Crossing The Parapet: a Mini-Game

10 Nov, 2025

Rise Up Comus posted an interesting stepladder table idea yesterday, and my board game brain can’t stop thinking about it

Supply List

If you want to follow along with the class, I need you to grab a D6 and a 3 Track Cribbage Board

There are 5 game states:

1. Falling Off the Left Side
2. Teetering to the Left (*Red Track)
3. Balancing in the Center (*Green Track)
4. Teetering to the Right (*Blue Track)
5. Falling Off the Right Side

*If you’re using the cribbage board I linked above

Shifting Game States:

Begin your first turn at game state 3, then using the Stepladder Rules you are going to roll a D6

• If you roll higher than your current game state, you are going to shift one game state higher (one track to the right)
• If you roll lower than your current game state, you are going to shift one game state lower (one track to the left)
• If your roll matches your current game state, you do not shift your game state (stay in your current track)

…If you’re a skilled detective, you’ve probably noticed that there are six sides on the dice, but only five game states…

• If you roll a 6, for now let’s consider it the “pause button” that just ends your turn

Movement

After your peg is in the appropriate track, roll another D6 and move that many spaces forward

Now this is a cute tension mechanic, but statistically you’re most likely to balance yourself. Is that all?

Nope (Combat Rules)

A cribbage board is segmented into groups of 5. Let’s abstract things a bit and say any two people in segment, no matter how separated, are within the “Close” range of each other. The next segment is relatively “Near” and the segment after that is relatively “Far.” Use these ranges to determine if you can attack this turn or not

Let’s get weird

So far we have a fun bridge battle, but what if I told you we could replace space with time?

The cribbage board now doubles as a timeline. Moving forward on the track is moving forward into the future. After every turn, who goes next will always be the person furthest in the past. If you roll high on movement, you may only get one turn before surpassing your opponent—but if you roll low on movement you may get to squeeze in a few turns before your opponent!

Now this sounds fun, but don’t forget the balance game! Every turn you take puts you at risk of falling off the bridge!!

(Revisiting the rule for rolling a 6, if you use the timeline rules, skipping your turn just means it’s a reroll)

Credits

Initiative Mechanics stolen from:
Red November and Rocky Road à la Mode