Hannah's Game Idea

Aim of the game:
Follow the chem signal trail to your frog family island, escaping from the rats who are chasing you home.

Players:
4 players. Using less is possible but less engaging.

Rules:
Frogs begin two spots ahead of the rats
Frogs move 1 spot per turn
Rats follow along the chem trails after each frog, snipping off one spot per turn.
Each turn, the player moves their frog forward one spot, picks up and reads aloud one card, and then acts on it immediately. They then snip one dot off the bottom of their chem trail to show the advancement of the rat.
If a rat reaches an island, the game is over and the rats win. If a frog gets there first, that frog wins. If the rat catches up with and snips the frog off the trail, the frog is eaten and has lost the game.
There are power ups on each island, a frog from another island can hop through here on the way to their island and gain these power ups to use at any time. They cannot collect power ups from their own island. Frogs can also use chem trail 'bridges' between their islands to hop around.
Powerups include Hop Chem Trails, in which the frog can jump across to another frog's chem trail which might be closer to their intended island (but they stay on the same number of dots), and Hopscotch, in which a frog can hop onto another chem trail, but moves to where that other frog is on the trail.

Elements of gameplay:
The chem trails get cut by the rats each game, so need to be replaced for each new game. Likewise for bridges, which may be cut.

Cards:
Cards say different things to create different events within the gameplay. These are:

• Skipper! - Jump to the adjacent chem trail
• Bouncer - Go forward 3 places
• Super Jump! - Jump forward 5 places
• Burning bridges - Your island bridge to another species breaks (choose an island bridge to snip)
• Deflect! - Your rat catches the scent of another frog and snips them instead
• Confused Doc Ranger! - Jump an island bridge in 2 turns, but not if it goes to your island
• Boing! - Hop 3 places
• Visit a friend - Jump along the chem trail of a friend for your next 2 turns
• 1080 drop - Your rat misses a turn, but a friend moves back 2 spaces
• Rat King - Your rat scuttles up 3 places
• Lost the Scent - Miss a turn (do not move forward)
• Rat Run - Everyone's rats move up by 1
• Nasty Nip - The rat gains on you by 3 places

User testing photos:

Feedback:
The game was very hard, none of the frogs made it to any of the islands and the rats snipped them all off very quickly. There weren't enough cards so we were constantly recycling them to keep gameplay going.
People really enjoyed the physical aspect of the chem trail ticker tapes.
There were good points of the game, but it certainly needs improvement to be viable.