Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces 1929780281

Citation preview

Playing with Pyramids 12 Games

for Icehouse Pieces

by Andrew Looney, John Cooper, Kory Heath, Jacob Davenport, and Kristin Looney

Published by Looney Labs PO Box 761, College Park, MD, 20740, USA

www.LooneyLabs.com

— ~

Name

Players

Stuf

lceTowers

3-5

none

Turnless, Stacking | *

Thin Ice

2+

none

Building, Party

Zendo

3-5}

Martian Backgammon|

60 stones |

2 | dice, 3 coins|

— Stashes *

Inductive, Puzzle | 3 Luck-based, Race]

2

Volcano

1-4

Martian Chess

2,4

RAMbots

2-4 | chessboard | Program, Predict | 4

Pikemen

2-4 | chessboard | Pointing Chess

Zagami

4

none

Style

Puzzle, Positional | 6

chessboard | Colorblind Chess | 3

|chessboard | Consume,

*

Exploit | 4

Icehouse

3-5

none

Turnless, Strategy | *

Homeworlds

2-6

cards

Space Opera

Gnostica

2-5]

tarot deck | Territorial, War

*

* =1 stash per player Copyright © 2002, by Looney Laboratories, Inc. PO Box 761, College Park, MD, 20740, USA

ISBN # 1-929780-28-1 All rights reserved under all International Copyright Conventions. Published in the USA by Looney Laboratories, Inc.

Icehouse was patented in 1990 (US patent #4,936,585).

IceTowers was patented in 2001 (patent number pending).

Icehouse, Icehouse Pieces, The 100,000 Year Old Game From Mars, and The Martian Chess Set are all trademarks of Looney Laboratories, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Visit www.LooneyLabs.com today!

Table of Contents Introduction Wiat'S IGGNOUSCTT ccc sscccccnnnccaxcen renee eemmnnasinesennnen 7

A System for Inventing Games. ...............ccsseeeeeeees 8 The BaSICS .........cccceeccecceccsccecceccecenscecceeceenneeeeseseneceeonns 8 Field Guide to Icehouse PIe€CES ..............c:.seeeeesseneees 9 Jake’s Overview of the Games. ..............::scceseeeeennees 12

Starting Places ICO TOWESS. THY

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ICG ca cnsiasianincnis sss neunerwvwnnwireesevsessrenensenanenianssuununenie 23

Pebbles of Enlightenment LOWE

ssesirneyseccmewenevensciu vie vanewsomexennnn nnn des eeKeDOMNEN NEE 29

Imagine a 5x5 Grid Martian Backgammon A OTN

...........c:csssseesssssssesseesseeeseeeens 43

raseceseesccexcnenmceieeeraNE REE nenr semen

47

Games that use a Chessboard 55 Martial GCHBSS: sisisiicepeesmessciecnsc sence RAMDOtS .......-..ccscccsscccsseccescccseccnseesesenseceetonseenaenenees 59

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Abstract Games of Serious Strategy

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A Landscape of Tarot Cards ee GAGSUIGS ce ensewssncceeNe

99

109

Credits

About the DeSigne®S ............ccccssessseesseneenseeeteneeeenes 126

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Introduct ion

What’s Icehouse?

by Andrew Looney

In 1987, I wrote a short story about a game that didn’t exist. It was called “Icehouse” and the story concerned a group of guys who

played

The Empty City

a certain

game everywhere they went. In order to make it sound more

unusual, I replaced the playing cards these characters had previously been using with a set of colorful pyramids, which I described in precise detail:

“Each player had fifteen such pyramids, five each of small,

medium, and large sizes, all of

one color. The colors traditionally used in a four player game

by Andrew Looney

were red, yellow, green, and

blue.” The game I described was equally intriguing, being played

without turns on any flat surface. People who read the story said they liked it OK... but what they really wanted was to play that mysterious game I had described.

Of course, there was no game, nor even any pieces to play it

with. It was just a plot device, like Captain Kirk’s Fizzbin or Harry Potter’s Quidditch. I wasn’t looking to start a game company, I just wanted to be a writer.

But my friends had other ideas, and it wasn’t too long before | was using real pieces to play a real game very much like the one

I'd described... and the next thing you know, it’s fifteen years

later, and now I runa small game company along with my wife and friends.

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

A System for Inventing Games Icehouse pyramids are like building blocks for game designers. Much like a deck of playing cards, a set of Icehouse pieces can be used to play a broad spectrum of totally different strategy games. These games are all so fun and unique, and there are

now so many of them, that anyone who likes games is certain to enjoy playing with these pyramids, in one way or another. In this book you will find rules and strategy tips for a dozen of

the best and most diverse Icehouse games we currently know how to play. But there are other games out there, many of which haven’t even been invented yet. Who knows, perhaps the next great Icehouse game will be designed by you!

As for that original story, it became the start of a short novel,

entitled The Empty City, which I finished writing in 1991. Later chapters describe the fictional origins of Icehouse, which we

learn was actually played a thousand centuries ago, in the ancient crystal cities of the planet Mars. The book tells many other stories, too: of subways and diners and donut shops, of strange dreams, time travel, broken hearts, spontaneous combustion,

and a gift-wrapped atomic bomb, to name just a few. Look for a new edition of The Empty City wherever you got this book, or visit our website (wunderland.com) to read the original novel on your computer.

The Basics In order to play any of the games in this book, you will

need at least two “stashes” of Icehouse pieces. A standard

stash consists of 15 uniformly colored pyramids, five each of three different sizes: large,

medium,

and small.

A standard Icehouse set contains 60 pyramids (i.e. four stashes), but several games in this book can be played with just two or three stashes. Others can become more fun with additional colors, while one game, Volcano, can only be played if you have six stashes of stackable Icehouse pyramids.

Introduction

In many of these games, you will control only the pieces of the color assigned to you. This means you'll need one stash for each person, and players will need to agree on who gets to be which color. But in other games, all players will draw pieces of various colors from a central pool. Some of these games can be played with no additional

equipment (other than a plain flat playing field). Others will

require extra stuff, such as dice, a chessboard, marking stones of various colors, or even a deck of tarot cards. In general, the Larges 2, and the Smalls are be called 3-Pointers, they'll be referred to

are worth 3 points, the Mediums are worth worth 1. Therefore, these pieces will often 2-Pointers, and 1-Pointers, but sometimes by their Martian names: Queens, Drones,

and Pawns. For some games, it’s best to refer to a specific type

of piece by both color and size (i.e. “Green-3” or “Blue-2”). Field Guide to Icehouse Pieces

Icehouse pieces themselves are available in several formats. Here is some information about the five basic types of Icehouse pieces

you might encounter:

Stackable Plastic: Currently

available from Looney Labs, this

is by far the best and most common type of Icehouse piece. The injection-molded pyramids

feature small pips that indicate their size, and more importantly,

they stack and nest together ina way that greatly expanded the game design possibilities for an

already versatile system. Half of

Cay

the games in this book are playable only with a set of stackable Icehouse pieces.

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Handmade Stashes: The very first Icehouse pyramids were necessarily hand-crafted,

usually out of wood or one of

those modeling clays that bakes up hard in the oven. For years at a time,

Icehouse

sets were

not

available commercially, but even so the game continued to win

fans,

who

made

pyramids

themselves in accordance with the standard specifications. Even

today, dedicated fans continue to create personalized stashes,

often intricately decorated,

for use at tournaments

and

other

special gaming events. Visit our website to find the official piece

dimensions, photos of custom-made

info on Icehouse “pieceniking.”

Icehouse sets, and other

Vintage Editions: For almost a

| decade, the original game was | the only one you could play with

| a set of Icehouse pieces, and in those days no one even wanted

| hollow pyramids, since lighter| weight pieces are not ideal for

| that first Icehouse game. The

} earliest Icehouse sets were made and sold by a hobby-level enterprise called Icehouse

Games,

which

released

three

different editions of the game between 1989 and 1996 (after which the company was dissolved and reborn as Looney Labs). The

first of plastic stained in very

these editions featured solid, hand-poured transparent pyramids; eventually, these were replaced by colorfullywood pieces. All of these versions were manufactured small quantities (and are now valuable collector’s items).

Introduction

Paper Icehouse: Originally

published at a time when Icehouse Games couldn’t afford to manufacture more

substantial pyramids, these cardboard punch-out-andfold-together Icehouse pieces have proven to be an

attractive starter edition for budget-minded newcomers

to the games. Think of these as being like the shareware

edition. Paper Icehouse pieces can be filled with gravel and glued shut for long-term use, or the bottoms can be trimmed to make them suitable for use in playing Icehouse games

that depend on stacking.

Giant Pyramids: For really big fun, a small number of

Icehouse sets have been made for use on a roomsized scale, featuring

pyramids eight times bigger than the standard. What's particularly cool is that a turnless Icehouse game (i.e. IceTowers

or

Icehouse)

becomes something more like a sport than a board game when played with one of these jumbo-sized sets. Giant

cardboard Icehouse pieces are great for promotional use at gaming conventions and other public events.

11

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Jake's Overview of the Games The first two games are the fastest to learn and require just one stash per player. We recommend you start with those two and then move on to whichever games interest you. IceTowers has no turns and no board. Players stack their pieces

on each other's towers, take pieces from the middles of towers, and split towers in two. Although there are no turns, neither speed nor dexterity is required. Three to five players take about 10 minutes to play a game, longer as they improve.

Thin Ice is a party game of building precarious structures. Players make separate piles of pieces on top of three base pieces, without using simple stacking. Everyone adds more pieces each turn, and the person with the last pile standing wins. Two or

more players take a minute to play the first time; but once they get the hang of it, games take about 10 minutes.

Many people count this next game as their favorite Icehouse game; some even say it’s their favorite game of any type. Zendo is a logic game that requires three or more people and three different types of markers. One player becomes the Master,

who thinks up a secret rule; the other players are Students, who

take turns setting up groups of pieces in order to figure out the

rule. As the game progresses, the Students will earn guessing

stones which they can spend to try to guess the rule. The first student to guess the rule correctly wins. A game can take 5

minutes, or more than an hour, depending on the rule difficulty.

The next two games are played on a5 x 5 grid of 1” squares, but it’s

easy enough to visualize this grid if you don’t have a board.

Martian Backgammon is a fast two-player game that needs just two stashes and two dice. Several small objects are also used to define the center of the game’s imaginary 5 x 5 grid. It’s similar

to Earth Backgammon, but shorter and easier, and has other differences, like the ability to move backwards. Games typically last less than 15 minutes.

Volcano requires six stashes and is played on a 5x5 grid formed

by making a square with 25 stacked groups of pyramids. Players take turns "erupting" these stacks, collecting pieces that land on

12

Introduction

same-sized pieces, scoring higher for collecting sets of each size, and higher still when they are the same color. Volcano is a turn based puzzle, and thus not the aggressive war that many other games are. It is best with two players but handles more, and takes about 25 minutes. It’s also fun as a solitaire activity.

The next four games require a chessboard, and all play best with four players and four stashes, although some can be played with fewer players. Martian Chess is one of the fastest to learn, but surprising strategies emerge with experience. Pieces move like chess

queens, limited rooks, or limited bishops. The twist is that you control pieces on your corner of the board, regardless of color.

Move your queen to take someone else's piece, and it becomes

his queen. It looks and feels like chess, but is fundamentally

different in a refreshing way. Games take about 30 minutes. RAMbots is a programming game, often compared favorably

to RoboRally™. You set up instruction pieces that tell your RAMbot to push, pull, shoot, dodge, and zoom across the

playing field; your goal is to touch four colored beacons in a

specified order, and to bash any other player who gets in your way. Players program simultaneously in secret, and then run

their programs according to simple precedence rules. While there

are many rules to learn before starting, they become intuitive after a few rounds of play. Games take about 40 minutes.

Pikemen is more like regular chess than Martian Chess, with

each player controlling one color. Pieces start upright, and each turn you point a piece one of the eight directions, or move an

already pointed piece. Although the rules are simple, complicated pins and forks emerge. Games minutes.

take about 20

Zagami is a Martian asteroid with four microorganism colonies fighting for control. Each turn you move one of your organisms and eat another player's, and soon you start to exploit that food

source to spore new organisms, grow small ones larger, move pieces around quickly, and attack enemies. The last player left wins. Games take about 40 minutes.

I3

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

14

The next two abstract board games are played on any flat surface and require almost no equipment other than a set of pyramids.

Icehouse is the original game, and requires nothing more than a flat table and a hidden timer of some sort. Players don’t take turns as they place their pieces on the table in either of two ways:

as defenders, standing upright, or as attackers, lying down and pointing at somone else’s defending piece. Rules allow some

attacks on your defenders to be rearranged in ways that might make them ineffective. Icehouse occasionally requires some dexterity and speed, and despite the simplicity of the rules, the strategies are quite sophisticated. Three to five players take at

most 15 minutes to play, as the timer limits the game.

Homeworlds

uses upright pieces as star systems and lying-

down pieces as spaceships, with the direction they are pointing

indicating ownership. Before starting, players are secretly assigned to play either "Good" or "Evil." The goal of all Good

players is to eliminate all Evil players and share the win. The goal of each Evil player is to eliminate any other player, Good

or Evil. Piece colors represent technological powers such as construction, trade, movement,

take 40 minutes.

and attack. Two

to six players

The final game is played on a dynamic gameboard made up of tarot cards. See page 111 for advice on finding and choosing a tarot deck. Gnostica is an abstract war game that requires a tarot deck. The cards represent territories of the board, and players also

hold cards. Pieces move about the board, occupying cards worth different numbers of points. Each card has a power it can impart to your pieces, either those occupying the card on the board, or the pieces you designate when you play a card from your hand.

You can play Gnostica with any standard tarot deck, and after just a few games you'll be able to remember what most of the

cards do without looking anything up. To make it easier, you

will find a Gnostica reference page at the end of this book, and you can even customize your deck with Gnostica icon stickers. Two to five players take about 45 minutes. These twelve games alone could keep you busy for years, but more are available and are being invented all the time. Visit LooneyLabs.com to find complete rules for a growing list of Icehouse games —and be sure to let us know if you invent one yourself!

Starting Places

Ice Towers

by Andrew Looney

IceTowers is a fast-paced game of pyramid stacking, played

‘Stuff You Need

Everyone

| @)| 3+ players

without turns on any flat surface. plays

at once, by

“capping” other pieces with those of their own color. If yours is the top piece on a tower at the end of the game, you get points for the whole tower. As towers grow

taller, you can “mine”

pieces out and replay them, or

even “split” some towers in two.

5-10 minutes

I

1 stash per player No extra equipment

The game ends when no more plays are possible.

Setup Randomly scatter a set of Icehouse pieces across the tabletop,

then stand them all upright where they lie. Assign a color to each player. No Turns IceTowers is unlike most games in that everyone plays

all at once... there’s no waiting for your turn. As soon as

everyone is ready to begin, you can start playing. At any time you choose, you may carry out any of the three play options

listed on the next page.

lf

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Play Options There are three legal actions in this game: Capping, Mining, and

Splitting. You may only perform one option at a time.

[CAPPING 7

Capping: Stacking one of

your

pieces

someone

00

up

on

else’s to take

control of it is the most

00

common

action

in

IceTowers. You may only pick up and move freestanding pieces of your own color. In order to cap, your piece must be the same size or smaller and a different

color than the piece you are capping.

MINING

Mining:

If you

don’t

control a tower (i.e. you don’t have the top piece),

but two or more of your pieces are inside the tower, you may open up

the stack and remove one of your pieces (your choice). Reassemble the rest of the tower

and continue playing (but see the No Minebacks rule below).

OPLIT TING

Splitting: Whenever two

pieces

of

any

other

player’s color are next to

each other in a tower, you may split the tower in two, by separating the pair of

000

same-colored

pyramids.

However, you cannot split

your own pieces, so if no one else chooses to do so, a tower may

remain unsplit at the end of the game.

18

Ice Towers

Restrictions No Two-Handed

Play: Sometimes it will be necessary to use

both hands (notably when mining), but as a rule, you can only use one hand while playing this game. In other words, you can only conduct one play option at a time.

No Minebacks: When you mine out a piece, you must immediately use it to cap a different tower. If there are no legal plays available, you must set the piece down in the open. Post-Mining Etiquette: It’s OK to take a moment after mining

to consider your options, but you should then come to a decision

and play the piece. You can’t sit holding onto it, waiting for

something better to come up; rather, others may insist that you play the piece before they take their next actions.

Renée Camus looks on as John Cooper, Alison Frane, and Liam Bryan compete in an IceTowers tournament at the Looney Labs Big Experiment in July, 2000.

