This is an AutoGeneratedTextVersion of Clear
Clear! A game for 1 piecepack per player by David Hassell (DavidLHsl@aol.com) Version 1.0.0, July 4, 2003 Copyright: developed by David Hassell, but permission granted to freely distribute anduse as one sees fit 2+ players, approx. 5 minutes per round Object: Score the most points after a predetermined number of rounds (7 rounds makesan excellent game). Object of each round is to be one of the first players to clear yourcard. Introduction This game is very similar to Bingo in the sense that each player possesses a “card,” whichone marks based on a random element. In this case, you are attempting to remove coinsbased on the roll of 4 dice. Note that use of terms his and him in these instructions is intended to be gender neutral. Equipment Each player requires: • 6 piecepack tiles (doesn’t matter which ones) • 4 piecepack dice • 24 coins from one piecepack (all 4 suits, null/2-5/ace each suit) • opaque bag, cup, or other means of mixing 24 piecepack coins for randomdrawing One player is designated the scorekeeper. That person needs: • notepad and pencil, or some other scorekeeping mechanism • an additional piecepack tile • 3 pawns Setup Each player arranges his 6 piecepack tiles face-down in a 3 across by 2 downarrangement. This will create a board consisting of 24 smaller squares in a 6 across by 4down grid. From this point forward, this will be referred to as a card in these rules. Each player places his 4 piecepack dice near his card. From this point forward, these willsimply be referred to as dice. The scorekeeper places a separate tile face-down nearby. This is called the Scratch Tile.Place three pawn next to, but not on, this tile. This will be used by the scorekeeper tokeep track of the number of consecutive scratch rounds (explained later). Thescorekeeper also places the scorepad nearby. At the beginning of each round of play, each player places his 24 piecepack coins into anopaque bag or container and mixes them. Blindly draw the coins one at a time and placethem rank-side up on the card. This should be done left-to-right, top-to-bottom. Whencomplete, the player’s card will have all 24 coins placed 6 across and 4 down. Designate by any agreeable means a player to roll first. This player will roll in the firstround. The roller in the next round will pass to the next person to the left, clockwise, orother mutually agreed upon rotation. Finally, determine the number of rounds that will be played to qualify as a completegame. Suggested number of rounds: 7. Definitions Line of x: x number of consecutive coins in a row, column, or diagonal. Empty squares donot obstruct a line of coins. For example, if two coins are separated by 3 empty squares;those coins are still considered a Line of 2, just as long as they are along the samecolumn, row, or diagonal. The only lines in this game are Line of 2, Line of 3 and Line of4. Four: A player calls this if removing a Line of 4. Scratch: A player calls this if unable to remove a Line. Clear: A player calls this if his card no longer contains a Line of 3. Scratch Round: If all players call Scratch, the round is announced by the scorekeeper as aScratch Round. Scratch Tile: Tile used by the scorekeeper to track number of consecutive ScratchRounds. Scratch-Off: After 3 consecutive Scratch Rounds, the scorekeeper announces a Scratch-Off. How to Play At the beginning of each round, each player sets up his card according to the instructionsabove in Setup. Also, determine the current round’s roller as described in Setup. The roller rolls his 4 dice and announces the result to all players. Each player may rotatehis own dice to match the roll as a reference, or simply reference the roller’s dice if thedice can be placed within view of all players. Each player then examines his card and tries to find a Line of 3 or Line of 4 to remove. ALine of 4 consists of 4 consecutive coins in a row, column, or diagonal matching all 4dice. The order of the coins in relation to the dice rolled does not have to match, but it isimperative that each coin corresponds to a different die. For example, if the roll is ace/2/2/5; a player may remove a Line of 4 containing2/ace/5/2, 2/2/ace/5, 5/2/ace/2, or any similar combination. Examples of invalidcombinations include 2/ace/ace/5 (only one ace was rolled) and null/2/ace/5 (a null wasnot rolled). If a player is able to remove a Line of 4, that player removes the four coins from the cardand announces Four! The scorekeeper gives 2 points to each player calling Four. If unable to