by Valerie Franz

Created on: January 03, 2008

Aggravation. The name speaks for itself. If you don't know what it is, it's sort of like the game "Sorry," but it looks like the game "Chinese Checkers." You have six different colors of marbles, each with four marbles to get out of base, around the board and into the correct color home.

To start out with, you roll the die in an attempt to get a one or a six so you can get one of your marbles out of your base and onto the board. If you get the six, you get to roll again. Sounds simple enough, but as usual, it's never that simple.

What most people don't think about is the odds of rolling a one or a six. There's four other numbers on that die that you have the potential to roll. In actuality, you have a one-in-three chance to roll a number that allows you to escape your base.

That's just the beginning of where the game gets... well, aggravating. After you miraculously escape your base and start rolling your piece around the board, there's always the chance that some other player will land on the same spot your marble is on, knocking you back into the base you just spent 15 minutes trying to get out of, restarting the one-in-three chance again.

Worse than that, you can't jump over your own marbles. This translates to more aggravation. For example, say you've managed to get all of your marbles all the way around the board and are attempting to get them into your home. There are only four spaces in the home area, and since you can't jump over your own pieces, you have to roll exactly the number of spaces in front of your first marble to get it home. In other words, you can spend the better part of 30 minutes trying to roll a four or less to get all of your marbles home. Then again, there's still that chance that one of the other players can come around and whack your marble back to base.

The truth of the matter is, it's a fun game IF you have the patience. My husband and I played this game a couple of days ago with another couple. My friend's husband quit the game within 15 minutes. However, if you're looking for something to entertain yourself with for a while, Aggravation is a colorful and color-rising choice.

Learn more about this author, Valerie Franz.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.