Lg

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Ending the Game The game ends when all players agree that no more plays will be made. Often this will happen automatically, when no more moves are possible, but generally the players will need to agree that the game is over, since not all Splitting opportunities need

be taken advantage of. Also, games may sometimes terminate due to a Stalemate Condition (see below).

Scoring When the game is over, collect up all the towers you control and put them in front of you. You get three points for each large piece you end up with, two points for each medium, and one point for each small piece. Whoever has the highest score wins. Stalemate Conditions During the endgame, a couple of forms of deadlock are possible,

although unlikely. If a stalemate situation arises, the game ends and the deadlocked pieces are dealt with as described below. Final Piece Showdown: At the end of the game, you could wind up with an unplayed piece in your hand and nowhere

attractive to put it. If there's someone else in the same situation, neither of you will want to set down your last piece, for fear of

it being capped by the other player. In this case, the game ends and the players just set their pieces down. Pieces left freestanding in this way are scored as usual. Tower Wars: Occasionally, an infinite loop situation may arise, in which several players can mine pieces and use them to take

control of other towers, in a way that seems unending. Should this occur, the first thing to do is to keep playing for a while

longer, since an ending may still be possible. Think of it as a

puzzle, and seek out the solution. For example, look for a chance

to mine out a piece that will cause two pieces of one color to

come together, thus allowing you to split the tower and break

up the situation. If no resolution can be found to a Tower War,

however, the game terminates and all towers involved in the war are removed, scoring no points.

20

IceTowers

Strategies

Start Big: The most powerful pieces in the game are the 1pointers, which can be used to capture anything, so save them until the end. Play the 3-pointers first. Invest in the Future: Set up mining opportunities for yourself

by getting a piece in on the lower levels of a tower. Later, if you cap that tower with a small piece, you'll have a lock on it, since you'll be able to mine the piece out again if someone else caps

the tower. Limit Your Opponents’ Options: By the same token, if you cap towers indiscriminately, you'll just create mining opportunities

for others. Look for towers in which the top piece is the only one of its color, and be especially careful not to cap a tower ina way that allows someone else to mine out more than one piece. Look Before You Mine: The No Minebacks rule requires you

to replay what you mine without too much delay, so figure out

what you'll do with a mined piece before you get it into your

hand.

Mine With Splitting in Mind: Splitting a tower can often stop

your opponent cold, so watch for chances to remove a piece that

will create a splitting situation. But don’t split up a pair at the

top of a tower... you'll just be giving another player a free piece.

7

>

21

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Two-Player Variant IceTowers is best when played by three or more, but it can also

be played with two. Each person plays two colors. The game proceeds as if there were four people in the game, with each player carrying out actions for both of the colors they are assigned. At the end, you get points for towers controlled by both of your colors, the winner being the player with the highest combined score.

Note that the two colors assigned to a player are still considered

to be distinct, while the person who plays them is considered to

be a single player. You may cap one of your colors with the other. You can mine one color out of a tower controlled by your other color. In order to split, two adjacent pieces must still be the same color, but only your opponent can split pairs in either of your colors.

Sortable List of lcehouse’s Cool Kindred An easy-to-use

list of all posted Icehouse games

built and maintained by Liam Bryan surf on in via

lcehouseGames.com 22

/ * and counting!

Thin Ice

by Jacob Davenport

When most people first see an Icehouse set, they find themselves just playing with the pieces — stacking them up and making Icehouse sculptures. This short party game allows

Stuff You Need 2+ players 5-10 minutes

you to test your balancing ability

against others. Pile up your pieces without letting them fall and without stacking them. The last pile standing wins!

1 stash per player KS |

No extra equipment

Setup Make Icehouse pieces readily available to all players on a flat surface. All players should play on the same surface. One with

high friction is the most fun.

How to Play Pick someone to start. The player whose turn it is calls one or

two Icehouse pieces to be included in each player’s structure. For example, you might call one large piece, or two medium pieces, or a small and a large piece. Color is irrelevant.

20

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

All players must pick up pieces of the called size to add to the structure in front of them. When each player has either added those pieces to his or her structure, or has been eliminated, the turn passes to the left. When adding to your structure, you may rearrange the pieces that you’ve already placed, as long as you do not meet any of the criteria for elimination.

Elimination There are three ways to lose a game of Thin Ice. Note that you

will lose if any of these happen at any time during the game.

Four on the Table: If, at any time, you have four or more pieces touching the table, you are out. This

usually happens when your structure collapses, but it could happen by accident (e.g., you drop the pieces you picked up while placing them). Three in the Hand: If, at any time, you have three

or more pieces air-borne (not touching the table or other pieces in the pile) you are out. This means that you may have to place a new piece

before rearranging old pieces.

Two Pieces Nested: If, at any time, you have

the point of one of your pieces clearly touching the inside point of another piece, you are out. This means that you cannot “nest,” or stack, pieces in your sculpture.

Scoring Many people enjoy playing game after game of Thin Ice without keeping score. Your group may choose to play a series of single games without keeping score; or you may play a match, keeping a running score and playing to a predetermined total.

24

Thin Ice

If you wish to keep score, the first player out receives one point, the second two points,and so on. If two or more players crash

on the same turn, whoever had a turn more recently gets the

lower score.

Often the game just devolves into making neat stacks. That's

OK too. If you make a good one, in play or otherwise, send us a picture!

Strategies After playing a few times, you will notice that certain structures are more stable than others. Here are some examples of great

structures that our play testers have created. A massive ice crystal (right) is stable,

but if the next player calls a large piece,

it might be difficult to place.

In this large ladder with cubby holes (left), the player has placed medium and small pieces inside large ones

without the inner tips touching. Remember that if the tip of one piece touches

the inner tip of another piece,

you lose.

25

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

In this tower, small pieces

are used to stabilize larger

pieces as they are added to the structure. It takes

some practice and a good sense of balance! 26

Pebbles of Enlightenment

Zendo by Kory Heath Does a Dog have Buddha-nature? This is the most serious question of all. If you answer yes or no You lose your own Buddha-nature. - Ancient Zen Koan

Stuff You Need AX |

3-5 players (one will

\-d// | be the Master, the

others are Students) 5-60 minutes

Zendo is a game of logic in which one player, the Master, creates a

rule that the rest of the players,

3-4 stashes

as Students, try to figure out.

They do this by building and

studying configurations of Icehouse pieces. The first person

to guess the rule wins.

Glass stones or marking chips,

of 3 different colors

(about 20 of each)

Setup Choose someone to be the Master; the other 2-4 players are Students.

Put all of the stones in front of the Master; the black and white

stones are “marking stones,” and the stones of the third color are

“guessing stones.” Give each student a black and a white stone, to

serve as “answering stones.” Put all of the Icehouse pieces near the playing field, within everyone’s reach. The Master should then choose a rule and create two initial koans. Koans

Over the course of the game everyone

will be setting up _ different configurations of one or more Icehouse pieces on the table. Each configuration is referred to as a “koan,” pronounced

“KO-ahn.” Koans can be set up in any fashion, as long as they don’t touch other objects or koans. 29

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Choosing a Rule When you are selected to be the Master, your first task is to come

up with a secret rule that will be used during this game of Zendo. According to your rule, some koans will “have the Buddha-

nature,” and others will not. For the students, the object of the

game is to try to figure out what your secret rule is. As the Master, your job is to act as facilitator; you are not actually a player, and

you are not in competition with any of the players. An example of a simple rule is “a koan has the Buddha-nature if and only if it contains one or more green pieces.” An example of

a very difficult rule would be “a koan has the Buddha-nature if

and only if it contains an odd number of pieces pointing at other pieces.” You are also allowed to create “negative” rules: “a koan

does not have the Buddha-nature if it contains exactly three

pieces touching the table, otherwise it does.” At the end of these

rules-of-play are some examples of good Master’s Rules for your first games, and notes about certain kinds of rules that are not allowed.

Initial Koans As the Master, start the game off by building two koans in the

middle of the playing field. One should have the Buddha-nature according to your rule; place a white stone next to it. The other should not; place a black stone next to it. You will be marking

all of the koans in this way throughout the game. Choose a player to go first. Play proceeds clockwise.

Turn Order for Students 1. Build a Koan

Create a new koan using one or more pieces from the global stash. 2. Call “Master” or “Mondo” If you call “Master,” the Master will

immediately mark the new koan with a black or white stone. If you call “Mondo,” all students must guess if the

30

Zendo

new

koan

has

the

Buddha-nature or not. Pick up your own answering stones and

|

hide your answer (black or white) in one fist. Hold that fist out over the playing field, and wait for all of the other students to do the same.

When everyone is ready,

reveal. The Master will

mark the koan with the

correct answer, and will award a guessing stone

to

each

answered correctly.

player the

who

Mondo

3. Guess the Rule (optional) At the end of your turn, if you have any guessing stones, you

may choose to spend one or more of them to try to guess the

Master’s rule. Give a single guessing stone to the Master and

then state your guess as clearly as you can. It may help to preface

your guess with the phrase “a koan has the Buddha-nature if...” If the Master does not fully understand your guess, or if it is ambiguous in some way, the Master will ask clarifying questions until the uncertainty has been resolved. Your guess is not considered to be official until both you and the Master agree that it is official. At any time before that, you may retract your

guess and take back your stone, or you may change your guess. If any koan on the table contradicts your guess, the Master must point this out, and you may take back your stone or change your

guess. It is the Master’s responsibility to make certain that a

guess is unambiguous and is not contradicted by an existing

koan; all students are encouraged to participate in this process.

After you and the Master agree upon an official guess, the Master

will disprove it, if possible, either by building a koan which has

the Buddha-nature but which your guess says does not, or by 31

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

building a koan which does not have the Buddha-nature but which your guess says does. Once the Master has built a counterexample and marked it appropriately, you may spend another guessing stone, if you have one, to take another guess. You may

spend as many of your guessing stones as you would like during this portion of your turn. When you are finished, play passes to the student on your left. If the Master is unable to disprove your official guess, you have

achieved “satori” (enlightenment) — you have discovered the Master’s secret rule and have won the game! You are now ready to play. What follows

are rule clarifications and examples. The Master should at least skim the sections

below before starting the game, and should provide information to the players as needed.

Selecting a Master

cg

There are no official rules about selecting a Master. If one person has many new rules to try out, that person may be selected as

the Master for the entire evening. If everyone has rules to try out, you may simply take turns being the Master, or you may

specify that the winner of each game gets to become the next

Master. If possible, select a Master who’s played as a student a few times. If you have one experienced player in a group of

new players, that player ought to be the Master, at least for the first few games.

Illegal Master’s Rules When you are the Master, you may use any rule that you can imagine, though you should always try to select a rule that is not too difficult for the current group of players. When in doubt,

use an easier rule. However, there are some official restrictions,

which are all consequences of a basic relational property of koans: a koan is not allowed to refer to anything outside of itself, in space or in time.

What does this statement imply? First, you may not make a rule that has anything to do with whether or not a piece is pointing a2

Zendo

at one of the players, because players are things that exist outside of koans. Similarly, you may not make a rule that has something to do with whether or not a piece is pointing in an absolute

direction (say, toward one side of the room), because absolute

directions are also things that exist outside of koans. Here is a good rule-of-thumb: you should be able to rotate a table full of koans, or move it into another room, without changing the status of any of those koans. Furthermore, you may not make a rule in which the status of a koan is affected by the contents of other koans on the table. For instance, the rule “a koan has the Buddha-nature if it contains

the same number of pieces as any other koan on the table” is illegal, because koans cannot refer to each other in this fashion. Think of each koan as a tiny microcosm —

a small, isolated

universe that cannot refer to anything but itself.

Koans are isolated in time as well as space. You may not make a

rule that has something to do with which pieces used to be in a koan, because a koan’s past state is something that exists outside of that koan in time. You may not make a rule that has something to do with the order in which pieces were added to a koan, or what hand a player used to add the pieces. Here is another good

rule-of-thumb: as the room while a student mark it properly when koans differently, you

Master, you should be able to leave the is setting up a koan, and still be able to you return. If you ever mark two identical have done something wrong. Note that

all pieces of a given size and color are considered to be identical

and interchangeable. The playing surface itself is considered to be part of a koan — it

is legal, for instance, to make a rule that has something to do

with whether or not certain pieces are touching the table.

However, you may not make a rule that refers to some pattern or design on the playing surface, nor may you make a rule that

refers to the edges of the surface. Consider the playing surface

to be a flat, featureless plane that extends outward in all

directions, “whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere,” as the philosophers might say. Finally, note that the black and white marking stones are not actually contained within koans, so you may not make a rule

that refers to them.

33

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Terminology There are several properties of koans and pieces that are frequently used as a basis for rules. It often helps to have naming conventions that everyone understands, so we have provided

definitions for these terms. Be aware that these definitions are

merely conventions, and are not mandatory. When you are the Master, feel free to use whatever concepts you would like in

your rule. When a student takes a guess, ask that student to define his or her terms, and make sure you interpret the guess based on that student's terminology, not your own. Size and Pips: Smalls are worth 1, mediums 2, and larges 3. Orientation: A piece is “upright” when it is pointing straight

upward, with its base parallel to the table, either on it or above

it. A piece is “flat” when its lowest triangular side is parallel to the table, either on it or above it. A piece is “weird” when it is

neither upright nor flat.

Pointing: Every piece has an imaginary “pointing ray” that

shoots directly out of its tip and extends outward into space. The pointing ray passes unhindered through any other piece. However, if the ray hits the table, it bends to skim along the table’s surface. A piece is pointing at all of the other pieces that its pointing ray touches. Grounded: A piece is “grounded” if it’s touching the table in

any way, and “ungrounded” if not.

Zendo Stones Ideal markers are glass or stone pebbles of three different colors:

black, white, and some other color. Pennies, dimes, and quarters

will do in a pinch, but glass stones are more aesthetically pleasing

and can be obtained cheaply at any craft or pet store. Twenty of

each type is plenty. Another nice option is a set of Go stones along with some pennies or other small coins.

Number of Players It is possible to play Zendo with more than four students, but

with that many people we recommend splitting the group into

multiple games. Three students of roughly equal skill is best. 34

Zendo

Sample Rules If your group has never played Zendo before, Masters should be instructed to start with the easiest rules they can come up with. Beginning Masters vastly underestimate the difficulty of

most rules, and players do not enjoy games where the rule is

too difficult. To give you an idea of where to begin, we have

provided some sample rules that would be suitable for your first games of Zendo. These are listed easiest to hardest.

A koan has the Buddha-nature if and only if... e e ¢ e e e e

it jt it it it it it

contains contains contains contains contains contains contains

at least one red piece. four colors. at least one flat piece. at least two upright pieces. at least one weird piece. at least one medium piece. an odd number of pieces.

e it contains all three sizes.

e it contains at least one ungrounded piece.

e jt contains less than four points worth of pieces. e at least two of its pieces are touching each other.

e it contains a piece that is pointing at another piece. e it contains two identical pieces. e it contains exactly two sizes.

e it contains exactly three colors.

e it contains more yellow pieces than blue pieces.

Rule Clarifications

Building Koans: When you build a koan, you may arrange the pieces in any fashion, as long as they don’t touch another koan’s

pieces or any other foreign objects, including marking stones. It is legal to lean a koan’s pieces against each other or to balance

them precariously on top of each other. The Master may move any existing koan in order to help distinguish it from another one or to clear space for more of them; the Master should make

the moved koan as similar as possible to the way it was before. The Master may disallow a koan from being built if there is not

enough space for it.

30

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Marking Difficult Koans: The Master’s rule must provide an answer for any koan that a student could possibly build, and should always provide the same answer for two identical koans. Sometimes the Master has difficulty deciding how a certain koan ought to be marked, because of some physical ambiguity, such

as “is that red piece just barely pointing at that blue piece, or is it just missing it?” In such cases, the Master must make a silent

judgment call, and then mark the koan appropriately. The Master must not indicate that a judgment call has been made.

Asking About Koans: Players are always free to ask the Master clarifying questions about the physical features of existing koans,

such as “Master, is that small green piece pointing at the medium red piece?” or “Master, which pieces are touching that yellow

piece?” These questions are free, may be asked out of turn, and the Master must always answer them, even if they have no

bearing on the actual rule. In all matters of uncertainty, the Master’s judgments are final.

Breaking Down Old Koans: If, when building a new koan, the

pieces you'd like to use are not available, tell everyone which

pieces you’re looking for. The Master must decide which koan

or koans to break down, if any, taking into account the input of

all of the students as much as possible. If all of the students

agree to allow a

certain koan to be broken down, the Master

should always do so. To break down a koan, the Master must

simply remove the koan’s marking stone; its pieces are now considered to be part of the global stash, and you may use them

in any way that you’d like. If, when building a counter-example koan, the Master wants to use pieces that are not available, the

Master will tell everyone which pieces are needed, and will decide which koan or koans to break down, taking into account

the input of all of the students as much as possible.

