The Winding Path

This is a board game that is popular on several continents of Arbressian. Though there are some variations in rules and appearance depending on the location, the core of the game remains the same.

Execution

The game is played by two to six players. All of them select one game piece and place it on the starting square on the board. Everyone rolls the six sided die and the one with the highest number gets to go first and then it goes from player to player in clockwise order. During a player's turn they roll the six sided die and move to the corresponding square on the board. If the square contains a symbol they take the top card with the same symbol on its back and follow the instructions.
To make it easier to explain, let's say that one symbol is a star and the other is a circle. On the star cards are instructions to real life action that a player can perform to get an extra roll on the same turn. This can be anything from "make at least another player laugh with a joke" to "do a handstand for at least five seconds". If the player can't perform the action they don't get the extra roll. On the circle cards are instructions that are related to the game board, for example "go back to the previous square with a symbol, don't draw a new card" or "move your game piece two steps forward".
If a player's game piece lands on the same space as the piece of another player, both of them must roll the die. The person with the highest number wins and their piece stays on the space, the other player has to move their piece back the same amount of squares as the number they rolled. So if player one rolls a five and player two rolls a three, player two must move three spaces back on the board.
The game continues until one player wins by reaching the end square. Though some choose to continue with the remaining players competing for second place, third place and so forth.

Components and tools

The board is made out of a quite thick wood piece and on it is carved a winding path of squares, some of them containing symbols. There are six game pieces, carved out of wood or bone into different shapes - most popularly these will be animals but sometimes they are of different humanoids or something more abstract than that. One six sided die that is made out of wood or bone. A number of cards, half with one symbol on the back and the other half with another symbol. The symbols vary but they are always of simple design as they are the same as are carved into some of the squares on the game board.