HAKONE is a coastal town in Japan, lying some 100km southwest of Tokyo. It is famous for hosting the Hakone Ekiden, a two day, five marathon road-race. Ekiden, long distance road racing, is a very popular sport in Japan, and the Hakone Ekiden is notoriously hard, with five legs run from central Tokyo out to Hakone on day one, and then five legs run back to central Tokyo on day two. Each leg is over 20km, and the race is run by teams of university students.
In the dice game Hakone, players are coaching their university team to win the Hakone Ekiden. Each leg is run by different athletes, and the coach must select the best one to suit the stage. The athlete cards show their abilities, their time over 10k, how they do at climbing or descending, against the wind or sea breezes. In addition, the players use special action cards to improve their performance, or nobble the opposition.
The dice are used as in CATAN, with one dice roll applying to all runners. The courses are printed on cloths and there are eight university teams to choose from.
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