I'm looking tomorrow at an attempt to get home through the snow and sleet that will be coming down as my local transit authority collapses around me. So of course my first thought was to try to make this a game! Here are my initial ideas - tell me if you think it makes even a reasonable amount of sense.
Goal: to get from work to home as the snow gradually shuts down the city
Board: A space marked "home" and a space marked "work." Maybe 1 per player, maybe all players live in the same apartment building and work in the same office. There are bus lines, express bus lines, and subways overlaid on a block by block picture of a city. Each bus/express/subway has one bus/train running on it at a time.
Every turn, all players choose how they want to move. They have "10 minutes" of game time to use. Walking a block takes 5 minutes, or they can go to a bus stop/subway station and wait for the bus/train (or stay on/get off a bus or train they were on). After all players have moved, the buses and trains move (buses move slowest, express buses next fastest, and subways move 1 stop per turn, regardless of the distance involved). Players may only exit buses or trains at a stop (although trains are never caught between stops). If a bus passes a stop with a player at it, that player may get on the bus; or if a bus passes a stop with a player on board, that player may get off.
After all movement, a card is turned over from the event deck. It reports either a system failure (bus broken down or subway electric grid down), a system restored, or congestion. Most of the deck is congestion. Congestion specifies a major intersection; any bus reaching that intersection is stalled until the congestion is removed (by drawing the duplicate congestion card).
The winner is the player who arrives home first.