Katsu: As a student, you are never allowed to touch a marking stone, or a koan that has a marking stone next to it. If you ever accidentally knock over or disturb a koan’s pieces, someone

should say “katsu!” in order to indicate that the board has been disturbed. The Master must then restore the table to its previous state. There is no penalty for katsu.

Previously-Existing Koans: If none of the koans on the table

can disprove a particular guess, but a previously-existing koan 36

Zendo

that has since been broken down would disprove the guess, the

guess still stands and the guessing stone is not returned. Only koans actually in play are used to determine whether a guess is

valid. The Master can build the previous koan again as the counter-example, or may build something entirely new.

Master’s Mistakes: Sometimes the Master will mark a koan incorrectly and will fail to fix it before the next player has taken a turn. When this unfortunate event occurs, the Master should

fix the mistake as soon as it’s noticed. At that point, any player may demand that the game be scrapped. As Master, be careful

when you mark koans.

Strategies for Students Positive and Negative Rules: Any rule can be stated positively

or negatively. “A koan has the Buddha-nature if it contains at

least 3 medium pieces” can also be stated as “A koan does not

have the Buddha-nature if it contains fewer than 3 medium

pieces.” Some rules are easier to think about in positive terms,

and some in negative terms; learn to think fluidly in both styles. Figure Out What Matters: In the early stages of a game, try to determine which of the basic types of features the rule seems to be about. Is this a color rule, or a pip-count rule? Does it have something to do with pointing, or touching? You can answer

these questions by making copies of existing koans and only changing one type of feature. For instance, make a copy of a

koan which is identical to an existing one, and then change some

of its colors. Or, turn one piece slightly so that it’s pointing at

something else.

Pay Attention to Single-Piece Koans: Single-piece koans are

extremely useful, because they’re so simple. Ina four color game, there are only 24 possible single-piece koans — they’re made up of the twelve unique Icehouse pieces, which,

in isolation, can only be placed in one of two positions: upright or flat. If you find that some single-piece koans are marked white, and some black, you can easily determine that color, size, or orientation matters.

37

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Whole-Patterns and Half Patterns: At all times throughout a game of Zendo, you should be scanning the koans on the table and asking yourself the following question: what is it that’s true

about all of the white koans on the table, and is not true about any of the black ones (or vice-versa)? If you can find an answer

to this question, you’ve come up with a “whole-pattern” which

may be worth spending a guessing stone on. If you can’t find a

whole-pattern, try concentrating on half of the question: ask

yourself, “what is it that’s true about all of the white (or black) koans on the table?” If you find an answer to this question,

you've found a “half-pattern.” It’s a half-pattern because, even

though all of the white (or black) koans contain a certain feature, some black (or white) koans contain this feature as well. Focus

your attention on those koans that are keeping the pattern from being a whole-pattern. Try to look for similarities between these troublesome koans, with the aim of coming up with a deeper theory that incorporates them and explains them.

Answering Mondo: The strategy here is pretty simple — answer a mondo according to all of the information you’ve gathered so far during the game. If you’ve found a working whole-pattern,

answer the mondo according to that. If you’ve found multiple

whole-patterns, answer according to the one that you think is

most likely to be true. If you haven’t found any whole-patterns,

answer according to any applicable half-patterns you’ve found.

If you haven’t even found an applicable half-pattern, you'll have

to fall back on your intuition. Keep in mind What Matters, and try to answer based on similar koans you’ve seen already. As a

last resort, go with the odds. Most rules do not generate an equal

number of black and white koans; some rules tend to make more

black koans than white ones, and some the reverse. Use this

information to your advantage when answering a mondo. If

there are six black koans on the table and only one white one, the answer to a mondo is more likely to be black than white. When to Call Mondo: Don’t call Mondo unless you have at least one whole-pattern that works for everything on the table. The best time to call Mondo is when you’re about to spend a stone on a guess, because if the mondo supports your guess you

will win a stone to pay for it. If you have no guessing stones and

are desperate to take a guess, you should still perform an

intelligent mondo that attempts to test your theory. If your theory 38

Zendo

is correct, you will win the stone that you need. If you don’t win the stone, that means that your theory was incorrect, so you no longer have a desperate need for the stone. If you choose to do an “easy” mondo which guarantees you a stone, you'll be

providing free stones for everyone else as well, and you'll be forced to state your theory out loud (since you’ve made no

attempt to test it with your play). If your theory is correct, this

won’t matter, but if it’s not correct, this is the worst possible

outcome of a Mondo.

When to Guess: In general, if you have a theory that works for

everything on the table, it’s probably worth spending a guessing stone on it. If you take a guess, and the Master falsifies it, don’t

just pass your turn on to the next player. Study the new koan, and see if you can come up with a new guess that incorporates it. You may be able to take a few guesses in a row and win — a process known as the “guess barrage.” Your chances of success are greatly increased if you’re willing to take “show-me” guesses:

guesses that, while they work for everything on the table, are so inelegant and full of exceptions that they’re unlikely to actually

be correct. When you take a “show-me”

guess, you aren't

expecting to win with that guess. You’re expecting the Master to “show you” another counter-example that may give you enough information to come up with a real guess. You may end

up taking more than one “show-me” guess in a row, but it’s all (hopefully) leading up to a theory that has a real chance of being the correct answer. Be Inscrutable: If you suddenly come up with an extremely good theory during someone else’s turn, conceal your excitement at all costs. It is a fascinating fact of human psychology that people are much more likely to solve a problem if they know

that someone else has already solved it. By signaling that you’ve made a major discovery, you are greatly increasing the chances that someone else is

going to steal the win away. Learn to cultivate your “Zendo

face”

— =

an

inscrutable mask worthy of a Zen Master. Only gloat after you toss in your stone and win.

o 39

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Sample Koans Throughout this text you'll find pictures of sample koans, which

should give you some idea of the variety of configurations that

you can build. These pictures also highlight the fact that a single

group of koans can suggest many possible rules. There are a number of simple rules that fit all of the koans pictured. You may want to stop reading for a moment to look for a few. Here are six that work. A koan has the Buddha-nature if (and only if):

e it contains a medium piece. ¢ it contains no flat pieces. e it contains an odd number of pieces. e it contains only one grounded piece. ¢ it does not contain a large piece being pointed at. e if it contains an even number of pieces being pointed at, and at least one

. 4 Rr, |

a,

piece not being pointed at. These rules are ordered from the simplest to the most convoluted.

If you wanted to spend a guessing stone on one of these, it would be best to try the simplest one first. However, even a convoluted

guess is worthwhile if other possibilities have been eliminated. Such a rule is not likely to be correct, but the Master will provide a counter-example that may give you insight.

Further Enlightenment Although you now know all you need to know in order to play

Zendo, much more has been written about the game, including

information about additional terminology, variations on the

rules-of-play, how to be a good Master, how to be a good student,

history of the game’s design, and more. You can also find the

40

rules for the 2-player version of this game, called Dharma Duel, in which both people are simultaneously Master and Student. Enlightenment awaits at: http://www.wunderland.com/WTS/Kory/Games/Zendo/

Imag ine a 5x5 Gr id

Martian Backgammon

by Kristin Looney

Although luck is not a factor in most of the games in this book, there are times when you crave a game where your fate hinges on a roll of the dice. This can be particularly true when you're looking for a game that can be

Stuff You Need | 2 players 15-20 minutes

enjoyed equally by intellectually unmatched opponents, or when

2 stashes

without having to concentrate too fully on the game, as in a bar or restaurant setting. Martian

2 dice 3 small objects an imaginary 5x5 grid of 1” squares

you want to play with pyramids

Backgammon is a short, easy, luck-based game for two that can be played just about anywhere, requiring just 2 stashes, 2 dice, and 3 coins or other small objects, which will be used to define the center of the imaginary board.

Setup Begin by stacking up all of the pieces into “trees”, these being towers consisting of a Pawn atop a Drone atop a Queen. Now

push these towers together into two lines of five, with a gap in-

between and with the two colors alternating, as shown in this

photo. Place the three small objects in the gap, as shown.

These will not move nor be interacted with in any way; they just help to define the playing

field. Finally, move the first Pawn off of the tower nearest

the Exit Portal for each player, and roll to see who goes first.

43

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

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TAP

~

Routes of Movement

This game doesn’t require a game board, but it helps if you

visualize one, as shown in these illustrations, which depict the

pathways you'll be moving pieces along during the game. The diagram above shows where your pieces go and where you want

to move them; your opponent will be doing the same oppose thing on the puiloways other side, with your

= |

interweaving, as showninthe second

|_[

“safe spot” in the center row for each

:- =

enter at all.

»

diagram. Also notice that there’s a : | player, which the other player cannot

i (ON: ow

3 ia

ee.

a

pettenmeperenmehnlll an

Saeneneee

Moving Your Pieces Your pieces are all waiting in line, in teams of three, in a long

hallway with a U-turn in the middle. Your goal is to move all of your pieces out through the Exit Portal at one end, following after your first piece. However, pieces can only leave through the Exit Portal in a sequence that causes them to stack into "nests,"

these being the opposite of trees — stacks consisting of a Queen atop a Drone atop a Pawn. Also, when your pieces move forward

Martian Backgammon

(or back) through the hallway, they can only stop when landing in an empty space, atop a piece of the same color which is of the same size or larger, or when stepping on a singleton (see below).

Rolling the Dice

On your turn, roll the two dice. (Be careful not to let the dice crash into the game pieces... We suggest tossing the dice into a

bowl to prevent collisions.) For each die roll, you may move

one of your pieces, up to that many spaces along the track. You

need not use all of your pips. A piece may move forwards or backwards. Doubles: Whenever you roll doubles, it counts as triples. Thus,

when you roll doubles, you get to move 3 pieces. (You could also move one piece 3 times.)

Sliding Down the Stockpile As your pieces move out through the Exit Portal, they must stack into finished nests. Whenever a Pawn exits, slide the last

completed nest down one space, pushing any others ahead of

it, to make room for the assembly of the next nest.

Stepping on Singletons

When possible, you want to keep your pieces together in teams as they wait in the hallway. If you leave a solitary piece unattended (i.e. with no other pieces on or under it) and your opponent lands on that piece, it gets moved to the Re-Entry Point, a spot opposite your Exit Portal, at the other end of the Hallway. When stepping on another player,

you

must

end

your

movement there, leaving the piece in the newly-emptied location (unless your other die roll is available).

Winning the Game Whoever gets all 15 pieces through their Exit Portal first wins! 45

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Strategies It's OK to Waste Pips: While you should always look for moves

that make the best use of high die rolls, don't resist throwing

away movement points you don't need. Your best move might be turning a 6 into a 1. Stack Same-Sized Pieces Together: As you move your pieces

down the hallway, try to set up a stack of Pawns in one spot near the door, and a stack of Drones in another, so that you have

easy access to the type of piece you need as you move them out.

Don't Forget to Think Backwards: It's easy to forget that you're

allowed to move backwards in this game, particularly for those more familiar with Earth Backgammon. However, sometimes it's just the thing — like when your opponent leaves a singleton

open after your pieces are all out of the back hallway. Similarly,

don't make the mistake of assuming your pieces are safe when your opponent could still get to them by moving backwards.

Stragglers are Good: Don't be in a hurry to move the last of your pieces out of the back hallway. As long as you have some

pieces in the back, your opponent will need to be careful about leaving singletons open. Remember too that in this game you

are not required to empty the Re-entry Point before moving other

pieces, so if you get stepped on, feel free to leave the piece back there for awhile, to deter your opponent from leaving a singleton open. Another great place to keep a straggler is in your Safe Spot, since you can move backwards from there just one pip to step on an opponent's doorway piece, then move forward again to safety.

Think Before You Step: Don't assume it's a good idea to step on a singleton, just because you have an opportunity to. If doing So means you'll leave a piece of your own in the open, it may

cost you more than it's worth, since you might get stepped on next. Also, location is everything. It may not be worthwhile to step on a singleton located near your opponent's re-entry point,

since it only pushes that piece back a couple of spaces. On the other hand, if your opponent leaves a singleton open near the exit, it might be worthwhile to leave your own piece open to send a ready-to-exit piece back to the start.

46

Volcano

by Kristin Looney

Volcano is a clever, puzzle-style

game in which players move

caps around on top of a group of volcanoes, triggering eruptions

which cause colored streams of lava

to flow

out

across

the

playing field. The object of the game

is to capture

as many

pieces as possible, with bonus points

awarded

for

special

combinations. Each player attempts to accumulate the

highest score and then bring the game to a close before another

Stuff You Need 1-5 players

“~¥ | 20-30 minutes 6 stashes (one preferably black) No extra equipment

player has a chance to steal the

lead away. Multi-player Volcano supports any number of players, though between 2 and 5 is best. It can also be played by a single player as a solitaire

challenge.

Setup Using all of the pieces except the

black ones, create 25 solid-color "nests" and arrange them into a

5x5 square. (A nest is a large on top of a medium on top of a small.) The diagram shows how we like to arrange

the colors, with

the

diagonal stripe in the middle

forming a "lava flow" of red pieces, but feel free to experiment with setup patterns.

Set aside the medium and large black pieces — they will not be

used during the game. Then place the five small black pieces on top of the five red nests forming the lava flow. Feel free to try other setups after you've gotten the hang of the game. 47

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

How to Play Each stack of pieces within the 5x5 grid represents a volcano,

and the five small black pieces represent “caps” which keep the

volcanoes beneath them from erupting. On your turn, you may direction (horizontally, of one space. You may and you may not move

other move is legal.

move any one of the five caps in any vertically, or diagonally) for a distance not place a cap on top of another cap, a cap outside of the 5x5 square. Any

Eruptions Whenever you move a cap off of a volcano, that volcano erupts

outward in the same direction in which you moved the cap. To execute the eruption, take the top piece of the uncovered volcano, move it directly toward and over the cap which you just moved, and then place the erupting piece on the volcano (or empty space) which is just beyond the cap. Then take the next piece off of the erupting volcano, move it over the cap and the volcano beyond

it, and place it on top of the volcano (or empty space) which is beyond both of those. Continue erupting pieces outward in this fashion until one of the following occurs: e The erupting volcano is completely spent, leaving an

empty space in its place. Remember that this empty space is still part of the playing area. Black caps may be moved into it, and erupting pieces may land in it as normal.

¢ The eruption runs up to the edge of the 5x5 playing field.

Since pieces cannot be placed outside the bounds of the original 5x5 square, an eruption must stop when it

reaches this limit. ¢ The eruption runs up against another black cap. Since you cannot put any other pieces on top of black caps,

they block the flow of eruptions in much the same way that the edges of the playing field do.

After you've finished executing the eruption, you may capture

any erupting piece which has landed directly on top of a piece

of the same size. Keep all of your captured pieces in front of you,

to be tallied at the end of the game for your final score.

48

Volcano

Examples of Eruptions

Stage 1 - A black cap is moved off of the rightmost volcano, causing it to erupt.

Stage 2 - The the erupting over the black the volcano in

top piece from volcano sails cap to land on the middle.

000

Stage 3 - The next piece from the erupting volcano sails over two volcanoes to land on the one beyond.

000

Stage 4 - The next and final erupting piece sails even further to land on the leftmost volcano.

000

\fooo

\/o0o0

\/000

Now, you get

oe

Stage 5 - One of the erupting pieces has landed on a piece of the same size. You get to capture it!

A

to capture

this piece!

000

49

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Non-Eruptions It is possible to move a black cap without causing an eruption.

For instance, if you move a cap from the middle ring of the board

to the outer edge, the uncovered volcano will not erupt, because its pieces are not allowed to flow off the edge of the board. Similarly, other black caps may block eruptions before they even start. Finally, a cap sitting in an empty space may be moved

without causing an eruption, because there is nothing beneath it which can erupt.

During your turn, you may continue to move black caps until you cause a volcano to erupt. With practice, you can learn how to position the caps just so, in order to capture the exact piece

you’re hoping for.

Scoring As the game progresses, you should attempt to arrange your

captured pieces into as many solid-color trees as possible. (A “tree” consists of a small piece on a medium piece on a large

piece.) These trees are worth extra points when you tally your score at the end of the game. You should arrange the rest of your

captured pieces into as many mixed-color trees as possible; they’Il be worth extra points as well. At the end of the game, your total score will be tallied as follows:

e 7 points for each solid-color tree e 5 points for each mixed-color tree

¢ 1 point for each of the rest of your pieces You're free to rearrange your captured pieces at any time during or after

the game, in order to create the best possible score.

