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DecayA Changing Landscapes game for the piecepack by Robert Mundschau & Matt
Heistade-mail: rmundsc@gocsg.netCopyright © 2003 by Robert Mundschau & Matt
HeistadVersion 01.01, January 17, 20033 – 4 players, approx. 30 – 60 minutes
depending on how reckless you are This game may be distributed freely without charge
and without changes, but theauthors retain full ownership rights to the rules
described herein. Required Materials 1 piecepackA suitable flat surface for play.
Summary of Play The players create a game board from the piecepack tiles. They pay
coins to move theirpawn, and tiles around to attack other players. Attacks can steal
coins from otherplayers, or chop off sections of the board, making the game board
smaller. If your pawnis on a board section that is removed, or you cannot move your
pawn during your turn,then you are killed and removed from play. Last player
remaining on the board wins! Overview of the Pieces In this section I try to provide
some explanation of how the piecepack pieces are used inthis game.- Tiles are used
to make up the playfield. All tiles are placed suit-side-up! Both thevalue on the
tile and the suit effect play. Tiles that are touching on an edge areconnected for
the purpose of moving your pawn between them. There arerestrictions on how the tiles
may be touching one another. I should note at thistime, that with the board changing
throughout play, things tend to get jostled abouta bit. So tiles may separate a
fraction of an inch from each other. For the purposesof the game, they are still in
contact. In other words, don’t be a weenie!- Pawns represent the position of the
player on the board. A pawn occupies a singletile at a time. During Normal Play, a
player must move their pawn to a differentunoccupied space or they are killed and
out of the game.- Coins are the currency of the game. Players use the coins in their
hand to pay formoving their pawn, and for rearranging the tiles on the board. Each
coin in aplayer’s hand may be spent once per turn, at the end of the player’s turn
all spentcoins are restored to the player’s hand to be spent again the next turn.
Coins canbe stolen, or charged as a toll to other players to remove coins from
anotherplayer’s hand and add them to your own.- Each player has one die. It is used
at the start of the game to determine the order ofplay. It is then used again during
Normal Play as a marker to indicate the last tilethat the player moved. The presence
of a die on a tile has consequencesexplained later.

Setup 1. Each player chooses a suit and takes the corresponding pawn, die, tiles and
coins.(Note: A 2 player game is possible, where each player controls 2 suits,
alternating play isrecommended in this case.) 2. Players roll their die to see who
moves first. The suit face of the die is worth 1. Thenull side of the die is worth
zero. High roll wins. Roll again to resolve ties. Playrotates to the left around the
table for the duration of the game.3. Game play is divided into 2 stages: Board
Creation, Normal Play. Board Creation1. Starting with the player who goes first.
Players take turns placing 1 of their 6 tiles tocreate the initial game board. The
order that the player chooses to place their 6 tilesis completely their decision.
Differences between the tiles will be explained shortly.Aside from the placement of
the very first tile, all tile placements must adhere to thefollowing restrictions:a)
You must place your tile in contact with at least one other tile already placed
onthe table (see figure below):

  2 3   2   3    YES! NO!  b) If you place a tile in contact with more than 1 other
  tile, then none of the othertiles it touches may be touching each other (see
  figure below):



2 3
4 5

2
2 3
4

2

 YES! NO!  c) You may not place a tile so that it completely shares one edge with
 the entireedge of another tile. The tiles must be offset from each other by at
 least onequarter the length of the side of a tile (see figure below):

