Gameplay Summary
The game is a competitive, dice rolling, and card collecting game featuring 2-4 Players. Play begins at The Warden Johnston boat, named after the longest serving Warden of Alcatraz.
There are three phases of the game Processing, Doing Time and Escape.
During Processing, players take turns rolling two d6 dice to move and sometimes fight with each other if they land on the same space. The goal here is to arrive fastest at the Main Cell house in order to have the advantage of choosing an Inmate Card. Some inmate cards come with a tool, representing a tool that that inmate used in a real escape attempt.
Doing time begins! Players take turns circling the board through the Mess Hall, Recreation Yard, Laundry, and Model Industries by rolling two d6 dice on their turn. Landing on colored arrows grants a card of that color. The goal here is to collect Planning and Escape Cards. Each player may have up to 4 of each color card, all the while consulting their Escape Chart in order to plan their best escape route.
Certain cards like Model Prisoner give you special access to Grounds Escapes. Guard cards can be good or bad news when landing on black spaces. Rolling snake eyes grants The Warden Card, which acts as a favor that can be cashed in, negating a troublesome Guard card during an escape.
When a player collects the appropriate cards he or she announces their escape then moves their pawn to the Escape Arrow space based on historic routes used by real life historical prisoners. Rolling their single d6 dice to avoid being captured, shot, suffering hypothermia. Beware of the sharks too!