50

CANO\ dn

Volcano

Ending the Game The game ends as soon as any single player has captured one or

more pieces of each color. After the game ends, make sure you’ve arranged your captured pieces into as many solid-color and mixed-color trees as possible. Then tally up your final score. The

player with the highest score wins.

Alternate Ending Condition Volcano is best with just two or three, since with more players there are fewer pieces to go around, and towards the end it can be hard to capture the pieces you need in order to end the game.

For this reason, there's an alternate way to bring the game to a

close. If each player in turn makes a move without capturing a piece, the game immediately ends.

Solitaire Challenges Volcano is also great as a solitaire activity. (In fact, Kristin initially envisioned it as a solitaire game.) Solitaire Volcano is more like

a puzzle than a typical solitaire game; the trick to these solitaire challenges lies in developing your ability to move the black caps

around, so that you’ll be able to take the specific piece(s) you

desire. It may take a few games, but once you get a perfect score

you'll probably want to tackle a new challenge (or find other players) rather than solve the same puzzle again. These challenges make excellent training for multi-player Volcano. e Try to capture all of the red pieces with a minimum of other colors. You get one point for each piece you take

that isn’t red. Assuming you begin with a black cap ona red piece, you should be able to get a perfect score of 0.

e Try to capture all of the large pieces with a minimum of

other sizes.

e Try to capture exactly one complete tree of each color. To

make this even more challenging, capture first a large piece of each color, then a medium

of each color, then

finally a small of each color, with no other pieces being taken at any point. To make this challenge even harder, capture these pieces in the same color sequence each time.

a

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Strategies First Find Your Move, Then Make It Possible: You can move

the black caps as many times as you want as long as you don't

trigger an eruption, so start by figuring out which piece you'd like to erupt, then move the caps around until you get one onto

your target piece. It won't always be possible to get a cap into

the ideal location, but it frequently will be. Always Grab Smalls: Since they start on the bottom layer, small pieces are the hardest to capture. Thus, it's almost always good

to capture one if you can, even if you're just taking the piece away from an opponent. Multi-Piece Capture Good, Matching-Piece Capture Better:

Always look for moves that will let you capture more than one piece at a time, but don't forget that the size and color-match

bonuses can make it even better to go for a single piece, if it rounds out one of your trees.

Be Cautious, But Not Paranoid: Each eruption changes the

landscape, and sometimes you'll make a good move that sets up an even better play for whoever goes next. While this is obviously frustrating, you can drive yourself crazy trying to

avoid making a move that will have this effect. Sometimes you

need to just take your own best move and hope your opponent doesn't notice any opportunities your play may have created. Mum's the Word: If it's not your turn, and you see that a good move is available, keep quiet about it. If your opponents know

that a good move has been spotted, they will continue scanning the board until they too discover it. However, if you keep your

mouth shut, the next player may settle for an inferior move, on the assumption that nothing better exists.

Get Four Colors: As soon as you have four colors in your

collection, you can end the game on your turn just by capturing

a piece of the fifth color. At this stage, you should count the scores on each turn and end the game as soon as you are ahead

on points.

a2

Games that use a

Chessboard

Martian Chess

by Andrew Looney

Martian Chess is a chess-like strategy game in which location, rather than piece color, determines which pieces you may move. Like Chess, each type of piece has its own way of

Stuff You Need | 7) )|

moving, and you capture by moving onto an opponent's

20-40 minutes

square; but unlike Chess, you

2 or 3 stashes

can only move pieces sitting in

your own quadrant, and only

attack those in other quadrants which may include your own former pieces. The game ends when someone runs out of pieces, and the winner is the player who captured the most

2 or 4 players

A chessboard

|

points.

Setup Each player starts by setting up nine Icehouse

pieces, three of each size,

in their own corner of the

board,

piece

as shown.

color

is

Since

of

no

significance in this game, each player should select

a variety of colors to start out with, in order to make

it easier to disregard the color of the pyramids.

55

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

The Pieces Queens: The large pieces may move in any direction, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, as far as you like (without

jumping over any pieces), just like a Queen in regular chess.

Drones: The medium pieces move only on horizontal or vertical

paths (never diagonally), one or two spaces at a time, like a Rook

in regular chess, but with a limited range. (Again, no jumping.)

Pawns: The small pieces move one space at a time, in any of the

four diagonal directions. Pawns in Martian Chess are like a cross between the Bishop and the Pawn in regular chess.

Canals To play Martian

Chess,

you need

to imagine

a pair of

perpendicular dividing lines which split the board into fourths. These dividing lines are called Canals. During the game, each player will have complete control of one of the four zones separated by canals.

How to Play Color is meaningless in Martian Chess. The way you know which pieces you control is determined instead by the location of the pieces at any given moment.

Any piece located in your zone of the board is yours; only you

may move it. The upshot of this is that anytime you move a piece across a canal, it changes ownership and becomes one of your opponent's pieces. When you move a piece from one place to another within your own territory, of course, the piece remains

yours.

An enemy piece is captured by moving your piece onto its

Square, just as in normal chess. This means that whenever you

capture, you give control of your piece to the opponent whose piece you took.

Determining Who Goes First The player whose hair color is closest to red shall go first. 56

Martian Chess

Field Promotions If you no longer control any Queens, you can move a Drone

into the same space as a Pawn (or vice versa), remove both pieces

from the board, and replace them with a Queen. (Or you can

just stack one piece on top of the other.) Similarly, if you have no Drones, you can create a new one by merging two Pawns.

Ending the Game The game ends as soon as one player runs out of pieces, 1.e. as

soon as one quadrant of the board is completely empty. Note

that a player with only one piece remaining can force the end of the game by moving that piece across a canal.

Scoring Whoever has the highest score wins.

Points are awarded as follows for all captured pieces, regardless of color: e Queen: 3 points e Drone: 2 points e Pawn: 1 point

Rules for 2-Player Games If you are playing with only two

players, then you will only use half

of the regular chessboard. The other half should, if possible, be folded out of sight. The pieces are then set up in opposing corners as shown. No Rejections: In a 2-player game, a player may not reject the move of the opponent. If a player moves a piece across the canal, the opponent cannot simply move it back to its original square. Example: If John moves a Queen from square A

(in his zone) to

square B (in Lisa’s zone), Lisa can’t just move it back to square

A. She can move it to any other square, but she can’t simply “reject” John’s move. Lisa can move it back to square A later on, because the rule only applies to a pair of sequential moves. oy

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Strategies Beware the Double Whammy: Whenever you capture a piece,

make sure the piece you used for capturing isn’t in a position where it can immediately capture one of your own remaining

pieces (unless you’re happy enough making an exchange...). Remember the Bottom Line: Keep in mind that the goal is points, not position (i.e. there is no checkmate). This is particularly vital in a four-player game, when two people can

use the Double Whammy on each other to quickly trade pieces for points. Run for the Border: If you're ahead on points and low on pieces,

try to end the game quickly by pushing your last few pieces across a canal.

Four-Player Team Variation For this alternate version of the game, the two players facing each other diagonally across the board will be considered a team.

Play is then conducted as usual, except that at the end of the game, the pair of players with the highest combined score wins.

The Martian Archeological Society If you like this game, be sure to visit our website, where you can

read about the secret society named above, learn the rules for

the predecessor game Monochrome Chess, and download

Eeyore’s Chessboard wedge, which you can use to play Martian

Chess with an odd number of players.

Nonfiction 55 word short stories

>

The 100,000 Year Legacy The festival featured tripod races, Icehouse tournaments, singing flower concerts, and moonlit fondue feasts. Afterwards, the Emperor of Mars issued a challenge to his Science Council: invent a system for mass

emigration, within 33 years. Sadly, all that

remains of their ancient civilization is rules for a game, not their technology for inter-dimensional doorways.

N 58

www.wunderland.com/Andy/

#7

RAMbots by Kory Heath Deep

in

the

heart

of The

Complex — a sprawling and seemingly infinite maze of

gleaming corridors and whirring bots — the Master Priority Scheduler has awakened you for

20-45 minutes

3

glowing beacons floating near the center. Looks like data | a5

collection again — typically the’ simplest of tasks. However, as your sensors sweep across the

expanse of the chamber, you

register the existence of other bots hovering out on the perimeter.

Need

2-4 players

yet another task. You find yourself in a wide metallic

chamber, featureless save for the

|

Stuff You =

Sie

4 stashes

as chessboard

4 shields or screens (large enough to hide a handful of Icehouse

pieces)

|

Uh-oh. A Multi-Task. Time to check the precedence stack and

get going. But you pause to wonder, as you have so many times

before: what is this Master Priority Scheduler? What is the Ultimate Task, of which your own is but a tiny, insignificant fraction? How big is this Complex? What's Outside? Is there an Outside? Sadly, the answers to these questions a simple RAMbot is not given to know. All you

know is the task that has been set before you: to collect your

precious data; to collect it in the proper order; to collect it as quickly as possible.

And, of course, to RAM the electrons out of anyone who gets

in your way...

oY

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Overview and Equipment RAMbots is an Icehouse game for two to four players. Each player controls a single RAMbot, and lays out strings of instructions which tell the RAMbot how to move and shoot

beams of colored energy. The first player to tag four goals in a specified order wins the game. RAMbots requires an Icehouse set, a chessboard, and some kind of shield or screen for each

player — anything big enough to hide a handful of Icehouse pieces

behind.

Setup Step 1: The easiest way to begin setting up RAMbots is to build

five trees of each color. A “tree” is a small piece stacked on a medium stacked on a large, all of the same color. Each player should gather an initial “code-pool” of pieces by selecting four

trees, one of each color. A tree of each color should also be placed on the board. The large pieces on the board represent RAMbots,

the medium pieces represent the “precedence stack”, and the small pieces represent beacons. Assign a RAMbot to each player,

and place each one upright near its owner, in the spaces shown in the diagram. If there are fewer than four players, set aside the unused RAMbots and code-pool pieces for the duration of the game. 60

RAMbots

Step 2: Arrange the four beacons as shown in the diagram, lying down on their sides (it doesn’t matter in which direction), and

in random color order. Arrange the four medium pieces into a stack which, from top to bottom, matches the color ordering of the RAMbots on the board, beginning with a random color and moving clockwise around the board. This ordering is not strictly necessary, but it will make the process of executing programs

during the game a bit easier. The precedence stack should not

actually occupy spaces on the board, but it can be placed in the center intersection so that it will be easily visible to all players. Step 3: Select one piece of each color from your code-pool (of

whatever sizes you choose) and create a “goal stack” for the player on your left. This stack will represent the order in which that player needs to tag the four goals to win the game; the top

piece represents the color that needs to be tagged first, and so on. Keep the goal stack you create hidden until all players have

created one; then place the goal stack on the corner nearest your neighbor’s RAMbot, on the very edge of the board. Like the

precedence stack, these goal stacks do not occupy spaces on the

board, and they will not interfere with the movements of RAMbots during the game. Once the goal stacks have been created, the setup is complete; you’re ready to begin playing.

How to Play A single round of play is divided into two phases: the Programming phase, and the Execution phase. The Programming Phase: At the beginning of this phase, all players set up their screens and begin “programming” their RAMbots. You may lay out up to five of your code-pool pieces

behind your screen; they will be executed in order from left to right. Each instruction piece represents a single RAMbot action, which will cause your RAMbot to move and then shoot a beam of colored energy. (See the section entitled “Executing Individual Instructions” for a full description of RAMbot actions.) You are not allowed to set up more than five instructions, but you are

allowed to set up fewer than five.

61

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

When all players have finished programming, everyone lifts their screens, and the game moves on to the Execution Phase. The Execution Phase: To begin the Execution Phase, each player should slide his or her leftmost instruction forward to the center of the nearest board edge, an action known as “loading

the program register.” One of these instructions is about to be

executed; to determine which one, first look at the sizes of the

pieces. Smaller pieces run more quickly than larger pieces, so smaller pieces always take precedence over larger ones. If there is a single smallest piece, simply execute that instruction. (See the section entitled “Executing Individual Instructions” for details on how the individual instructions work.)

If there is a tie for smallest piece, compare the colors of the tying

pieces to the precedence stack in the middle of the board. Higher

colors in the stack always take precedence over lower ones. If

there is a single highest color among the tying pieces, simply

execute that instruction.

If there is another tie, then the instruction pieces in question must be identical. In this case, compare the colors of the

appropriate player’s RAMbots to the color precedence stack. The

instruction belonging to the player whose RAMbot’s color is

highest on the precedence stack should execute first. (This is 62

RAMbots

easy to see, assuming you’ve arranged the precedence stack

according to the initial RAMbot colors. The player whose color is currently on top of the precedence stack will have the highest

precedence during a tie, and so on clockwise around the table.)

After an instruction has been executed, the instruction piece

should be returned to its owner’s code pool, and that player’s next leftmost instruction should immediately be pushed forward into his or her program register. Once again, follow the above

rules to determine which instruction should be executed next, and then execute it. (Note that it is perfectly possible for a player to execute two or more instructions in a row.) Repeat this process until every instruction has been executed.

When all instructions have been executed, the round of play is over. Remove the top piece from the precedence stack, and place it on the bottom of the stack. Now you’re ready to begin another programming phase.

Executing Individual Instructions Each instruction in your program will cause your RAMbot to move and then fire a beam of colored energy in front of itself.

Each piece in a program should either be lying down and

pointing in one of the four cardinal directions, or standing

upright on its base. The orientation of the instruction piece indicates how your RAMbot

will move,

and the color of the

instruction indicates what kind of beam your RAMbot will fire. Movement An instruction piece lying on its side tells your RAMbot to move

in the direction the instruction piece is pointing. When you

execute this instruction, move your RAMbot one, two, or three

spaces in the appropriate direction, depending on whether the

instruction piece is small, medium, or large. If your RAMbot is not already facing in the direction that your instruction piece is

pointing, the first unit of the movement instruction will be used

to reorient your RAMbot in the appropriate direction. So, for instance, if you have a large movement instruction piece pointing in a different direction than your RAMbot, you must first reorient

your RAMbot (using one unit of the movement action), and then

63

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

move it two spaces in the appropriate direction. A small-sized movement instruction will therefore reorient your RAMbot without moving it if it’s not already facing in the appropriate

direction. If at any time your RAMbot is standing on its base (as

it is at the beginning of the game), the first unit of a movement instruction will tip your RAMbot down and point it in the

appropriate direction, to be followed by the rest of the movement

action.

An instruction piece standing on its base represents “reverse gear” — it causes your RAMbot to move backwards away from

the direction that it’s currently pointing, for one, two, or three

spaces. If your RAMbot is currently standing on its base, an upright instruction will not move your RAMbot at all.

Pushing and RAMing If, during one of your movement instructions, your RAMbot moves forward into or backs into a space that contains a beacon

or another RAMbot, the object will be pushed. If there are objects

directly on the other side of the pushed object, they will be

pushed along with it. If an object cannot be pushed any further (because it’s against a wall, or it’s against objects which are against a wall), your RAMbot simply stays where it is, though

you do still make contact with the object. If your RAMbot runs

directly into a wall, nothing special happens. If you make contact with another object with the nose of your

own RAMbot, you have RAMed that object. (If you back up into

an object, or if you get pushed into another object during

someone else’s instruction, you do not RAM that object.) If you make contact with another object multiple times during a single instruction, this only counts as a single RAM. Whenever you

RAM another player’s RAMbot, you cause damage to that RAMbot. Take the highest precedence piece from that player’s

code-pool and add it to your own code-pool. In other words, take the smallest piece available in that player’s code pool; if

there’s a tie for smallest piece, take a piece of the color that’s highest on the precedence stack. If there are currently no pieces in that player’s code pool, you don’t get to steal any pieces. You may not steal pieces from an opponent’s currently running program.

64

RAMbots

If you RAM an upright object (whether it’s a beacon or a RAMbot), tip it down onto its side, facing away from the point

of impact. If that object matches the color currently on top of your goal stack, you have tagged a goal. Remove the top piece from your goal stack, and add it to your own code-pool.

Colored Energy Beams After your RAMbot moves, it will fire a colored energy beam in a straight line out in front of itself. The beam’s color is determined

by the color of your instruction piece. The beam will affect the first object it hits. If a beam hits a wall, or fires straight upwards, it has no effect. Blue — Push

A blue beam will push any object it hits (along with anything else that the object runs into) away from your RAMbot for one, two,

or three spaces,

instruction piece.

depending

on the size of your blue

Yellow — Pull A yellow beam will pull any object it hits toward your RAMbot for one, two, or three spaces, depending on the size of your

yellow instruction piece. If an object is pulled all the way into the nose of your RAMbot, the object remains in the space next to your RAMbot. This does not count as a RAM; you cannot damage another player, tag a goal, or knock over an upright

object in this fashion.

