Board game apparatus

Claim 1

Board game apparatus for playing a board game among a plurality of players, said board game apparatus comprising: a playing board having a playing surface; a central area on the playing surface, the central area displaying a representation of a court system including lower and higher courts arranged in a prescribed inner sequence of play proceeding from each lower court to a higher court in the court system; movable playing pieces for representing the players on the playing surface; a plurality of outer areas arranged sequentially on the playing surface around the central area and defining an outer path of travel of fixed increments for the playing pieces, some of the outer areas including representations of different fictional claims enforceable by a corresponding lawsuit and others of the outer areas including representations of imaginary people arbitrarily designated as experts in fields of endeavor related to the subject matter of the fictional lawsuit-enforceable claims, the representations being spaced along the outer path of travel; first game elements each corresponding to a representation of a different fictional lawsuit-enforceable claim for denoting the possession by a particular player of a claim capable of enforcement by a corresponding lawsuit; second game elements each corresponding to a representation of an expert for denoting the possession by a particular player of that expert for use as a witness in the related lawsuit; chance means for operation by each player, in sequence, to determine the number of increments of movement of a corresponding playing piece along the outer path of travel, thereby determining possession among the players of the lawsuit-enforceable claims and the experts for use as witnesses, and establishing the parties to a lawsuit through chance location of a playing piece upon an outer area, and for operation by a party to a lawsuit to determine, by chance, the outcome of the lawsuit, once the lawsuit-enforceable claim is asserted in the court system, in accordance with the procedure prescribed by the inner sequence of play through the court system; the central area including a specific location for the second game element corresponding to the expert in the field related to the subject matter of the lawsuit in the court system, whereby placement of the appropriate second game element by a party at the specific location engages the expert as a witness for that party to increase the chances of that party prevailing in the outcome of the lawsuit; and game pieces for representing assets of each player, the assets as represented by the game pieces to be transferred between players in accordance with the outcome of the lawsuits to which the players are parties.