Pucket (Le Passe-Trappe) Game

Pucket is a fast paced table top game. The idea is to clear all the pucks from your side of the board by pinging them through the gate in the middle, the only thing slowing you down is your opponent trying to do the same thing at the same time. First to clear their side wins. You start with 8 pucks each.

Materials

• 580mm x 404mm x 12mm Plywood for the base
• 2x 580mm, 3x 380mm legths of 12mm x 44mm Pine for edging and bridge
• 8mm dowels
• 3/4" screws
• 1 1/4" screws
• Glue
• Felt feet
• Varnish
• Polish
• 40mm dowel or other wood to turn down to 40mm diameter
• 5mm Elastic/Bungee cord

Tools

• Bandsaw
• Chopsaw
• Lathe if turning your own pucks
• Drill + Pilot drill and countersink/counterbore
• Paint Brush
• Sanding supplies and equipment

Step 1: Construction

1. Cut the plywood to size and sand with 120,180,240,320 and 400 grit sandpaper
2. Apply 3 thin coats of varnish to the plywood, allowing it to dry according to the manufacturer instructions and lightly sanding with 600 grit between coats
3. Then polish the surface to reduce friction (I used Olde English Furniture Cream)
4. Cut the pine edging to length and cut the gate** in the bridge (it is important the side edges overlap the end as force is applied to the sides when the elastic is flexed)
5. Drill and counterbore the sides ready to screw to the ends and the bridge
6. Fix the edging in place using screws and glue. Side to the base with the smaller screws and the sides to the ends and bridge with the longer ones.
7. Glue in the dowels on the counter bored holes then cut and sand flush
8. Slice off 15mm thick pieces of 40mm dowel to make the pucks, you need 16 in total for the game. ( I couldn't find any 40mm dowel to buy so turned some on my lathe) NOTE: use either a v block or clamp to hold the dowel when cutting
9. Sand all the pucks smooth
10. Mark and drill a 5mm hole 60mm from the end and 5mm from the bottom on each side to locate the bungee cord. (this locates the cord just above half way up the puck)
11. Give the pucks and the edging a couple of coats of varnish
12. Fix the bungee in place with a knot on the outside of each side and make it as tight as you can manage (this is fiddly,tension can be added to the bungee later by use of a clothes peg between the outside edge and knot)
13. I added felt pads to stop the board moving around on the table and scratching it.
14. Find a friend an play

** the size of the gate in the bridge determines how easy the game is to play, you want it no larger than 1.5x the puck dimensions. I made mine roughly 1.25x to make the game trickier so it was 50mm x 20mm

Step 2: How to Play

Place 8 pucks on each side anywhere that does not block the gate.

One player says 'GO' and the action starts.

Using one hand only use the bungee to launch the pucks on your side through the gate. You may use the other hand to steady the board.

You may move pucks to the side if they are in the way, but you can not move them forward.

First one to clear their side from all pucks wins.

If someone fires a puck off the board they must retrieve it while the game continues.

Check out some other suggested variants on the board game geek website (link)

Step 3: Rewards

As this will be my 40th Instructable, I have decided to give 3 months free pro membership to the first 4 people to comment on this instructable :)

Thanks to all you marvelous people who look at my work