LeyLinesTextVersion

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TITLE
Ley Lines
VERSION
1.0.0
DATE
21 June 2002
AUTHOR
James Kyle
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2002 by James Kyle
permission granted to distribute freely except for profit
PLAYERS
3 - 4
PLAYTIME
30 minutes
COMPONENTS
1 piecepack
1 set of double-six dominoes (small enough for 2 dominoes to fit side-by-side on a tile)
pencil and paper to keep score
SUMMARY
Each player is the head of an ancient druidic order, building geographic conduits, called ley
lines
(dominoes), through which mystic energy can be channeled from the sources of such energy, called
cairns
(coins), to the order's sacred druidic stronghold, a tor (pawn). Each suit represents a different
druidic order:
worshippers of the sun (suns), worshippers of the moon (moons), worshippers of mankind (crowns),
and
worshippers of nature (arms).
BOARD SETUP
Arrange the tiles face-down as shown in the following diagram:
Eire
Albion
If playing with only 3 players, use only the 18 tiles that make up Albion. If playing with 4
players, use
all tiles to create both Albion and Eire.

CAIRN SETUP
After the board has been setup, give a pawn and matching set of coins to each player. Roll to see
who
begins cairn placement. Starting with the first player, and proceeding to the left, take turns
placing one of your
cairns (coins), face-down, onto an empty space of the board. Cairns may not be adjacent
(orthogonally), but
they may be diagonal to each other. You may examine the value of your cairns before placing them
on the board,
but do not show the other players. Once a cairn has been placed, it cannot be moved and its value
may not be
examined until it gets scored.
TOR SETUP
Once all cairns have been placed, players must place their tors (pawns), starting with the LAST
player
to place a cairn and proceeding to the RIGHT. (So, players will place their tors in the OPPOSITE
order they
placed their cairns.) Tors may not be adjacent to cairns, but may be diagonal. Also, there must be
at least two
spaces (orthogonal AND/OR diagonal) between tors. Once a tor has been placed, it cannot be moved.
LEY LINE SETUP
After placing tors, deal the ley line segments (dominoes). If there are 3 players, first discard
all 7
dominoes that contain a six. If there are 4 players, use all 28 dominoes. Shuffle the dominoes
(face-down) and
deal them evenly to all players. Players may look at their own dominoes, but should not show them
to others.
PLAY
Starting with the LAST player to place a tor (i.e., the first person to place a cairn), and
proceeding to the
LEFT, take turns. On your turn, you may either place one of your ley line segments (dominoes), or
you may
pass. (If you have no ley line segments left, you must pass.) After placing your segment, if there
is a complete
ley line between any cairn(s) and any tor, score it, check for attenuation, and discard the cairn.
BUILDING LEY LINES
To play a ley line segment (domino), place it face-up across two adjacent (non-diagonal) empty
spaces.
You must be able to trace at least one legal energy path from each space (half-domino) of the new
segment to
either a tor or a cairn. (The tor or cairn reached does not need to be your own.)
The mystic energy flows across ley lines from smaller values toward larger values. For the purpose
of
determining the flow of mystic energy, consider cairns to be valued zero and tors to be valued
seven. To trace
the flow of mystic energy from a given space, follow the values from space (half-domino) to
adjacent space
along the ley line; when moving toward a tor, each successive value must be equal to or greater
than the last;
when moving toward a cairn, each successive value must be equal to or smaller than the last. When
there is a
choice (or fork in the path), the energy will flow toward the adjacent space with the largest
value. Because of
this, it is possible for a cairn's energy to flow into the middle of nowhere, even when there is a
complete path
from the cairn to a tor.
SCORING CAIRNS
When a cairn's mystic energy can flow to a tor, the tor's player scores points for the cairn and
the length
of the path over which the mystic energy flows. Flip over the cairn and score points equal to its
value. Then,
count the number of spaces between the cairn and the tor through which the mystic energy flowed;
if the cairn
and tor are different colors, score one point per space; if the cairn and tor are the same color,
score two points
per space. If more than one cairn can be scored, score the others as well. After scoring all
cairns possible, check
for ley line attenuation, then discard the cairns.

LEY LINE ATTENUATION
After all cairns connected to a tor through a particular ley line have been scored, you must check
for ley
line attenuation. For each cairn that was scored, follow the energy path from the cairn to the tor
(remember,
always flowing to the highest adjacent value) and discard all ley line segments on which the
values of both
spaces are equal to or lower than the cairn's value.
GAME END
The game ends when either the last cairn is scored and removed from the board or when all players
have
passed in succession. The player with the highest score wins.
PLAYING TIPS
Try to group your cairns in a (full or partial) ring around your tor close enough to reach but far
enough to
generate plenty of distance scoring.
If feel you have an extra turn or two, try forcing a ley line to meander to gain more distance
points.
Try to remember your cairn values to anticipate ley line attenuation.
Try to short-cut some of the leading player's ley lines to limit the points awarded for distance.
Keep an eye out for a player trying to monopolize Eire by placing all of his or her cairns and tor
on Eire,
then placing a ley line segment across the small strip connecting Eire with Albion. Although
monopolizing Eire
will not guarantee a win, it does provide a strong position.