In Cope each player controls four members of a family who each start the game at a different stage of life (child, teen, adult, senior citizen), or "growth level" as the game has it. Each growth level is represented by a track which is moved around by die roll. Various spaces on the tracks will require players to draw Good News or Bad News cards. Others will allow the player to try the "Ladder of Life" by coping with a crisis or opportunity. Coping is performed by rolling a large dodecahedron; the result may let the family member cope with the problem and advance, or it may require help from a family member at another growth level, in which case that member has to be moved. Family members may get "promoted" to later growth levels. The levels are designated by plastic rings of different colors placed on the pieces. The object of the game is to get all of your family members home first, but the real objective of the game is educational. As the introduction to the rules say, "the purpose of the game is to teach individual and family participation on how to COPE with daily situations in life."