Zapp Zerapp

Zapp Zerapp
Game data
author	Heinz Meister , Klaus Zoch
graphic	Doris Matthew
publishing company	Zoch publishing house
Publishing year	2000
Art	Board game
Teammates	2 to 4
Duration	30 minutes
Age	from 7 years
Awards
Game of the year , nomination 2001 German Children's Games Prize 2001 Japan Boardgame Prize , best children's game 2002 2nd place As d'Or , 2002 award winner

Zapp Zerapp is a children's game by the German game designers Heinz Meister and Klaus Zoch and was released in 2000. The game for two to four players, ages seven and up, lasts about 30 minutes per round, the game mechanics are based on the game Mensch ärgere dich nicht and are supplemented by the use of rapper barrels, which add an acoustic component. It won the German Children's Games Prize in 2001 and was nominated for Game of the Year .

Theme and equipment

In the game, each player in the role of a magician moves several sorcerer's apprentices across the board, guessing the number of stones in rappel barrels acoustically and weighing them against the number rolled. The sorcerer's apprentices try to win the race at the foot of the mountain of eternal silence before freezing under its spell. The magician whose apprentices first reach the city of their guild receives the honorary title of ZAPP ZERAPP.

In addition to the instructions, the contents of the game box consist of:

• a game plan
• 12 sorcerer's apprentices in four colors
• 14 rappel barrels (13 are needed, one is a reserve)
• 14 plugs (13 are also needed, one is a reserve)
• 13 adhesive labels (with the secret numbers 1–13)
• about 100 magic stones (91 of them are needed)
• two dice

Style of play

To prepare for the game, 13 of the 14 existing rappel barrels are filled with stones, whereby one to 13 stones are filled into the barrels and these are then closed with a stopper and an adhesive label with the numbers 1 to 13 according to the number of stones. The barrels are mixed and placed in the middle of the game board, then the players choose a color and get the corresponding game pieces, which are placed on the colored starting fields.

The game itself consists of three phases per round for each player. First one of the players rolls both dice and in this way determines the “magic number” as the sum of the eyes of both dice. This number applies to the entire round and to all players. Then all players shake the rattle barrels at the same time, whereby only one may be picked up at a time, and try to guess the number of stones they contain based on the rattle noises. Each player selects a barrel that he believes contains fewer or exactly as many stones as the “magic number”. As soon as every player has a barrel in front of them, the numbers under these ("secret numbers") are checked and all barrels with a higher number than the "magic number" are placed back in the middle. The remaining barrels contain “effective shaking spells” and are carried out in the next phase.

In the last phase of the game, the sorcerers' apprentices are moved and banished. The player with the highest valid secret number begins and chooses a sorcerer's apprentice of his own color to move forward by as many spaces as he has as his secret number under the barrel. The players are only allowed to move their figures in the running direction and not to foreign target cities or to the starting fields. Excess points may not expire, except when you reach your own target city, and there may be several figures on each space. If a sorcerer's apprentice outside his own protection zone (fields of his own color) is overtaken or overtaken by an opposing sorcerer's apprentice, he is "banished" and immediately returned to the corresponding starting field.

After all players have made their moves with “effective shaking spells”, the next round begins. Each player tries to be the first to bring his three sorcerer's apprentices to the city of his own guild (color) and thus win the game.

Expenses and reception

reviews Meta page rating BoardGameGeek 6.1 out of 10 points

Zapp Zerapp was developed as a children's game by Heinz Meister and Klaus Zoch in 2000 and published by Zoch Verlag , with Doris Matthäus taking care of the illustration . The game mechanics are based on the game Mensch ärgere dich nicht and have been supplemented by the rappel barrels. It won the German Children's Games Prize in 2001 and was nominated for Game of the Year . In addition, the game took second place in 2002 as the best children's game in 2002 at the Japan Boardgame Prize and received the As d'Or ("Golden As") in Cannes as a Tic Tac Troll . The game was mostly positively discussed in various reviews. In the BoardGameGeek game database , Zapp Zerapp recorded an average rating of 6.1 (out of 10) with more than 6000 reviews (as of January 2017).

The game principle of the sound vessel was taken up again in 2003 by the two authors in the game Igloo Pop . Both games are currently (January 2017) out of stock and are no longer produced.

supporting documents

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} game instructions ( memento of the original from March 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at Zoch Verlag; accessed on January 13, 2017.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Ratings & Comments for Zapp Zerapp in the board game database BoardGameGeek (English)
3. ↑ Zapp Zerapp on the website of the game of the year eV ; accessed on January 13, 2017.
4. ↑ Games - No longer in the program ( Memento of the original from January 13, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at Zoch Spiele, accessed January 13, 2017.  

Web links

• Game instructions from Zoch Verlag
• Zapp Zerapp in the Luding games database
• Zapp Zerapp in the board game database BoardGameGeek (English)