remove a Line of 4, the player may attempt to remove a Line of 3. These are3 consecutive coins in a row, column, or diagonal matching any 3 of the 4 dice rolled.Again, the order of the coins is not important. The important thing is that each coincorresponds of a different die. For example, if the roll is ace/2/2/5; a player may remove a Line of 3 containing 2/ace/5,ace/2/2, 5/2/2, 2/5/ace, or any similar combination. If a player is unable to remove a Line of 3 or a Line of 4, the player calls Scratch! If a player’s card contains several Lines of 4 and/or Lines of 3 matching the roll, theplayer may only select one Line to remove. Of course, the player should select a Line of4 over a Line of 3 to score the 2 points. Once a player begins removing coins orannounces Scratch, the player is committed to that choice. There is no time limit imposedon the players, but players should not spend too much time considering their move. After removing any Line of 3 or Line of 4, a player announces Clear! if the player’s cardno longer contains at least 3 coins in a row, column, or diagonal anywhere on the card.After one or more players announce Clear, proceed to scoring. Important reminder: coins separated by one or more empty spaces are still consideredconsecutive as long as they are on the same row, column, or diagonal. Scratch Rounds and Scratch-Off If all players announce Scratch, the scorekeeper places a pawn on the Scratch Tile tomark the Scratch Round. If there are 3 pawns on the tile after placing the pawn, thescorekeeper announces a Scratch-Off round. Otherwise, play continues. All pawns are removed from the Scratch Tile if, during a subsequent round, at least oneplayer is able to remove a Line of 3 or Line of 4. The purpose of the Scratch Tile is todetermine when 3 consecutive Scratch Rounds occur. Once any player is able to removecoins, the number of consecutive rounds is reset to zero. If the scorekeeper announces a Scratch-Off round, the scorekeeper removes all pawnsfrom the Scratch Tile. The person who last rolled then rolls 2 dice and announces theresult to all players. Only those 2 dice are considered. Each player then searches for aLine of 2 to remove. A player may still announce Clear if his card no longer contains aLine of 3 anywhere on the card after removing the Line of 2. If all players still announce Scratch, or anyone declares Clear; proceed to scoring. If at least one player can remove a Line of 2 and nobody declares Clear, play continues asnormal with the next roller rolling 4 dice. Another 3 consecutive Scratch Rounds have tooccur before having another Scratch-Off. Scoring Once one or more players declare Clear (Score Condition A), or the Scratch- Off stillresults in nobody able to remove coins (Score Condition B), the scorekeeper takes scores.After taking down the scores, the scorekeeper announces the number of rounds that havebeen played and each player’s score, unless players choose to waive this announcement.Of course, the scorekeeper should make an announcement when the agreed number ofrounds has occurred in order to declare a winner. If there are more rounds to play, all players set up a new card, and the next roundcommences. Score Condition A Each player declaring Clear scores 10 points minus the number of coins still remainingon that player’s card. For example, if a player announces Clear with 3 coins remaining,that player scores 10 – 3 = 7 points. If only one player is able to announce Clear, that player scores bonus points: 1 point foreach coin on any other card of that player’s choice. Of course, that player should selectthe card containing the most coins. These points are in addition to the points scored asdescribed above. Example: Mark is the only player to announce Clear in a 4 player game. Mark has 5 coinson his card, Mary has 6, Jack has 6 and Frank has 10. Mark scores 5 points for his card(10 – 5 = 5), and selects Frank’s card to score his bonus of 10 points. Therefore, Markhas scored 15 points for the round, not including any points scored for removing Lines of4 during play. Score Condition B This condition occurs if nobody is able to clear their card, and the Scratch-Off stillproduces a Scratch for all players. In this case, each player with less than 10 coins remaining on his card scores 10 pointsminus the number of coins remaining on his card. It is entirely possible for nobody toscore during the round (This occurs when all players still have 10+ coins on theirrespective cards.). Version History 1.0.0 (07/04/2003): First draft submitted to piecepack.org.