Red — Damage

A red beam will damage any RAMbot that it hits. (This is in addition to any RAMing damage caused during this instruction.)

Take the highest precedence piece from that player’s code-pool and add it to your own code-pool. The red beam itself does not

actually RAM an object; you cannot tag a goal or knock over an

upright object with the red beam.

Green — Activate

A green beam will set upright any object it hits.

65

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Winning the Game The first player to tag all four goal colors in the order specified

by his or her goal stack is the winner.

[A TYPICAL PROGRAM| THIS CODE ON

TURN NORTH, MOVE

NORTH | SPACE. TRY To PULL NEXT BEACON SOUTH 25 \T MOVES | SPACE Ano STOPS,

Special Notes Compilation

Caps:

Although it isn’t strictly necessary, it’s

helpful during the programming round to have some kind of method of indicating who’s finished programming, so it’s immediately obvious when everyone’s ready. This can be something as simple as placing a coin on the edge of the board next to your goal stack when you’re done. However, we prefer

to use Icehouse pieces of another color, such as large clear or small black pieces. Drop your “compilation cap” on top of your

goal stack to indicate that you’re compiled and ready to run. Of course, you're free to “uncompile” and change your program,

as long as the execution phase hasn’t started yet. Speedbots: For a fast-paced variation of RAMbots, try this rule: the programming phase ends when all but one of the players have compiled; the uncompiled player must use his or her program as it lies.

66

RAMbots

Non-Secret Code Pools: Although players may choose to move their code-pools behind their screens during the programming phase, to keep people from seeing which pieces they’re using, the official rule is that you’re allowed to know exactly what pieces each player has to work with. Therefore, it’s legal to ask players about their pieces (how many small pieces they have, what colors they are, etc.) at any time during the game, and they must answer honestly.

Strategies Building Goal Stacks: You should not put small pieces in goal stacks, as you will need them frequently. A mix of two mediums and two larges works best and retains flexibility. A red-2, blue-

2, yellow-3, and green-3 will leave you with a yellow-2 for quick pulling and a green-2 for quick activating. Players cannot win without activating beacons, so put the green beacon as the last

beacon to tag. This will deny the opponent the green piece in their goal stack for the entire game. As for the rest, create a goal stack that sends the opponent to the farthest non-green beacon first, then back to the closest, and then to whatever is left. By the

time the opponent is hunting for a third beacon, who knows

where it will be? Debug Your Code: Every round, before you declare that you are done, go through and check your program. Remember that it will cost a movement action to rotate your RAMbot, so if you are facing West and you have a large piece in your program

pointing North, you will first turn North and then move just two spaces North. Make sure that beams fire when you need them to. Beams fire after moving, so you rarely want to move towards a beacon with a blue instruction, since you will just push it away from you after you move. Everyone messes up

their code sometimes, and will say during execution, “I didn't mean to go that way!” That's part of the game. You will improve with practice. Predict, But Don’t Be Predictable: Other players will move your beacons, get in your way, steal your code, and push you

around. To play well, you will need to predict the likely moves of your opponents. Ask other players what pieces they have to program with, to guess the moves they will make. Equally, you

67

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

want to be unpredictable. Unless you have the right combination

of pieces that guarantee your next objective, consider all possible methods of achieving it and be willing to take a less efficient

route if it might spoil the plans of your opponents. Consider All Possibilities: Your objective is not just to race for your beacon, although that is the top one. You may need to

prevent another player who is winning from hitting another beacon by pushing it out of the way. You may need to push or pull another RAMbot into a bad position. You may need to ram

and shoot another RAMbot to get the tools you need and remove them from the other player. You may decide to tag the red

RAMbot instead of the red beacon. Moving

First: There are two general programming methods,

namely “move first” and “move last.” You want to move first if you have several small pieces, your color is high on the precedence stack, and your next beacon is near by. Play small instructions,

movements

often

in precedence

order,

to make

the

short

you need before the board position changes

significantly. You will need to know which small pieces your

nearby opponents have, and if they are motivated to interfere with your plans. Moving Last: On the other hand, you may accept moving last, if you have lots of ground to cover, you have few small pieces,

or you are low on the precedence stack. You need to predict

where beacons and players are likely to be after moving. Then start your program with the lowest priority piece you will use, such that your program will run to completion once started. Note

that if an instruction has a higher priority than your previous instruction, it will always run right after that previous instruction.

Be Flexible: Whenever possible, program flexible code. If a

player might move your beacon, try to code so that you will tag it whether it is moved or not. If you plan to move a long distance after you tag your next beacon, make sure you tag it, even if you waste an instruction on it. It is frustrating for someone to pull

away the beacon you were about to tag and then watch the rest of your program carry your RAMbot to the other side of the

board. Lastly, cause frustration in the other players.

68

Pikemen

by Jacob Davenport

In Pikemen, pieces are warriors

with long spears. Each turn, a Pikeman may charge in the direction he is pointing and then orient his pike in any direction, including straight up for defense. The player who captures a number

Pikemen first wins.

of enemy

Each player sets up his or her shown in these diagrams.

(7)

2-4 players

20-30 minutes 1 stash per player

Setup pieces on the chessboard,

Stuff You Need

A chessboard

as

Setup for

2 players

69

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Setup for

3 players

ai rt he “e Be a aL ae a |

Setup for 4 players 70

Pikemen

How to Play Tallest player starts. Play proceeds clockwise from this player. On your turn, you may move any one of your Pikemen any

number of empty squares in the direction he is pointing. You

may not jump over intervening Pikemen, but you may capture

any opponent's Pikeman that is not upright or any opponent's Pikeman which is smaller, even if standing upright. When you

capture an enemy, your Pikeman stops in the square previously occupied by the captured enemy. After moving your Pikeman,

you may orient him in any of the eight compass directions (attack postion) or stand him upright (defensive position).

You may decide not to move a Pikeman at all and simply reorient any one of your Pikemen.

Keep any Pikemen that you have taken. They count towards your score, with smalls worth one point, mediums worth two points, and larges worth three points. You cannot take your own Pikemen.

Winning the Game The first player to 12 points wins. For a longer game, agree to

play to a higher number before starting.

Rule Clarifications Your first move, and many thereafter, will be to orient a Pikeman

to an attack position.

Any Pikeman in attack position can be taken by any opponent. A large Pikeman standing upright cannot be taken.

After moving your Pikeman, if the square he lands in is not under

attack by a smaller or equal-sized Pikeman, it is probably to your advantage to orient him in attack position.

After moving your Pikeman, if the square he lands in is under attack by a smaller or equal-sized Pikeman, you can defend your Pikeman by ending upright. If you have any Pikeman pointing at an opponent’s standing

Pikeman, the standing Pikeman is pinned. If the opponent reorients the standing Pikeman, he can be taken.

A

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Strategies Make Trades: Unless you are playing a two-player game, or the opponent you will trade with has a much higher score, trade

equal pieces. While you could play defensively to prevent other players from grabbing your pieces, you will usually do better to grab their pieces instead. If you and another player make many

trades while the other two have lots of defensive posturing, you two will rush forward in the score and one will likely win. Also,

you are unlikely to lose so many pieces that you will lose mobility. Far Pins: If you are pointing a piece at an opponent's upright

large piece so that it will not safely orient into attack position,

do so from far away. Some player may position to attack your attacker, and having space to move forward will increase your options. You may move forward but maintain the pin, or move and change attacks, or move and point to an open line. If you

are pinning a piece that is right next to your attacker, you will have few options when your attacker comes under attack. Watch Scores: When another player is about to win, you may

need to threaten to throw the game to someone else if that player forces you to make such a choice. If you are far behind, convince another losing player to make trades with you, and enlist the players who are ahead to thwart each other. Late Attacks: After trading with opponents, you will need

attacks that they cannot thwart. Attack a smaller upright piece, or the backside of a smaller piece that thus cannot move without

remaining a target. You can also point at a lying down smaller

piece that, if moved away, will reveal another vulnerable piece. Be aware that opponents will try to interpose a large piece and

put it upright to thwart you. In case you and another player are

about to win, try to make it impossible for some other player to

choose who will win, because it will not be you.

Here’s something every well-prepared gamer needs: a chessboard you can take with you anywhere! Printed on a 100% cotton bandana, it’s the perfect accessory for any Icehouse set. Available now from Looney Labs.

72

Zagami

fg

by Kory Heath and John Cooper

In

1962,

on

a

|

quiet October

afternoon in the middle of an | Stuff You

African cornfield, a 40-pound meteorite tumbled to the earth and

planted itself in a two-foot hole in the ground. It landed ten feet away from from a farmer, who was busy | scaring crows away from his corn

from the impact knocked him flat on his back.

|

|

30-60 minutes

and so was not on the lookout for

falling meteorites. The papers reported that the pressure wave |

|

Need

4 stashes

[es

eY$)| A chessboard

What the papers failed to report was that, immediately after the impact, a tiny Martian

lifeform hopped off the smoldering rock and

made its way, quietly, toward the dazed farmer.

The changes that overtook him during the following weeks and months were slow and subtle to the eye. It was a long while before he, or anyone else, understood what he'd become.

But that's a different story. This is the story of that 40-pound

meteorite, and the colonies of Martian microbes which lived

upon it, struggling to survive on their journey through the cold depths of space between Mars and Earth. Only a strong colony

— the strongest of them all — could have survived such a journey. And, no matter what planet you're from, there's only one way

to become the strongest. It’s the ancient way. The evolutionary

way. The natural way. Eat everyone else. Overview

Zagami is a game of Martian microbial life for four players; it

requires a standard chessboard and an Icehouse set. Each player controls a single-colored colony of microbes, which moves and expands across the small meteorite in search of food.

73

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Multicolored stacks begin to form — microbes eating microbes

eating microbes. As the game progresses, each colony evolves "enzymes" which allow it to metabolize other microbes into

energy to be used for growing, sporing, attacking, and escaping. Only one colony will survive the long journey from Mars to

Earth. Will it be yours?

Setup Each player should select a

color. Set up the board as

shown to the right, using four

medium pieces of each color. Put the unused pieces of your

color near you, creating your

off-board stash. This stash

should be visible to all players at all times during the game. Also, keep a space

clear near the board in front of you, to be used as your “enzyme

area.” It should also be visible to all players at all times. Select a starting player using any method desired; play moves clockwise

around the board.

Play On your turn, do the following: 1. Choose any one of your pieces to be the active microbe for this turn. 2.

3.

Move the active microbe. (Optional)

Eat the piece directly below the active microbe. (Optional)

When you choose to eat, do the following: 1. Replace the eaten piece with a piece that's exactly one

2. 3.

size smaller. The smaller piece may come from that player's stash, or from your own enzyme area.

Put the eaten piece somewhere in your own enzyme area. Use the power of your strongest enzyme of that color. (Optional)

You are also allowed to simply pass and do nothing on a turn. 74

Zagami

Moving: Small pieces can move one space, mediums two spaces,

and large pieces three spaces. You don’t have to move the

maximum distance, and movement is always optional. Each step of amovement must be in one of the four orthogonal directions,

and each step may be in a different direction than the last. If your piece has any pieces on top of it, they are all carried along with it, regardless of the sizes of any of the pieces. You may

always move through or land on any space, regardless of what’s in that space. If there’s already a stack of pieces in the destination

space, your moving piece (along with any pieces being carried

by it) goes on top of that stack.

Eating: After (optionally) moving your active microbe, you may

eat the piece which is directly below it. You are not allowed to eat pieces of your own color. Whenever you eat a piece, you must shrink it by exactly one size, unless it’s a small piece, in which case you simply remove it from the board. When you shrink a piece, the smaller piece may come from that opponent’s stash

or from your own enzyme area (you may choose which). If neither of these options is available, the piece you're trying to eat is currently “indigestible.” No matter where you choose to take the replacement piece from, you must put the eaten piece somewhere in your enzyme area (see below). You may use any size piece to eat any size piece; for instance,

you may use one of your small pieces to eat a large piece (which becomes a medium piece). You are allowed to eat even when your piece has other pieces on top of it, but remember that your piece may only eat the piece which is directly below it.

Enzymes

Over the course of the game, you'll evolve a growing number of “enzymes” in your enzyme area. A single enzyme is represented

by a stack of one, two, or three pieces; each enzyme may only

contain pieces of a single color, and at most a single piece of each size. The strength of an enzyme is determined by the number of pieces it contains. In order to make the strength of an

enzyme easy to see, always stack smaller pieces on larger pieces. The function of an enzyme is determined by its orientation. An enzyme stack may stand upright on its base, or it may lie on its 79

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

side and point towards the board, away from the board, or

sideways, making a total of four possible orientations.

Whenever you shrink an opponent's piece, you must add the

larger piece to your enzyme area. You may always choose to

create a new enzyme, in which case you simply place the piece

in one of the four orientations. Alternatively, you may add it to one of your pre-existing enzymes of the same color, as long as that enzyme doesn’t already contain a piece of the same size. You may not change the orientation of an enzyme once it’s

been created. When you shrink the piece that you're eating, if you choose to take the smaller piece from your enzyme area

rather than from the opponent's stash, you don’t have to add the larger piece to the same enzyme that the smaller piece was

just in; you can there’s no size There’s no limit create for a color,

add it to any enzyme of that color, as long as conflict, or use it to create a new enzyme. to the number of enzymes you're allowed to and you may duplicate orientations if you wish.

Enzyme Actions After you eat an opponent's piece and add it to your enzyme area, you are immediately allowed to use your strongest enzyme

of that color. Your strongest enzyme is the one that contains the

most pieces. If there’s a tie for the strongest enzyme, you aren’t allowed to use any enzyme on this turn. An enzyme action is

always optional, and you don’t have to use its full strength. The

four possible enzyme actions are: Grow

This action is represented by an enzyme stack that’s standing

up on its base. Whenever you use the power of this enzyme,

you're given one, two, or three units of growth, based on the

strength of your enzyme. For each unit of growth, you may

increase the size of any one of your pieces in the active microbe’s stack, by swapping the piece with the next-larger piece from your

stash. You may use two units of growth to grow a small piece

into a large one, even if you have no medium pieces available in

your stash. 76

Zagami

Spore This action is represented by an enzyme stack that’s lying down

and pointing towards yourself. Whenever you use the power of this enzyme, you're allowed to add one, two, or three of your own small pieces to the board, based on the strength of your enzyme. You may place these pieces in any of the four spaces

adjacent to the active microbe’s stack, and on top of whatever

pieces may already be there. When creating multiple pieces, you

may distribute them in any way that you'd like, including stacked on top of each other.

This action is represented by an enzyme stack that’s lying down and pointing towards the board. Whenever you use the power of this enzyme, you're allowed to perform one, two, or three attacks, based on the size of the enzyme. For each attack, you may remove any piece from the active microbe’s stack, and return it to its owner’s stash.

Escape This action is represented by an enzyme stack that’s lying down

and pointing to either side (it doesn’t matter which). Whenever

you use the power of this enzyme, you're allowed to perform one, two, or three escapes, based on the size of the enzyme. For each escape, you may remove any one of your pieces from the active microbe’s stack, and move it to any space on the board

(on top of anything that’s already there). Escaping pieces never carry other pieces on top of them. You may only escape pieces

from the stack that the active microbe started in, even if the active microbe itself escapes to a different stack. You are allowed to put escaping pieces on top of the stack they escaped from. ve

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

[A TYPICAL ENZYME AREA} fehl

ltd

ESCAPE 2 |IF You EAT A

Elimination and Winning If, at the end of any player’s turn, you have no pieces left on the board, you are eliminated from the game; all of the pieces in

your enzyme area are returned to their respective stashes. The game continues until there is only one player left alive; that

player is the winner. It’s possible to reach a stalemate position;

in that case, all players remaining in the game share the win.

If you are the last surviving player, you are allowed to stand up,

throw your hands in the air, spin around, and shout “Zagami!” in a loud voice. This action is always optional. Of course.

Strategies Opening Play: On the first turn of the game, it’s generally best to eat a player who hasn’t already been eaten by some other

player. If you eat a player who’s already been eaten, you are entering into early competition for food, and you are allowing

one player to get away with not being eaten at all on the first round (which is probably an advantage for that player).

