Perhaps there are two best friends as the main characters. They are always together in the gold rush game, sharing their hopes of finding lots of gold.
It could be a group of siblings. The older ones might be leading the way in the gold rush game, while the younger ones are learning from them. They all have different personalities. One might be really brave and always go first to explore new areas, another could be the thinker who figures out where the gold might be hidden based on the clues they find, and the youngest might be the one who keeps everyone's spirits high with their cute remarks.
There might be a little boy or girl who is the main character. This child is really curious about the gold rush and convinces their friends to play the game. They are the driving force behind the whole adventure. Along the way, they meet other children from their neighborhood who then join in the game, but this one child is at the center of it all, leading the search for gold and making the decisions about where to go and what to do next.