Adventure Croquet

Idea in development Rules in flux. Suggestions always welcome

Nemo - 2020Jun13

Origin and concept

Game accidentally invented by Nemo at Nerissa's birthday. It's casual fun only and not to be taken too seriously (this does not preclude it being a potential sport for future Olympics)

Adventure Croquet simplifies croquet down to "A race through hoops to the end", but complicates it by allowing for an obstacle ridden course (hoops next to trees, paths through picnic furniture, etc)

Setup

Take your croquet hoops and arrange them in any fashion in the play area, be it a park, hiking trail, front-and-back lawn of your house, neighbours lawns, etc. There is no limit to total size, but practical limit is that all parts of the area are within earshot of each other. Also, one peg to indicate the finish.

The hoops have a specific order to play, and a specific direction per hoop.

Actually playing

Players take turns hitting their ball to the next hoop. If it goes through, they get an extra hit. "Through" is defined as fully through at any time in the motion of the ball. If it achieves part-way-through at best, then it is not through. If it achieves all-way-through whilst in motion and then rolls back through (in part or in whole) due to being on a slope, it IS counted as through.

Other croquet rules are optional.

Winner is the first to the peg.

Pros and Cons

• Pro: Simple to learn
• Pro: every course is dynamically different
• Con: Some courses simply suck
• Con: If one player gets particularly stuck on a hoop on a large course, the game players can end up widely spread out.
  • This is largely resolved in the Advanced form below.

Advanced Adventure Croquet

This form of the game adds elements of "golf croquet" (of which Nemo was unaware of at the time). https://www.croquet.org.uk/?p=games/golf

Setup is largely identical, but instead of a race to the end, every hoop is played twice in a "there and back again" manner.

New course layout rule: One hoop (ideally the middle one of the course) may be deemed a wildcard hoop. This is placed in an impossible position (eg: sideways on a tree, or flat on grass) and the first player to get to it (within 1m) can then place it at their choosing. If there is a spare end post, then that may be used to indicate visually the location of the wildcard. A mallet length may be used instead of "1m" distance measure.

Play: The first time through every hoop is the same as regular Adventure Croquet.

The second time through (return path, or second lap) adds the following:

• Whenever a player's ball passes through a hoop, they now have two options:

1. Take the extra hit
2. Claim the hoop

If the hoop is claimed, then they forfeit a second hit, and any players following no longer have to achieve that hoop. Note that hoops may be claimed by a player on a return journey that slower players are yet to achieve on their forward journey.

This now gives two winning modes:

1. Win on speed (same as regular adventure croquet) - this winner is known as the Lord of the Hoops (because "there and back again")
2. Win on points (most hoops) - this winner is known as the Hoop Master (no particular reason, just needed another title)

Misc:

• The course is self-cleaning in the following ways
  • Hitting the end peg (turnaround or start of second lap) does not grant a second hit. However the last player to reach that peg claims it as a point. This peg is not available to any earlier player.
  • The player in last position through any hoop (ie, nobody else still to traverse it) on the return/second lap, MUST claim the hoop, but retain their second hit bonus.
• If a players ball is knocked through their target hoop by another players ball, they gain the position advancement, but can claim neither a second hit, nor on the second half are they eligible to claim the hoop.

Pros and Cons

• Pro: the further behind you are, the more likely hoops are claimed and thus allow you to catch up. This helps to keeps the group of players together. The "...and back again" version is also preferred since turning around assists the process of re-grouping players.
• Pro: tactics
• Con: longer (every hoop twice)

House rules

If there is too much adventure (ie, some hoops are in fact too hard), the game may find itself progressing too slowly - to the frustration of players. In that case merely touching the hoop can be treated as sufficient to advance.

Misc

• Adventure Croquet since 2006

• Advanced Adventure Croquet since 2020
  • https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10158557173683216&set=a.10150704990443216&type=3&theater&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic&notif_id=1592027944308250
  • Novemberfest 2020 to great success (6 players, 11 hoops)
  • Novemberfest 2023 - the first to be an abandoned game due to having too much adventure (a combination of slightly thicker grass, slightly more uneven ground under the grass, slightly smoother bark mulch that didn't stop the balls running down hill - all contributed to this game adding up to being significantly harder than past games.

• Golf Croquet: https://www.croquet.org.uk/?p=games/golf
• Extreme Croquet (developed independently and earlier to Adventure Croquet)L https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_croquet