Therefore, in a four-player game, the opening play usually evolves into a “two-on-two” structure (two pairs of players 78

Zagami

eating each other), or a “loop” structure (each player eating the

following player, or each player eating the preceding player). In any case, these structures usually don’t last long, since it’s good strategy to diversify your enzymes by eating many different colors. Sporing: What should your first enzyme do? Sporing is a viable choice. Early sporing will put your small pieces into play quickly;

they are likely to be eaten quickly as well, but this has some

interesting side effects. Once all of your small pieces are out on the board or in other player’s enzyme areas, your medium pieces

are likely to be indigestible by at least one other player. The other

players will only be able to eat your medium pieces by replacing

them with small pieces from their enzyme stashes, thus putting your small pieces back into play (and ready to be grown). Although the effect is subtle, early sporing usually leads to a healthy piece-count in the mid-game. Growing: Early growth is also viable. Large pieces are powerful;

they can survive longer when being eaten by other players, and

they can jump longer distances to desirable food. A strength of the early growth strategy is that it supports an important Zagami

survival tactic (which, incidentally, also works in real life): try

to make yourself unattractive as food. Remember that each player can only use his or her strongest enzyme of your color. If

a player has a single medium piece of your color in his or her enzyme area, that player will not want to eat another of your medium pieces, because it will become a new enzyme which

neutralizes the old one as well as itself. With the careful use of

growth, you can offer nothing but medium pieces to the other players; they may leave you alone and search for more useful food. An especially powerful technique is to grow large pieces and protect them by putting unattractive medium pieces on top

of them. Balancing Sporing and Growing: The early growth strategy is susceptible to attack. If you invest all of your early energy into growing and protecting your initial pieces, you are running the risk of being seriously crippled by one or two attack actions,

which will leave you desperately needing to spore. All things considered, it’s difficult to win a game of Zagami without both growing and sporing at some point during the game; the trick is deciding when and how to do each of them. 79

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Attacking: The early attack strategy is yet another viable style of play. The idea is to get two attack enzymes, each made of

least two pieces, as quickly as possible. You will then pose a

massive threat to the other players; they will have a hard time getting anywhere near you without being badly damaged. The drawback of this strategy is that the other players may decide

to team up against you. The early attack strategy is most susceptible to counter-attack, since you are investing in enzymes that do not increase the power of your own colony. You probably

need to use your third enzyme for growth or sporing in order to survive. The best way for others to defeat you is to get attack enzymes of your color (so they can eat you and then immediately attack you). If all of the other players have already established non-attack enzymes of your color, your chances of success are increased. The early attack strategy is risky, but fun — if your opponents do not eradicate you quickly, you may leave them

wondering what hit them.

Escaping: The escape action is not very useful during opening

play, but it is often the key to victory in the later stages of the game. When the game is winding down and the board has

become fragmented, acquiring and using an escape enzyme can

put your pieces right where they need to be to give you a win.

Also note that a single large piece can defeat any number of

medium and small pieces if you have an escape enzyme of that

color — you can repeatedly move in to eat and then escape to

just out of that player’s range.

80

Zagami

Enzyme Swapping: It is sometimes possible to change the power of one of your enzymes using a technique called “enzyme

swapping.” This technique hinges on the fact that whenever you eat and shrink a piece, you are allowed to replace the eaten piece with a smaller piece from your own enzyme area. Therefore, if you have (say) a red growth enzyme made of a single small piece, and you eat a medium red piece, you may take the small red piece out of your enzyme area and put it out on the board. You

are then free to use the medium red piece to create anew enzyme

in any orientation you want. For a more advanced example,

imagine that you have a red growth enzyme made of a medium

piece and a small piece, and a “dormant” red attack enzyme made of a single small piece. If you eat a medium red piece, you

can put the small red piece that’s in your growth enzyme out onto the board, and then you can add the medium piece to your

dormant attack enzyme; it becomes your new active enzyme and can be used immediately. Alternatively, you could eat a large

piece, remove the medium piece from your growth enzyme, and add the large to the dormant attack enzyme. In either case, you've converted a two-strength growth enzyme into a twostrength attack enzyme in a single turn — a powerful move

indeed. Note that, in your enzyme area, small pieces are the most

flexible, and large pieces are completely inflexible — once placed,

they will never be removed. Also note that, in most cases, it is

not strategic to put three pieces into a single enzyme — the full power of a three-piece enzyme will rarely be used. It’s much wiser to use the third piece of a color to create a dormant enzyme in preparation for enzyme-swapping. Deciding when and how to set up dormant enzymes is one of the most subtle and

important aspects of advanced Zagami play. Neutralizing Enzymes: It sometimes happens that you want

to change your enzyme power for a color, but the size that you need to eat to perform an enzyme-swap is simply not available.

For instance, you have a single medium red piece in your enzyme

area, but the only red pieces available to you to eat are medium pieces as well. Don’t neglect the possibility of making a “sacrifice play” —i.e. creating another medium-piece red enzyme. By doing this, you are neutralizing your red enzymes and sacrificing your

ability to use any of them on this turn. However, this sacrifice

may pay off, for on a future turn you can eat any small or large

81

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

red piece and upgrade either one of your red enzymes into a

two-strength enzyme that can be used immediately. This is one way to deal with a player who is consistently offering you

unattractive food.

Pay Attention to Enzymes: It should be clear by now that you cannot play Zagami well simply by paying attention to the board — you must also constantly keep an eye on all players’ enzyme

areas, so that you are aware of what they can do and what they are likely to do in the following turns. Notice which sizes of each color will allow them to perform enzyme-swapping, so that you are not surprised when you are suddenly attacked by a player who only had a sporing enzyme a minute ago. Notice

which sizes will neutralize enzymes for different players, as this will allow you to predict what players will probably not do. If a player’s best move is to eat you, consider moving out of range,

attacking, or growing to a less attractive size. Or, try to divert

that player’s attention by carrying other, differently-colored food

into range.

Negotiation: There are many opportunities for negotiation in Zagami. If one player seems to be getting too strong, enlist the

help of others to attack that player. You can work with other players by carrying them into better positions, or even allowing them to eat you, creating semi-symbiotic relationships. If you

are close to being eliminated, figure out which players might

have motivation to keep you alive, and create this motivation

yourself if possible, by offering (or threatening) to make certain

moves. If you and another player are left in the game against a opponent with a better position, it’s in both of your interests to team up against this player; otherwise, that player will win. Also remember that, all things being equal, it’s better to eliminate

players who have lots of your color in their enzyme areas; not

only will this remove players who have motivation to eat you, but many pieces of your own color will be returned to your stash.

Similarly, it’s good to eliminate players for whom you don’t have

many enzyme pieces. Ideally, you want to reduce the game to a one-on-one match against an opponent whose enzyme

for you is not as good as yours is for that player.

82

setup

Abstract Games of

Serious Strategy

Icehouse by John Cooper and Andrew Looney

Icehouse is a real-time strategy game

of attack and defense.

Each player has a "stash" of

| Stuff You Need

pyramidal playing pieces, and

At least 3 players, best with 4 or 5

player's defensive pieces. Plays are made in "real-time" (without

as set by a timer

can play them _ either defensively, or attacking another

turns), on a free-form playing field (any flat surface). The game ends when the last piece is played, or the time limit expires.

5-30 minutes,

1 stash per player 1 stash pad per player

(a rectangular card the

:

size ofa postcard)

Setup Each player takes all 15 pyramids of one color and places the

pieces on a stash-pad in front of them. If playing on a table, place the stash pads as close to the edge of the table as possible.

85

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Basics

Icehouse has two aspects that make it different from most other strategy board games.

No Turns: Players make plays as quickly or as slowly as they feel strategically prudent. This is the meaning of "real-time". Just like in a real battle, you can move quickly to make several lightning strikes, move slowly and deliberately to wear your

opponent down, or wait for one of your opponents to make a

mistake.

No Board: The entire surface is part of the playing field, with

the exception of the "stash pads" where players’ unplayed pieces are stored. Stash-pads are officially not part of the playing

surface, but every other square inch is part of the legal playing field. The field can theoretically be of infinite size, so it is considered impolite to draw attention to the finite nature of most

tables. Therefore, play usually focuses on the center of the table, away from the edges and stash pads. The Pieces

Each player gets 15 pieces of one color, five each of three different sizes. The small pieces are worth 1 point each, the medium pieces are worth 2 points, and the larges are worth 3 points. This makes for a total of 30 points on each stash pad.

Beginning Play Play begins when all players

signify they are ready. Signify you are ready to play by

touching any piece on your stash pad (it does not have to be the one you intend to play first). Once all players have signified that they are ready, play begins. Remember, Icehouse is real-time and the first few plays are

usually made very quickly. Do not signal that you are ready until you are sure that you are prepared to begin, or you may

start out the game a little behind the other players.

86

Icehouse

DEFENDER]

Playing Pieces Play a piece by removing it from

your stash pad and placing it on the playing field. You can play a piece either standing up, called a "defender," pointing at a nother color is called an

or laying defensive ,in which "attacker,"

down piece of case it and is

attacking the defensive piece. As

ATTACKERN =

soon as you let go of a piece, it is played, and cannot be moved without the application of special rules. Other rules concerning piece placement: e A piece must be placed flat on the table, not leaning or resting on any other piece or any stash pad.

e If two players wish to play pieces in the same spot, the player whose piece reached the spot first should go.

e If you are still touching a piece, it is considered to be “in play,” and not “played.” Pieces that are still “in play” are counted as being on your stash-pad.

e You may only play one piece at a time. You can use two hands, but you may not use two hands to have more than one piece in play at a time.

e Consider all pieces to be solid. You may not play a piece on, over, or inside another piece.

The Meltdown

Rule

If no player were to play a defender, there wouldn't be anything to attack. Consequently, the meltdown rule states:

The first two pyramids of each color that are placed on the field must be defensive pieces.

If a player forgets this rule and plays an attacking piece without first playing two defenders, that player must fix the situation

by removing all attack pieces he or she has played (not including any prisoners), and returning them to his or her stash pad.

If another player notices the meltdown before the offender, that

player should inform the offender (politely) of the meltdown.

87

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

It is not necessary to remember the order in which all pieces were played. If a player has two defenders on the field they are

not melted down. That said, it is not legal to play defenders in

order to avoid the penalty.

Rules Concerning Attacks In order for an attacker to be legally placed, it must meet several

conditions. If it does not meet all of the conditions, it is an illegally played piece and it must be replayed, adjusted, or taken back to

the stash. An illegally played piece is still “in play,” and the attack must be resolved legally or withdrawn before its player can make any other plays.

Attacks are line of sight: An imaginary line extends from the tip of each attacker, perpendicular to the base of the attacker.

The attacker is said to be “pointing at” the first piece (of any orientation, size, or color) that this imaginary line touches.

Attackers must point at defenders: You may not direct attacks

at other attacking pieces of any color. You may not direct an

attack at empty space.

Attackers must point at pieces of another color: You may

not direct your attacks at your own pieces, nor may you place a

prisoner so that it attacks a piece of its own color. Attacks have a distance limit: The imaginary line extending

from the tip is the same length as the attacking piece. Thus, 3-

pointers have a greater attack range than 1-pointers. Squandered attacks: It is possible for a legal attack to become

“squandered” by the actions of other players later in the game. For instance, an attack can be squandered if its tip becomes blocked by another attacker. Leave squandered attackers in place; you will not score any points for them unless you find a way to un-squander them again later, via over-icing.

Successful Attacks For attacks on a defensive piece to be successful, the total value

of the attacking pieces must exceed the value of the defensive

piece. For an attack on a 3-pointer to be successful, there must be at least 4 points of attacks directed toward it. 88

Icehouse

The attackers do not need to all be the same color, and there is no limit to the

gaat

number of pieces that may participate in an attack.

A successfully attacked piece is said to

be Iced. A defensive piece that is not attacked at all, or is insufficiently attacked, is said to be Un-Iced.

Over-Icing If so many attackers are pointing at a defender that some of them are extraneous, that defender is said to be Over-Iced.

An attacking piece is extraneous if subtracting its value from the total value of the attacking pieces leaves a number that still

exceeds the value of the defensive piece. The owner of the over-

iced defensive piece can capture any extraneous piece as a prisoner, and move

it off the field onto his or her stash pad.

After the prisoner has been captured, re-evaluate the board position to see if any pieces are still, or newly, over-iced. In the case shown here, the

gray player can capture the 1-pointer, since subtracting it will leave four points

icing the 3-pointer. The

gray player cannot capture

either of the 2-pointers, since that would leave only three points of attacks, which would un-ice the defender. Prisoners Prisoners are pieces that are in your stash of unplayed pieces, but are not of your color. You can play a prisoner in any legal fashion, either as an attacker or as a defender. You do not need

to play prisoners immediately; you can hold onto them for later.

89

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Your prisoners still score for their original owners, but you can play them however you want, whether it’s good for their owners or not.

You can play a prisoner as a defender, and immediately ice it. This is referred to as, “executing a prisoner.” It’s a quick way to take points away from an opponent and increase your score. You can play a prisoner over-icing one of your defensive pieces, and then claim one of the other attackers as a prisoner. For instance, if two 3-pointers are attacking your 3-point defender, and you have a 1-point prisoner, you can attack your defender so that the 3-pointer is attacked by seven points, and is over-

iced. Now you can remove either one of the 3-pointers, since this will leave four points icing the 3-point defender. This is referred to as “trading up,” since you now have a 3-point prisoner instead of a 1-point prisoner.

Crashing Since Icehouse is all about the physical

position of the pieces on

the

table,

it’s

obviously a very bad

thing to have those

pieces move during

the game. Disturbing any of the played pieces

is

“crashing.”

called

If you crash while playing a piece, or removing one from the table, you must give that piece away. Place it on another player’s stash pad, where it become’s that player’s prisoner. If you are

not holding a piece when you crash, there is no penalty. In either

case, return the played pieces to their previous positions. If the

crash was so severe that this is not possible, scrap the game and start over.

Note that the penalty is for changing the position of a played piece. If you bump into a piece, or jiggle it, but the piece does not change

position, you have not crashed, and there is no penalty. 90

Icehouse

The Icehouse Rule In Icehouse, as in many games, defense is just as important as attack. The Meltdown rule forces you to play your first two pieces defensively, but it’s not enough to simply play defenders, it is

important that they be successfully defended. To quote from the

first edition of the Icehouse rulebook, “Defending pieces are like

the civilians back home whom the troops are trying to protect. If all the civilians are dead or captured, the troops have failed at their job.” So, if you do not have any un-iced defenders on the

playing field, you’re in a bad position. If it’s near the beginning

of the game, this may be unavoidable, so there’s a safety mechanism to make sure the rule only kicks in when you’re well along in the game. Actually, three conditions must be met: e You must have no un-iced defenders.

e You must have fewer than 8 pieces (total, of any color)

on your stash-pad. e Somebody has to notice. If somebody notices, they may invoke the Icehouse rule. To do so, they simply call, “Icehouse.” If somebody calls Icehouse, play stops and all “in play” pieces return to stash pads. Then, evaluate the positions of all players, including the person who called Icehouse. If any players have no un-iced defenders and fewer than 8 pieces on their stash pad, they are “in the Icehouse.” The scores of those

players immediately drop to zero. Any pieces on the stash-pads of the Icehoused players become prisoners of the person who called “Icehouse.” Icehoused players cannot increase their scores

above zero, and cannot win the game, but they may still

participate in the game. They may still capture prisoners, and their pieces may still be attacked.

If no players are in the Icehouse, the person who called Icehouse must remove a piece from their stash-pad and put it on another player’s stash-pad as a prisoner. a Resume playing as soon as

the Icehouse call is completely resolved. 91

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Ending the Game Most people play Icehouse with a ten or fifteen minute time

limit. Before the game starts, decide how long you want to play

and set the timer. Hide the timer and begin playing. Nobody playing in the game should know exactly how much time is left in the game. When the timer expires, the game is over. Return all unplayed pieces to stash pads. The game can also end once all pieces are played. As soon as the last piece is placed on the table, the game is over, even if the timer has not expired. If you choose to play without a timer, the game will always end this way. You can also play using a timer that is not a clock of any kind. For instance, you can play until the food arrives in a restaurant, or until a speech or sporting event ends.

Scoring Once the game is over, calculate a score for each player to

determine the winner. There are two methods for counting score;

both yield the same score, so which method you use is a matter

of preference.

|

Counting Up: Start with a score of zero, and give yourself points

for each of your pieces that is:

e Participating in a successful attack. e Defending, and is not iced.

Remember that you begin with 30 points worth of pieces on

your stash pad, and that’s your maximum possible score.

Counting Down: Start with a score of 30, and subtract points

for each of your pieces that is:

e Squandered e Participating in an unsuccessful attack

e Iced (defending, but successfully attacked) e Still on a stash pad

Winning The player with the highest score wins! If two or more players tie for the highest score, they split the win. . 92

Icehouse

Icehouse Etiquette: Playing it “Cool” There’s more to Icehouse than simply learning the rules and

trying to win. The game also has a mystique. Part of the mystique

of Icehouse is the idea that a player’s attitude is a vital element of the game. A good Icehouse player is not only skilled at using

clever strategies and diplomacy, but also understands the importance of being “cool.” Basically, this is just our word for being a good sport. Playing it cool doesn’t mean being wimpy or overly mellow. Being cool

means that no matter what kind of player you are, from friendly diplomat to evil executioner, you play with a style that makes others enjoy playing with you, even if you happen to win a lot.

