Prisoner is best played with 5 people or more, but can be played by two.
The object of the game is to be the first to shoot “around the clock” ie; one dart in each number from 1 clockwise through to 20.
Each player should throw one dart at bulls-eye, the closest to the bull goes first and furthest goes last. The first player then tries to throw one dart into each number, in order, starting with the number 1, but the scoring target is only from the triple ring and the double ring. (triple and double included).
After the 1 is hit in any of the playable area, the next target is 18 and so on, clockwise round the board. If the player misses the board (outside the doubles ring or bounces out, the dart is left in the board for one turn. The player throws only two darts the next turn and then may use the lost dart in the next turn.
If the player throws a dart into the area from the bulls-eye to the triples ring (bull and double bull included0, the dart is left in the board and is a “Prisoner”. A prisoner dart remains in the board until any player (including the player who threw the dart) hits the playable area of the same number (in the case of the bulls-eye, hitting another bulls-eye captures the prisoner). Once a player captures a prisoner, the dart is his/hers to use for the rest of that game (unless it is lost in the same manner).
If there is more than one prisoner dart to be captured, they may only be captured one at a time. For example, if there are two darts in the 18 between the bulls-eye and the triples ring, two darts must be thrown into the playable area of the 18 to capture them both.
After the first prisoner is captured, one player now has four darts to throw while the player who lost the dart only has two. By the end of the game you may be playing with 7 darts and none of them might actually be yours!
Play continues until one player has thrown a dart in every number from 1 through 20 in the target area. The first player to do this wins the game.
