New Rule

Introduction: A fast-paced, quick-changing game of “divide and conquer” territory claiming, Hardscrabble is a simple little game with big plans — easy to learn and quick to play, but not as easy as it looks. Roll the dice and draw shapes to claim space, but be careful you don’t get too greedy or your opponent will split your claim down the middle!

Players: 2+

Materials:

• One six-sided die.
• Markers or pens of different colors, one per player.
• One sheet of standard letter-sized (A4) paper.

Setting Up: Lay the sheet in the center of the table and distribute the pens or markers to each player. Roll off to see who goes first; play proceeds to the left.

How to Play: The objective of the game is claim territory, accomplished by drawing closed shapes of vertices and edges, or dots and lines to the non-technical :). Each turn, the player rolls the dice to see how many lines they may draw: each line may be drawn wherever they wish, in any orientation, within the following conditions:

1. It must be bounded by two dots of their color. This includes existing dots, from which a new line might extend, or new dots to bound the line on either end. The player may draw as many dots as necessary to bound their lines on their turn but no more: each line runs between two dots — there are no “floating” lines or dots allowed.
2. It must be approximately as long as the width of the player’s thumb. Obviously, different people have different-sized thumbs — the intent is to maintain an easily-comparable, defined standard without the need for a ruler. If there is significant discrepancy between thumb sizes among players, it is recommended to designate a player as the “master thumb” and use their thumb for all measurements.

Rings and Intersections: Lines are used to form shapes by connecting a continuous, unbroken ring of lines and dots. However, lines cannot be drawn that intersect opponents’ lines unless the player is able to form a superiority to the enemy line on the turn their lines are drawn. Superiority simply means having more lines across the intersection than the opponent.

For example: A player (Red) wishes to draw a line that intersects an existing line drawn by their opponent (Blue). In order to do so, Red must draw two lines across Blue’s line to gain a 2-1 superiority. Luckily, Red rolled a four so she is able to do this, spending two of her four lines on this move and the remaining two on any other legal move she chooses. On Blue’s turn, if he wishes to counter Red’s move, he needs to roll at least two in order to be able to add two lines to the intersection, making his advantage 3-2 and achieving a new superiority.

Any number of lines may be drawn between two dots by the controlling player as long as they still end their turn with more lines across the intersection. Players may also draw extra lines to strengthen un-intersected lines, as a defensive move to make it more difficult for players to override them. When drawing multiple lines between two dots, draw the first line to be straight and of correct length, and draw all subsequent lines as arcs. Intersections can involve lines from more than two players, but only one player can hold a superiority at a time — ties are considered to be mutually inferior.

When a player connects a sequence of lines into a continuous ring, it considered a closed shape and cannot be added to or intersected by any player, including the player who created it — this means no new lines may be drawn across any part of the shape, even if the player would normally have the ability to create a superiority. Closed shapes that have superiority at all intersections within their circumference are considered live: shapes with one or more inferior intersections are dead.

Winning the Game: At the end of the game, each player scores one point for each dot in all their live shapes. The player with the highest score wins.

Next: Designing “Hardscrabble”

Coming Soon…

Tags: Game Design //