Being a cool player can even extend to matters well beyond the

scope of the actual game, such as turning on some good mood

music or making sure that everyone has a lovely beverage. You may even find that a cool playing style works well in many

games other than Icehouse.

Strategies Good Attacks: Play your attackers as close to the defender as

possible, touching if you can do so without crashing. If you leave space, someone could squander your attack later. For example,

they might also attack that same defender, putting the point of their attacker right in front of the point of your attacker. Play the minimum amount of attacks on a defender to ice it. Although it may seem like a six point play to ice a 3-point defender with two 3-point attackers, you are in danger of having

those pieces easily restructured. If your piece was iced like this,

and you had just a 1-point prisoner, you could use it to attack your own 3-point defender, over-icing it. You would be allowed

to then pick up one of the 3-point attackers as a prisoner, “trading

up.” Had your 3-pointer been iced by two 2-point attackers, you wouldn't be able to trade up using just your 1-pointer.

The Snowball: You must have a successful defender on the board, or someone will eventually put you in the icehouse. Often players build a large group of tightly packed pieces in the middle of the playing area, in a formation known as the “snowball.” Each player hopes to find a niche in that space to place a small

O39

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

defender that cannot be attacked because it is surrounded by

other pieces, in what is called a “fortress.” You can also try to create a fortress around a piece, hoping that you will do so before someone ices it. One effective method of building the walls of a

fortress is by placing large attackers that ice nearby enemy

defenders and block other players from icing your defender. When icing a piece in the snowball, you can often slant the attacker such that it is hard or impossible for the attacked player to later over-ice the defender and take out your piece. You might also need to play defenders of your own next to your attacker

so that there is no space for an over-icing piece.

The Cheeseball: If you are desperate for a successful defender,

you might decide to play a few defenders in the corner of the table such that nobody can attack one of them. This maneuver, called the “cheeseball,” alert players, who will you start to do it. This occasionally be useful

is perfectly legal, but rarely works against swarm in to attack your pieces as soon as strategy isn’t very interesting, but it can when you're desperate for a fortress.

Restructuring Attacks: It may seem as though Icehouse is a

game of attacking, and that defending just sets you up to be

attacked. But defenders have one advantage that attackers don’t have: they stay where you put them. Because of the over-icing rule,

any attack you make can potentially be changed and

squandered later by other players.

Suppose you have a 2-point defender attacked by a 1-pointer and a 2-pointer, and somehow you got a 2-point prisoner. Take

that prisoner and attack your defender, and unlike normal

attacks, leave plenty of space between the prisoner and your defender. Your defender is now over-iced, and you may pick up the original 2-point attacker and put it in your stash. Now take one of your 2-point pieces and play it as a defender in front of

the original prisoner. You now have two successful 2-point

defenders, one unsuccessfully attacked by a 2-pointer, the other by a 1-pointer. And what if someone plays another 2-point

attacker on one of those defenders? You still have a 2-point prisoner, so repeat. “Dividing attacks” quickly squanders

attackers at little cost.

94

Icehouse

This diagram provides a second example of Attack Restructuring: @

Over-ice yourself with a prisoner.

This is

Block the attack by playing the prisoner as a defender.

Another Example of

Restructuring an Attack

Optionally, ice the prisoner.

The 2-For-1 Exchange: Suppose you have a 3-point defender attacked by two 2-pointers, and you have a 2-point prisoner. Over-ice your defender, attacking from far away, and take back one of the original attackers. Now point your new prisoner at the defender again, putting it right next to the original prisoner

such that they are pointing at roughly the same spot on the defender. Now go grab the third attacker and put that prisoner

95

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

on your stash pad. You now have your 3-pointer still being pointed at by two 2-pointers, but there's a lot of space between the attackers and the defender. Take one of your 1-point

defenders and plunk it right in front of those two attackers. Your

1-pointer is now over-iced, and you can take a second 2-point prisoner onto your stash. If there is still room to do so, you could now edge the corner of one of your 2-point defenders in front of

the last attacker, leaving you with 6 points of successful

defenders, two 2-point prisoners, and an enemy 2-point attacker

squandered on the table. “Two-for-One” trades turn one prisoner into many.

Over-ice your 3-pointer with a 3-point prisoner.

is your piece.

De ee de ee wee aes ae ep eat at: pees &

Next,

nN

Your 1-pointer

is now overiced, SO you

1-pointer.

can capture a 3-pointer. own small piece as a

defender, in the path of the two 3-point attackers.

{

96

Being over-iced, you can pull back the other 3-point attacker.

This is your stashpad.

capture the —

oo‘

The 2-for-1 Exchange

Icehouse

Capturing Prisoners: While all that restructuring is exciting,

you need a prisoner to do any of it. How can you get one? While

you can hope someone crashes and gives you one, there are other

ways. When other players are doing attack restructuring, you may be able to jump in a 1-point defender in the middle of a

place that has two large attackers pointed at it. This way you can steal prisoners from that player while preventing him from finishing his careful work.

As the game progresses, look around and figure out the current scores, at least roughly. If you are winning, you don't need a prisoner yet, and you should keep quiet unless you have a silver tongue. If you are losing, offer to trade prisoners with someone else who is losing. Once an agreement is made, usually to trade 2-point or 3-point prisoners, over-ice one of that player's already

iced defenders, and he'll do the same for you. You will both have

prisoners and can restructure attackers at the expense of the other two players. Diplomacy is important in Icehouse. As you look around, also see if anyone has just a few successful defenders. If you can, you may want to quietly ice all of them.

When that player has only seven or fewer pieces on his stash (remember that a piece he is still touching counts as being on his stash), call “Icehouse” and collect all his remaining pieces as prisoners. (As defense against this tactic, pay attention to your own successful defenders.)

The Forced Retreat: Once you have the needed prisoner or prisoners, you should cause a “forced retreat” on any attackers

that are icing your defenders. Say your 1-point defender is under

attack by a 2-pointer, and you have a 3-point prisoner. Use your prisoner to over-ice your defender, allowing you to pick up the 2-point attacker. But don't actually pick it up, just scoot it back

from your defender, leaving it attacking your prisoner. Then pick up your 3-point prisoner again. Your defender is still unsuccessful, but you are in position to do many good things. You might do a forced retreat on another nearby piece, and retreat

that other piece right in front of the 2-point attacker, squandering it. You might play a big defender, or a prisoner, in front of the 2point attacker. The player with the 2-point attacker might get nervous and plunk one of his 1-point prisoners in front of his attacker to insure that he will get the points.

97

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

The Shotgun: The logical extreme of the defense-only strategy

is called the “shotgun,” in which the player scatters out defending pieces, with lots of room around them so that attacks

can be easily restructured. However, you may not want to try

this until after you’ve gotten a prisoner, since this strategy will

backfire if you never gain one, and other players will become wary of giving prisoners to a shotgunner. Also, to successfully shotgun, you must be skilled at restructuring attacks.

Practice: Icehouse is a sport, which means practice helps. You should practice making fast attacks that touch the defender

without crashing. Then try creating pre-fab fortresses, with small inner spaces, and see if you can maneuver in a 1-point defender. Practice restructuring attacks by setting up seven or more defenders, ice them all with another color, and then try to make

them all successful, starting with just a 2-point prisoner, a 1-

point piece, and a 3-point piece. Then practice it all over again, but faster, remembering that in an actual game, people will be

trying to interfere with your actions. More

Information

Icehouse is by far the oldest of all Icehouse games, and it

therefore has a rich and detailed history which we've only introduced to you here. Visit our website for an extensive library of Icehouse resources, including the text of the original Icehouse

Handbook, a detailed Sample Game, FAQ file, records annual Icehouse Tournaments, Variations, and more.

Nanotiction 55 word short stories

>

The Tavern Five guys drove around one night in an old VW Beetle, looking for adventure. They arrived at a mysterious tavern, where they learned to play an unusual game, called Icehouse. But later, they couldn't find the Tavern again; even that barmaid's phone number turned out bogus. Yet they still knew how to play the game...

\

of the

www.wunderland.com/Andy/

-_

Homeworlds IceTraders 2.0

by John Cooper

Overview In the game of Homeworlds, you take on the role of a space-faring civilization that has become

Stuff You Need 2-6 players (best with 4)

embroiled in an epic, galaxywide struggle between Good and Evil. Good civilizations try

to work together to eradicate

Evil, while

Evil civilizations

crave only senseless destruction.

But which players are Good and which are Evil? That’s the ultimate question in this game of strategy, psychology, and

15-60 minutes )

iy

| O

4 stashes

6 cards or tokens labeled Good or Evil

diplomacy.

Good and Evil Before the start of the game, each player’s secret alignment must be established. Gather a handful of cards or markers that you can use to indicate the alignments of Good and Evil. (If you use a deck of standard playing cards, hearts can represent Good and spades can represent Evil.) The number of cards that you gather

should be equal to the total number of players. If there is an ay

= =

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Pd

-

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TO MAKE REALLY NICE

even number of players, half of the cards should be

FIND WALF A DOZEN PLAIN

number of players, there

GOOD/EVIL INDICATORS,

POKER CHIPS e AND WRITE | Copy

"GOOD' on “EMIL

ON THEIR BACKS, er

Good and the other half Evil; if there is an odd

should be one more Good card than there are Evil cards. Mix up the cards and give one to each player. 99

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

You may look at your own alignment card, but you may not reveal it to any other player, except in the special circumstances

outlined later in these rules. You’re allowed to say whatever you'd like about your own alignment, or about what you think

another player’s alignment might be, as long as you never actually show your card. You’re also allowed to make any ingame deals you'd like with other players, but these deals are never binding.

Setting Up Your Homeworld After the secret alignments have been established, randomly choose a starting player. Play begins with that player and moves clockwise around the table. On your first turn, you must set up

your Homeworld. Select any two pieces of any sizes and colors to represent your Homeworld, and a third piece of any size and color to represent your first starship. Place your two Homeworld

pieces in an upright stack in front of you. (If one is smaller than the other, put the smaller one on top so it’s easier to see.) Place

your ship near your Homeworld, directly away from you.

lying down and pointing

Star-Systems and Starships During the game, upright pieces will represent star-systems, and

pieces that are lying down will represent starships that occupy these systems. The upright pieces are referred to as “system markers.” Your Homeworld is a binary star-system, so it’s

represented by two system markers.

As the game progresses, players will discover and travel to other star systems; these systems will all be

single-star systems, which means that each one willbe representedby a single system marker.

The color of a system marker represents a technology that’s available to be used in that system.

100

@

Homeworlds

The size of a system marker determines how that system is connected to other systems. Starships travel from system to

system using wormhole connections through space-time. Two systems are connected to each other if they do not share the same

size system markers. If two systems contain the same size system

marker, those two systems are not connected. Therefore, a small system is connected to any medium or large system, but not to

another small system. A binary system made up of a small piece and a medium piece is not connected to any small or medium system, nor is it connected to any binary system that contains a small piece or a medium piece. System connections have nothing

to do with the physical positions of systems on the playing field.

101

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Pieces that are lying down near a system marker represent

starships that occupy that system. If a system does not contain

at least one ship, it no longer lies within “known space”;

immediately return the system’s markers to the global stash. The direction that a ship points indicates who owns it; a ship is

always pointed directly own at least one ship in don’t own any ships in destroyed, and you are

away from its owner. You must always your Homeworld; if at some point you your Homeworld, your civilization is eliminated from the game. If you are

Good, the object of the game is to eliminate all of the Evil players.

If you are Evil, the object of the game is simply to eliminate any

other player.

Play Options On your turn, do one of these three things: perform a single free

action in a system that you occupy, sacrifice one of your ships to

take a certain number of actions of that ship’s color, or take no action at all. After you do one of these three things, you may trigger catastrophes for any overpopulations that exist. Free Actions When you choose to perform a

single free action in a system

that you occupy, you may use the power of any technology (color) that’s available to you in that system. The colors that are

available to you are determined by the colors of all of your ships

in the system, as well as by the colors of the system’s marker(s). The technological powers are as follows:

Green — Construct

Take the smallest-sized piece available from one of the four global color stashes and add it to the system as a new ship. The new ship must match the color of a ship that you already own in that system. Orient the new ship away from you to indicate that you own it. Blue — Trade

Swap one of your ships in the system with an identically-sized piece of a different color from the global stash. 102

Homeworlds

Yellow — Move Move one of your ships from the system into any existing connected system. Alternatively, you may “discover” a new

system by taking a single piece of any color from the global stash, setting it upright on the playing field, and moving your ship

into it. (Of course, the newly discovered system must be

connected to the system that your ship is moving out of.) If you

leave a system completely empty, immediately return that

system’s markers to the global stash.

Red — Attack Take control of an enemy ship in the system by

reorienting the ship so that

it points away from you. You cannot take control of

an enemy ship if it’s larger than the largest ship you own in the system. Note that you can apply any

action to pieces of any color,

as long as you have access in the system to the color of the action

you wish to perform. For instance, you can move any one of your ships out of a system as long as you own at least one yellow

ship in that system, or the system itself contains a yellow marker. Sacrifice Actions

Instead of performing a single free action, you may sacrifice any

one of your ships to perform a certain number of actions of that ship’s color. To sacrifice a ship, simply return it to the global stash. You may then perform the number of actions determined by the size of your sacrifice ship - one action for a small piece, two for a medium piece, and three for a large piece. The type of action you’re allowed to perform is determined by the color of

the sacrifice ship; for example, if you sacrifice a red ship, you’re

only allowed to perform attack actions. Each action may be performed in any system you occupy, even if you don’t have

access to that color in that system. Sacrificing a ship gives you

temporary access to that color in any system you occupy. The

sacrifice actions are always optional.

103

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Overpopulation and Catastrophes If a system contains four or more pieces of the same color,

including system markers and ships of any ownership, that

system contains an overpopulation of that color. At the end of your turn, you may trigger catastrophes for any overpopulations

that exist on the board, regardless of where they are or who owns the ships in them. To trigger a catastrophe, remove all of the pieces of that color from the system, including system markers, and return the pieces to the global stash. If you remove a system

marker from a binary system, the system becomes a single-star system. (This may cause the system to become connected to more

systems.) If you remove the system marker from a

single-star

system, the system itself is destroyed, and all of the ships in it are returned to the global stash. Triggering a catastrophe for any given overpopulation is always optional, but when you do choose to trigger one, you must remove all of the pieces causing

the overpopulation.

Elimination and Winning You are never allowed to take an action or trigger a catastrophe

that causes you to own no ships in your Homeworld at the end

of your turn. You may temporarily abandon your Homeworld during your turn, as long as you own at least one ship in it at the end of your turn.

If you ever take an action or trigger a catastrophe that causes another player to have no ships in his or her Homeworld, you have eliminated that player from the game. (It is possible, though difficult, to eliminate multiple players on the same turn.) At the end

of your

turn, if you’ve

eliminated

someone,

reveal your

secret alignment, if you haven’t already; any players that you

eliminated should also reveal their alignments, if they haven’t already. If you are Evil, you win the game immediately. If you

are Good, check to see if there are any Evil players left in the game. (You can determine this by looking at all of the alignments revealed so far.) If there are no Evil players left, the game ends immediately, and all of the remaining Good players share the

win. Otherwise, the game continues. An eliminated player’s

ships are not automatically removed from the board; they remain

to be captured by other players or destroyed in catastrophes. 104

Homeworlds

Strategies Creating your Homeworld:

Avoid creating a Homeworld with

the same sizes as the player who has a turn before yours, or you

will make it too easy to be invaded by that player. If possible, it is best to have a Homeworld made of two sizes that are different

from all the other players. It is dangerous to start with a

Homeworld with two equal sized pieces. Your Homeworld

pieces and first ship should all be different colors, and both blue and green should be among them. Your ship should be large, and often should be green, but consider having it be whatever color other players use for their first ships. Homeworld Protection: Early in the game it may be safe to have two or three ships of the same color in your Homeworld.

