New Game: Jaywalkers

Jaywalkers is a 2 player game, played on the spaces of a 8x8 board.

2 pawns in two colors and 62 path tiles.

SETUP - Place board between players, pawns start on any space of each player’s respective first rows.

PLAY – Decide who goes first, turn then alternates.

A player on his turn must take two actions.

1.Place a tile onto an empty space.
2.Move your pawn in a series of one or more rook moves over any number of tiles following any one of three paths shown on a tile you're currently moving over and ending the move on an empty space.

RESTRICTIONS – The tile you placed on your turn must be part of the route your pawn takes. A pawn may not land on a tile. Your pawn may not jump over your opponent's pawn.

ENDGAME – You win if your opponent is unable to take his two actions.

The inspiration for this game came from Tsuro and Spaghetti Junction.

New Game: Fenrir

Well as I promised, here is my first attempt at a thematic type game based on a Norse myth.

Fenrir

According to Norse myth, Fenrir the wolf was the third son of Loki and the giantess Angrboda. It was prophesied that Fenrir would one day devour Odin ushering in Ragnarok. Tyr the god of war took it upon himself to feed Fenrir while he was still a pup, but as time went on Fenrir grew larger as did the gods fear of him. The gods then decided to bind the wolf with a fetter they called Leyding. The wolf easily broke free of his bonds. The gods then used another fetter called Dromi and once again to no avail. Receiving word of this Odin called upon the dwarves of Svartalfheim to fashion a fetter made up of six magic ingredients, they called this ribbon like material, Gleipnir. Once bound with Gleipnir, Fenrir was unable to break free…

2 to 4 players

36 Fetter cards in 3 suits

1 Pawn

1 Movement track

Objective

Players are Norse gods trying to stop Fenrir from reaching and devouring Odin.

Setup

Place the pawn on the first wolf spot of the track board.

3 or 4 player game

The Deal

The dealer thoroughly shuffles the deck and deals out all 36 cards one at a time to each player.

The player to the left of the dealer goes first by asking one of the other players for a card by rank and suit. The player asking for a card must already hold at least one card of the same suit.

If the player that was asked has the requested card he plays the card to the table face up starting a discard pile (the cards should be fanned so that the rank and suit are showing). Then move the pawn along the track backwards the number of spaces indicated on that discarded card. Now the asking player continues his turn and may ask the same player or another player for a card.

If the player that was asked does not have the requested card then the asking player must discard face up onto the discard pile a card of the same suit asked and moves the pawn along the track forwards the number of spaces indicated on that discarded card and now the turn to ask passes to the next player to the left.

The gods win if they discard all their fetter cards before Fenrir reaches Odin, otherwise they lose.

A 2 player game

Each player is dealt a hand of 10 cards and the remaining 16 cards are stacked face down on the table. A player who does not have the requested card draws one card from the stock before asking the opponent for another card. The remaining rules are the same as in a 3 or 4 player game.

Here are the PNP files, enjoy!

Fenrir Rules

Fenrir Cards and Movement Track

The Game Changer

Well guys Descent will be my last purely abstract game for a while, as I pursue more thematic game designs.

I leave you with a hint on what I'll be working on in the following months.

First is a spy game where players are sleeper spies trying to locate and neutralize who they think is the double agent, the second  game is based on a Viking myth.


Cheers!

New Game: Descent

A tactical game for two players

Materials

6 pawns, 3 black and 3 white
125 square tiles

Setup

Arrange stacks of five tiles into a 5x5 grid, then place two like color pawns on diagonally opposite corner stacks. The remaining two pawns are placed at B3 and D3.

Definitions

Adjacent- Means orthogonally or diagonally adjacent.

Play

One plays black the other white.

Decide who goes first in any appropriate manner, turns then alternate.

On a turn you,

Move a friendly pawn to an empty adjacent tile that is 1 higher, 1 lower or the same height as the one it was on, then remove one empty tile of one or more stacks that are of the same height and adjacent to the stack of the pawn last moved.

Objective

There are two ways to win,

1) The player who makes a line of his three pawns either orthogonally or diagonally (the line of pawns must be on adjacent stacks of the same height) or

2) The player last to move.

Kris Burm Interview

Kris Burm is most famous for his GIPF series of abstract games.

An interview with Kris Burm conducted by Kerry Handscomb and published in Issue 6 (Summer 2001) of Abstract Games should be read by anyone designing and ever hoping to get their abstract games published.

UNPUB 4!

Click on the logo above for more info!

Unpub 4 is bigger than ever!

———-Event Schedule———-

FRIDAY, JANUARY 17th
- Designer and Publisher ONLY networking event
- Pitch your work, hang with friends, get final preparations done before…

SATURDAY, JANUARY 18th
- Play test new games

SUNDAY, JANUARY 19th
- Publisher & Pancake Panel
- More play testing & feed back fun!
More events, contests, and panels to be announced closer to the event!!

Designer & Player registration will open soon.

Ludology podcasts

Ludology for those who do not know is the study of games and anyone even remotely interested in games should check out this very informative podcast site!