Title: Easy Slider Version Number: 0.2.4 Date: January 16, 2003 Number of Players: Any number Approximate Length of Game: 15 minutes and up Equipment Required: One piecepack per player, an opaque bag, and a smooth, flat surface Author: RANDM Axes Games (Ron and Marty Hale-Evans) Copyright: Copyright 2002, 2003 by Ron and Marty Hale-Evans Licensing Information: Copyright 2002, 2003 by Ron and Marty Hale-Evans. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license can be found at . Easy Slider An entry in the Changing Landscapes Contest Introduction Easy Slider is the first game in a new piecepack genre: the "B.Y.O.P.", or "Bring Your Own Piecepack" game. It can be played solitaire, or with as many players as there are piecepacks available. It can even be played over the phone or via online chat. Players agree on how many rounds of the game they will play. (Three is a good number for beginners.) On each round, a Caller is chosen. (Callers need not rotate.) The Caller creates a random layout of tiles and randomly designates a strict order in which the tiles must be placed. All players then try to slide the tiles on their boards one at a time into the proper positions. The player who does so the fastest over the specified number of rounds is the winner. Setup The main goal for setup is for the Caller to generate a randomly arranged board and help all the players set up identical versions of it. This provides all the players with identical puzzles to solve. 1. The Caller shuffles all 24 tiles of his piecepack face down and lays them in a 5x5 board on the table, with a "hole" where the 25th tile would be in the lower right-hand corner. 2. The Caller throws all the coins in one suit except the Null into the bag, along with the four pawns. The other players set aside the Ace through 5 coins of one suit and their own pawns. 3. The Caller draws the four pawns from the bag one by one, announcing the color of each one as it emerges. He places them to the left of rows 1 through 4 of his board, in the order they were drawn. The other players place their pawns in a manner corresponding to the Caller's pawns. 4. The Caller draws the five coins from the bag one by one, announcing the value of each one as it emerges. He places them above columns 1 through 5 of his board, in the order they were drawn. The other players place their coins in order corresponding to the Caller's coins. 5. The Caller flips his face-down tiles over, moving from left to right on the top row, then moving to the second row, and so on down to the bottom, announcing the color and value of each tile as he does so. Example: "Blue 5, Green Null, Green 2, Red Ace...". The other players place the same tiles from their own sets into the corresponding positions. 6. Each player's board should now resemble the following diagram. (It will probably differ in the order of pawns and coins, but every player's board should look the same as every other's.) 2 4 5 A 3 K T T T T T R T T T T T B T T T T T G T T T T T T T T T Key: K = black pawn, A = ace coin, T= tile. Game Play 1. At the Caller's signal, all players (including the Caller) now attempt to slide the tiles on their boards to their proper positions as designated by the pawns and coins around the outside of the board. For example, in the above diagram, the tile in the top left corner should be the Black 2 (2 of Moons), the second tile in that row should be the Black 4, the tile at the end of the second row should be the Red 3 (3 of Suns), and so on. 2. Tiles may not be picked up, but must be slid across the playing surface. Players move tiles sequentially around the 5x5 grid into the shifting "hole". (This may remind you of the "15 Puzzle", the little set of tiles held in a frame with numbers to put in order.) Players must slide only one tile at a time, and must keep each tile in only one column and one row at a time (except the tile currently being moved). Players must use only one hand to slide tiles. 3. All null tiles must be placed in the bottom row. They may be placed in any order, and the hole may be anywhere in the row. (This row is known as the "parity sponge", and guarantees that every Easy Slider board is solvable.) 4. The first player to finish his board calls "Done!" and the other players check his board to make sure it is correct. 5. If his board is correct, he receives a number of points equal to the number of other players he beat (for example, four points in a five-player game), and play continues. 6. If his board is incorrect, he receives zero points, and play continues. This is called a "fumble". 7. The next player to finish calls "Done!" and the process just described is repeated. (In a five-player game, the second player to finish would normally receive three points, because he beat three other players.) 8. Players continue to go out of the game until only one player is still trying to solve his board. That player receives zero points, and the round is over. 9. At the end of the round, every player who did not fumble, including the player who did not finish his board, receives one bonus point for every player who did fumble that round; all other players are considered to have beat every player who fumbled. 10. Play continues until the agreed-upon number of rounds has been played. The points gained by the players on each round are added to the points they gained on previous rounds. At the end of the last round, the player with the most points wins the game. 11. If there is a tie among players at the end of the agreed-upon number of rounds, the tied players engage in a final playoff round. At the end of the playoff round, the player with the most points wins the game. Antecedents As mentioned in the rules, Easy Slider resembles the classic 15 Puzzle, often called the "19th-Century Rubik's Cube". In fact, the strongest influences on this game were the 15 Puzzle itself (Anonymous; popularized by Sam Loyd in the 1870s); Square Off (Alex Randolph; Parker Brothers, 1972); and Take It Easy (Peter Burley; FX Schmid, 1994), in that order. The best way to improve at Easy Slider, besides playing it solitaire, is to practice the 15 Puzzle. Here are some links to web pages that give tips on solving the 15 Puzzle, and by extension, Easy Slider. (The first two pages should also clarify why the "parity sponge" row is necessary.) http://www.jimloy.com/puzz/15.htm http://rec-puzzles.org/new/sol.pl/competition/games/15.puzzle http://www.javaonthebrain.com/java/puzz15/technical.html During the design of this game, the designers became fond of a pocket edition of the puzzle from Binary Arts. It is made of enameled stainless steel, with a "chunky" solid feel, and only costs about US$10.00. (This is not a paid endorsement.) http://binaryarts.com/OurProducts/BA/01p_fifteen.htm Credits Thanks to the members of Seattle Cosmic Game Night for playtesting Easy Slider, especially Tim Schutz and Steve and Nat Dupree. History 0.2.4 (January 16, 2003): Game more or less finalized in September 2002. Current version slightly revised and submitted to the Changing Landscapes piecepack game design contest.