Brian1971: I like your idea because that variation would create some very difficult, challenging games. I would know exactly where to put my frogs to annoy the heck out of my opponents. :-D

I keep shooting a frog on my first move. This seems like a statistical anomaly. I have 5 in a 139 chance of hitting a frog. There are 134 empty spaces and I miss all of them. Why can't I beat the odds when I buy a lottery ticket? lol

Argh, it's happened again. I was reading through the old threads on this board and I am relieved that I'm not the only one who realizes the inherent disadvantage of incurring a heavy penalty on the first move. It's utterly deflating and nearly renders the game meaningless for the first player. One should not be punished so harshly for having to take a wild guess. What about reducing the penalty from negative 5 to negative 2? This would at least give the player a better chance to get back into the game. I also like the idea of starting with neutral spaces.