Later on, opponents will move ships into your Homeworld to

cause catastrophes, and thus you should have each color appear

in your Homeworld only once. You also need a large piece in your Homeworld at all times, so you may capture an enemy invader regardless of its size. Ideally, a blue-green Homeworld should just be guarded by a large red and a large yellow. Move out to colony systems early and develop more safely out there. Growth: Early in the game, you will want green pieces to create more pieces, and use yellow and blue systems to spread your

ships out and diversify them. When the green stash has few

smaller pieces, you may be able to sacrifice a large green piece

to create two pieces somewhere and then use your large green

piece again as the third growth. Later on, you will want to have large yellow ships for moving two or three ships at once, and

large red ships for capturing several enemies. Attack Formations: Preparing to attack an opponent can

involve taking out his colony worlds to limit his power. If you can move a large ship into a colony that only has medium or small ships, you may be able to quickly reduce his power while increasing your own. Often you will want to establish a colony

that connects to the opponent’s Homeworld and create several ships there that you can then move in all at once. You may need to cause two catastrophes to eliminate his Homeworld, or move

in more large ships than he can capture in one turn. Be careful when other players create attack formations outside your own Homeworld.

105

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Color Economies:

As players add more ships and systems to

the board, certain color stashes will diminish and leave medium

and large pieces available for creation. Attempt to predict which colors will do this and make sure you can get some larger pieces of that color. If you cannot take advantage of a favorable color economy, consider ways of returning small pieces of that color

to the stash so that other players cannot take advantage of it themselves. When creating colony systems, consider how it will affect the color’s stash. Lying: All players will claim to be Good, and so should you. Always claim that you are trying to figure out who the other

Good player or players are. Do not look at your alignment card twice or push it away; only Evil players do that. Sit up, look engaged, move fluidly, and act confident, even when you’ re Evil. If you cannot lie, say as little as possible, even when you’re Good.

Diplomacy:

More important than figuring out the alignments

of the opponents is convincing someone that you are Good and

should be helped. Even an Evil player may help you eliminate another opponent, because he might find a way to steal the win away while assisting, or he hopes that you will use up lots of pieces in the process and then he can eliminate you. You should always attempt to eliminate the player in the weakest position.

If you are Evil, you will win, and if you are Good, you are beating

an Evil player to it. You should even consider eliminating the

other Good player if that will prevent an Evil player from doing it. It is glorious to be a Good player, eliminate the other Good

players, and then eliminate all the Evil players, earning a solo win. But beware the double-cross.

Noaofict ion 55 word short

stories

;

;

.

—~

Evil Victorious

The interstellar fleet commander suddenly gave the order to attack. After colonizing nearby star systems,

acquiring new technologies, and building more and better starships, all while acting peaceful, he was

finally ready to strike. His warrior ships created a supernova that vaporized his neighbor's homeworld, decimating her space fleet. Gina snarled. “Another game?” asked Jake. Neo

106

srwassacendietioraLgueninetes..—/

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A Landscape of

Tarot Cards

Gnostica by John Cooper Gnostica is an abstract, territorybased war game. Tarot cards

we

make up the often-changing

You Need

board, and players use Icehouse pieces to represent minions that

2-5 players —

tarot card has a power, and when

45-60 minutes

a territory, he or she may use the power of that territory through that piece. Players also have a hand of tarot cards which allow them to use those powers through any of their pieces. Territories are worth points when occupied, and the game ends when one player challenges the

1 stash perplayer

control those territories. Every

a player has one of his pieces on

_

1 tarot deck

(optionally marked with Gnostica icon stickers)

other players and has 9 points on

his or her following turn.

Setup Each player starts with a complete

15-piece stash of Icehouse pieces. Deal out 6 tarot cards to each

player, then tile 9 cards in a 3x3 grid. These are the first 9 territories that compose the playing area. Any empty space right

next

to

a

card

is

a

“wasteland” space. During the

pieces may occupy game, are just they wasteland spaces; like territories but have no special powers.

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en Fe

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109

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Any empty space not next to any card is a “void” space. Pieces

in

the

void

are

immediately returned

to the player’s stash.

No

actions

taken

upon

spaces.

may

be

void

2

PIECE IN

WASTELAND

>”

j : = uit Btetereyere,. ! o

/ i -_

3

|PIECE IN VOID Draw Pile

(DESTROYED) |

Place the remaining cards face down as the draw pile. Reshuffle the discard pile whenever the draw pile is exhausted.

Winning Your score is the total value of territory occupied by only your

pieces. Major arcana territories are each worth 3 points, royalty

are 2 points, numbered minor arcana cards (also called “spot cards”) are 1 point, and wasteland spaces are 0 points. In a

Gnostica deck, each card has a number of circle icons showing

its value.

After your turn, you may announce to the other players that your next turn will be your last. After your next turn, if you have 9 points or more, you win. If not, you are eliminated from the game: remove all your pieces from the board and discard your hand. You may not announce your last turn if another player just announced theirs and they have not had it yet. If all players agree before starting the game, you can play to 8 points for a shorter game, or 10 points for a longer game.

Determining Who Goes First For your first game, just pick someone to go first and ignore the

rest of this paragraph. After you have the game under control though, you should use the official starting rule that follows. To

start the game, every player must select a bid card and put it 110

Gnostica

face down. They are revealed and the player with the highest

number major arcana card wins the bid. If nobody bid with a

major arcana card, then the player with the highest minor arcana

card wins the bid. Minor arcana are ordered, top to bottom, as king, queen, knight, page, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and ace. If there is a tie, set aside the bidding cards

and then every player must bid again, repeated until one player

wins the bid. The player to the right of the winner draws from any of the bid cards until his hand has six cards again, as does each player in turn counterclockwise around the table. Finally, the winner

goes first, turns proceeding

clockwise.

This

compensates players who will go last by improving their hands.

Zarf’s Notes on Choosing a Tarot Deck

Thousands of different tarot decks have been created, and you

can play Gnostica with almost any of them (particularly if you add icon stickers). Most large bookstores and many game stores _ carry a variety of tarot decks for you to choose from. If you have several tarot decks, just pick your favorite — the style and » symbolism of each deck adds its own unique flavor to the game. — That said, there are a few tarot decks that are so strange that Gnostica doesn't work very well with them. Morgan's Tarot,

for example, has no suits or numbered cards at all; it has cards like “Tomato, Potato, Eggplant” and “Pigs and Fishes

Surround You.” It's a terrific deck, but not for this game. A

Gnostica deck should have four clearly distinguishable fourteen-card suits, plus twenty-two named trump cards. Even among “standard” tarot decks, the names of the cards and

suits may differ. The suit of Discs is sometimes called Pentacles,

Coins, Jewels, or Stones, and Rods might be Wands, Staves, Sticks,

or Batons. In these rules, we call the four suits Cups, Rods, Swords,

and Discs; use the closet equivalents to these suits in your deck.

Each suit has four royalty cards, usually the King, Queen, Knight, and Page, but here too, these titles may vary. Similarly, the names of the twenty-two trump cards may differ from deck to deck. For example, the Hierophant may be called the Pope or the High Priest. _ In these rules, we've used the most common names; again, pick

the closest equivalents if your deck is different. _

TL

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Orientation and Targeting A piece on the board may point in any of the four cardinal directions or point

straight up. To “orient” a piece is to change its direction to any of the five legal directions. A piece of yours that is able to take an action is called your “minion.”

When pointing up, the minion can target the current space or

any pieces in the current space. When pointing out, the minion

can target the adjacent space or any of the pieces on that space.

The minion can always target itself, regardless of its orientation.

As a general rule, when you do something to one of your own

pieces, you may change its orientation; however, if you do

something to an enemy’s piece, you may not change its

orientation.

Turn Options If you have no pieces on the board, you may only put a small piece in any orientation on any unoccupied territory or wasteland. Otherwise, do one of the following, keeping in mind

that all powers are optional: ¢ Activate a Card: Select a card on the board. All your

pieces on that card are minions, and any one of them may use the power of that card, or even two of them if

there are two powers for that card.

e Play a Card: Place a card from your hand on the discard pile. All your pieces on the board are minions and any

of them may use the power of that card, or even two of

them if there are two powers for that card. ¢ Discard and Draw: Discard any or none of your cards

to the discard pile and then take new cards from the draw pile until you have 6 cards in your hand. You may take fewer cards if you wish. ¢ Orient a Piece: Change the orientation of any one of your pieces.

Li?

Gnostica

Suit Powers Cups — Create Add one of your small pieces

to the target territory, but only if there are fewer than three pieces of any ownership in that territory already. Place it in any orientation. You may instead create an enemy piece if you are targeting one, in

which case you add one of the enemy's small pieces to the target territory in the same orientation as the enemy's original piece, but again you

may only add the new piece if there are fewer than three pieces in that territory. If no small piece is available, you may not create a new one.

Ole

Before

OB

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Le

\

After

Cups Create 1-Pointers

-

5

\ Before

AX

O|lO ©

Alternatively, you may create a territory by placing a spot

card from your hand into a Cups Can

a V

After

Create Nearby

targeted wasteland space, as

long as that space is not occupied by enemy pieces. You may not create a new card into a void space. Any

pieces

that

were

on

the

oN

targeted wasteland remain

there in the same orientations,

even though the territory under them has changed. If you don’t have a card in your hand that is worth exactly one point,

action.

you

cannot

do

this

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Before

iS»

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©)

After

Cups Can Create Cards 113

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Rods — Move Move

the

minion

in the

direction the minion is pointing, or push a target piece in that same direction. It may be moved or pushed up to as many spaces as the minion has pips: small minions move or push 1 Space;

medium

minions

oO lb

©

| oO

s

Before V

\

Aiter Using Rods to Move

move or push 1 or 2 spaces; large minions move or push 1, 2, or

3 spaces. However, the moved piece may never end in a space with 3 or more pieces in it, nor may it end in a void space. You may not move a piece zero spaces. If the piece moved is yours you may orient it, but if it’s an enemy piece then it retains its original orientation. Note that a piece standing upright may not use a rod.

Alternatively, you may push

a territory in the direction the minion is pointing, but only

if the territory is not occupied by enemy pieces. When a territory is pushed, all pieces remain in their spaces, with their orientations intact; they do not move with the territory. The territory may

be pushed up to as many spaces as the minion has pips.

© Using

After Rods to Push

The territory may be pushed through any space, but must land

in a wasteland space that is not occupied by enemy pieces. If a territory lands in a wasteland space occupied by your own pieces, place the territory under your pieces. You may not push a territory into the void. If moving a card causes wasteland

spaces to turn into void spaces, they do not do so until after the

card is moved; any pieces left in these void spaces are destroyed.

Note that a pushed territory may have to change its orientation to fit the board's horizontal-vertical tile pattern. 114

Gnostica

Discs — Grow When growing a piece, the minion or target piece is replaced by a piece exactly one size larger of the same

color. If the piece is yours then you may orient it, but if it is an enemy piece then

it

retains

its

original

EN

aN

in the stash, you cannot

Oo}

V

\

Before

|

\

%

After

©

orientation. If there isn't a

piece of the size you need

oO ls co

Using Discs to Grow

grow that piece.

Alternatively, you may grow the target territory if it is not occupied by enemy pieces. Discard the targeted territory and

then replace it with a territory from your hand that is worth exactly 1 more point than the original territory. Thus a spot card can be grown to a royalty card, or a royalty card can be grown

to a major arcana card. Any pieces that were on the targeted space remain there in the same

orientations,

even

though the territory under them has changed. If you

RR

don't have a card in your

hand that is worth exactly 1 more point that the original territory, you cannot grow

that territory.

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is

RX

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:

|

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©

After

Discs Can Upgrade Cards

115

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Swords — Attack =e

4

When attacking a piece, the minion shrinks its victim up to as many pips as the minion has, replacing the victim with a smaller piece of the appropriate size from the victim player's stash in

S

original victim. Thus a small piece shrinks its victim by

©

the same orientation as the

one pip; a medium piece by

one or two pips; and a large

O

OllO

Before

After

Using Swords to Attack

piece by one, two, or three pips. If you shrink the victim down

to zero pips, it is simply destroyed, but if the victim would be left with one or two pips and there is no smaller piece to replace

it, you cannot shrink it. You may not attack a victim for zero

pips of damage. You may allow the minion to attack itself, either

shrinking it or even destroying it. If you attack one of your own pieces and don’t destroy it, you may orient it after shrinking it. Alternatively, you may attack a territory if it is not occupied by enemy pieces. Shrink the targeted territory's value up to as many pips as the minion has by discarding the territory and replacing

it with an appropriately lesser-valued card from your hand, or no card if the territory is destroyed. If the territory is not destroyed, and you do not have the required lesser-valued card

in your hand, you cannot do this action. You may not replace the territory with one from your hand that has the

mm

same value. If you destroy a

territory and it leaves any

minions in the void, they are also destroyed.

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ee

After

Swords can Destroy Cards 116

Gnostica

Notes About Major Arcana with Two Powers Many of the major arcana cards have two powers; the Devil has three. When you play a card from your hand, all of your pieces on the board become minions for the duration of the turn, and

you may split the powers among several pieces or use them all on one piece. For example, when you play Death from your hand,

two of your pieces may attack with one sword each, or one of

your pieces may attack with both swords.

When you activate a territory on the board, all of your pieces on that territory become minions for the duration of the turn, and

they are able to use the power of that territory. In addition, any of your pieces that you apply actions to also become minions

for that turn. For example, when you activate the Lovers on the

board, one of your minions could use the rod to move off of the

Lovers and then use the cup, even though the minion is no longer on the Lovers. Alternatively, one of your minions could use the rod to push away one of your pieces that’s next to the Lovers, and that pushed piece could then use the cup. Whenever the same piece or territory is being affected by two actions, you may take shortcuts that you would not be able to take if you had to do the two actions in two different turns. This will be clarified in each case below. All powers are optional. For example, you may choose to use

Temperance for one cup rather than two. You may use the Moon

just to attack or just to move.

In no case may you reverse the powers of a major arcana that

has two different powers. For example, the Sun is always a cup

followed by a disc. You may not play the disc first and the cup second.

Icon Stickers The icons used on the following pages are available through our website. You can download an Adobe Acrobat” file containing the correct icons for each card, print it onto a fullsized sheet of sticker paper (Avery 5353), and cut out the icons with scissors. Visit www.LooneyLabs.com for details.

Li?

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Major Arcana Powers Fool

Empress

Turn over the next

Orient

card from the draw pile and play it. Repeat once. As

with

all

actions,

using the powers of these cards _ optional.

is

a minion,

and then use as a

cup, ignoring the

normal

limit

of

three pieces in a space.

Emperor

Magician Use as a sword, rod,

cup, or disc.

Orient a minion, and then use as a

rod, ignoring the

normal

limit

of

three pieces in a space.

High Priestess Discard any or none of your cards and

then hand

fewer

draw your up to 6 or cards,

then

discard and draw again.

Hierophant Replace the target piece with one of yours of the same size, and then orient

it. This may not be done if you do not

have a piece of the same size in your stash.

118

Gnostica

Lovers Use

as a rod

and

then use as a cup.

Hermit Move a targeted piece to any empty territory or waste-

land space on the

board, or move a tar-

geted territory to any

wasteland

Chariot Use as a rod twice.

If both rods move the same piece, it may pass through the void or through a space that has three or

more

pieces

in it,

but may not end

there. For example, a small piece could move through a space that has three pieces in it and come out the other side to a space that has only one piece in it.

Strength Use as a disc twice. If both discs grow the same piece or territory,

you may skip the intermediate step. For example, you may

card

grow a spot

to a major

arcana card without spending

on the

board not occupied by enemy pieces. As

with rods, if you move your

own piece it may be placed in any orientation, but if you move an opponent's piece it

must remain in the same orientation it had before moving. When using the Hermit to move a territory, the targeted

territory may not be occupied by enemy pieces. Wheel of Fortune

Use as a cup. When

used to_ create territory you may

optionally draw the

new territory from

the top of the draw pile rather than from your hand, and thus

replace the target wasteland

with the randomly drawn card. This could potentially change a wasteland into a major arcana card, if you are lucky.

a royalty card.

119

Playing with Pyramids: 12 Games for Icehouse Pieces

Justice

Trade hands with a player who owns a piece that one of

your

minions

Temperance Use as a cup twice.

is

targeting; then use as a sword.

Hanged Man Use

as a rod; then

trade hands with a player who owns a piece that one of

your minions targeting.

is

Devil Orient a_ target piece, even if it is not yours. Repeat two times. Note

that if you orient

your minion as one

of

the

orientations,

three

its

targets change. For example, an upright piece on the Devil could orient to

Death Use as

point at a nearby enemy, a

sword

twice. If both swords shrink the same

piece

or territory,

you may skip the intermediate step. For example, a small

piece could kill an opponent’s medium

piece even if the opponent had no small pieces in his or her

120

and then orient two enemies on that territory to point away. The Devil is the only card that allows you to orient an enemy piece, and

is the only card with three powers.

Gnostica

Sun a minion,

then

use

as

a