Pounce!
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Pounce!, Cat and mouse, Buttons, Catch me if you can and Not now but now are some of the names used for a children's game and drinking game, usually played by at least three players.
One player, the cat, has a cup, toilet plunger, or other container, and a die. The other players have each a mouse, a small object at the end of a string of perhaps 20 to 50 cm. The mice are all placed within a small circle, the players holding the other end of the string.
The cat rolls the die, and at the throw of a one or a six, say, the cat tries to catch the mice by quickly placing the container over the circle, while the mouse players try to escape by quickly pulling their strings. At the throw of anything other than a one or a six, the cat is not allowed to place the cup at the circle, and the mice are not allowed to move.
There are some variations in the details of the rules of scoring. One possibility is to penalize all faults: Mice are penalized for moving when they should not, and being caught when they should have moved; the cat is penalized for each mouse it catches when it should not, or fails to catch when it should.
The role of cat may switch to the next player to the left each time a one or a six has been thrown, say.
While several commercial versions of the game exist, one may easily produce suitable material by tying strings to buttons or wooden pegs, and use a fairly large dice box as cat.
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