Hyena chase
Hyena chase is a simple race game from North Africa. It uses a spiral track drawn on the ground or on paper. The track has many circles: the outer circle is the village, the center circle is a well at an oasis, and the circles in between are camps. Each player has a piece called a mother. The goal is to move from the village to the well and back to the village first.
On your turn you roll a die. You must roll a six to move a mother from the village onto the first circle. To reach the well you must roll the exact number of spaces needed; if you roll too high, you stay in place until your next turn. When you land at the well, the mother washes her clothes until you roll a six again. Then she starts the return journey toward the village. The first player to bring their mother back to the village wins (an exact throw is not required on the return).
The winner may play the hyena. To release the hyena from the village, you must roll a six. The hyena moves twice as fast as the mothers (double the die score). On the return journey, any mother the hyena passes is eaten and removed from the game. The hyena travels along the same spiral as the mothers and adds extra danger for the others.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 06:59 (CET).