as well; you can roll as many times as you like as long as you don’t bust) the dice you roll combine to make a single number: 3 and 1 make 31; seven and five make 75. At any time you can choose to halt and place your dice on a kind of podium on the board, and if they haven’t been ejected by the time your turn comes around again, you’ll get to move a certain number of places on the path, as defined by the podium: it might be as many as five spaces!
Catch one is each rank on the podium only has room for one player, and if anybody places a number higher than yours below your dice, you get kicked off!
Catch two is that if you roll an X (after your first roll; where an X equals zero for your two-digit number) you’re bust, and do nothing.
None from the other players. Plenty with self-inflicted dice-rolls
Low. With five or six players your turns come around slightly less frequently, but it's a matter of seconds rather than minutes.
More a light tingle than a burn
We wouldn't argue Rapido offers huge variety. But each play is marked by small enjoyable moments, as the dice define everyone's progress - or lack of it.
2-6
Players
6+
Years
15-30
Mins
Sam says
Some games put you at the mercy of luck and you can feel hobbled by it. Some games give you just enough control that your decisions have weight, and you can navigate a path between playing conservatively and pushing your luck: over the whole game, or from turn to turn. Rapido is fun - it's essentially abstract, and luck does play a big part, but it plays so rapidly and generates so much laughs and groans (it does play two, but is better with a crowd) that I always find it happily engaging.