  2 32
2 3
2

 YES! NO! Rules to consider when placing your tiles in preparation for Normal
 play:a) Your pawn will start on your ace tile, the one with the large suit image on
 it.b) Your ace tile is immune to attack, and can only be moved or shifted by you.
 2. When all players have placed all 6 of their tiles, the players place their pawn
 on theirace tile to begin play. Normal Play then begins with the player that placed
 the firsttile in the Board Creation phase. Normal PlayEach player’s turn consists
 of 3 steps that MUST be performed in the order listed below:1. Move your pawn.2.
 Move up to a single tile.3. Slide zero or more tiles. The specific rules for each
 step are given below. To perform actions during the stepsyou usually must pay 1 or
 more coins from your hand as explained below. Spent coinsare not lost. When you
 start your turn, you have all your coins in your hand. As youspend coins set them
 aside. At the end of your turn you will return all spent coins to yourhand (except
 those paid as a toll, see below) for use again next turn.  Step 1. Move your
 pawn:You MUST move your pawn at the start of your turn. You will spend coins from
 yourhand to move your pawn to an adjacent tile. You may move as many times as
 youhave the coins in your hand to spend. You may enter a Tile occupied by
 anotherpawn, but you must pay a toll to that player (explained below). You must
 move yourpawn to an empty tile, which it did not occupy at the start of the move.
 You may notmove into an adjacent space, and then move back to where you started.
 You may notend movement of your pawn in a tile occupied by another pawn. To move to
 an adjacent tile you must spend coins from your hand. If you have a coinin your
 hand that matches the suit of the Tile you wish to enter, then you may spendthat
 one coin of the same suit to enter that tile. If you do not have a coin in your
 hand that matches the suit of the tile you wish toenter, or you want to save a coin
 of a particular suit for a later move, then you mustspend from your hand a number
 of coins of suits different suits equal to the numericalvalue of the tile to be
 entered. A null Tile is free to enter for all players. An ace tile hasa cost of 1
 to enter. Tiles marked 2, 3, 4, or 5 cost that number of coins to enter.

Example payment:  A player has 4 moon coins and 2 crown coins. To move into the 5
Moon tile,the player would pay 1 Moon coin. To enter the 5 Arms tile or the 5 Sun
tile, the player couldspend 3 Moons and 2 crowns, or 4 Moons and 1 crown to equal 5
coins. To enter the 5 CrownTile, the player would spend 1 crown coin.   Dice
Markers: A tile that contains a die of any player is free to enter to all playersthe
same as if it were one of the 4 null tiles. See the rules for Step 2 to learn whya
tile would contain a die. Tolls: If the space entered is occupied by another pawn,
the player who hasentered the space must pay a coin to the player occupying the
space. This toll of1 coin is paid in addition to whatever was paid to enter the Tile
in the first place.The player entering the occupied space must choose any unspent
coin from theirhand and give it to the occupying player. The player awarded the
toll, adds thecoin to his or her hand. The player awarded the toll keeps the coin in
their handuntil it is lost paying a similar toll, or to an attack (explained later)
Death: If you cannot move to a different unoccupied space because you do nothave
enough coins in your hand, then you are killed! Remove your pawn, and die(if
present) from the board. All coins in your hand are out of the game. Your gameis
over. You cannot be attacked to win your coins; they are lost forever. Your turnis
over. If you die, you may not move or shift any tiles. Your turn endsimmediately.
NOTE: Do not pay any tolls to other players if you cannot successfully complete
movement of yourpawn to a different empty space. You die before the toll is paid.
Step 2. Moving a TileWhen you have successfully moved your pawn to a new space. You
may choose tospend some of the remaining coins in your hand (if any remain) to
remove a singletile from the game board and reattach it somewhere else on the game
board. Unlikemoving your pawn, moving a tile is completely optional, but it is the
only way to attackother players and steal their coins. To move a tile:a) Pick a tile
that can be moved.b) Spend the necessary coins from your hand to move the tile.c)
Remove the tile from the game board.d) Place the tile back on the game board in a
different locatione) Resolve any split game board situationf) Resolve any attacks
made by moving the tile. Not all tiles can be moved. To be available for moving, the
tile may not be touchingother tiles on more than 2 adjacent sides. The number of
tiles touched is notimportant, the question is which sides are touching. (See figure
below.)

23
2

4

5
2
3

2 5
2
3

2

4

 YES! NO! NO! An ace tile may only be moved by the owner. A tile with a die on it
 cannot be moved by anyone, even if it is your die on the tile. The cost to move a
 tile is the same as if you were moving your pawn into the tile (seeStep 1 - Move
 Your Pawn above). When you place the tile, you must conform to the restrictions for
 placing tiles as listed inthe section Board Creation. In addition, the replaced
 tile may not be touching the sameside of any tile it was touching before it was
 picked up for moving. It may be placedtouching a different side of a tile it was
 touching before being picked up. REMEMBER: Put your die to the newly moved tile.
 NOTE: If you choose not to move a tile, but moved a tile last turn, then you must
 remove your die fromthe game board this turn at the end of Step 2.
 Resolving a Split Game board: It is perfectly legal to move a tile so as to split
 thegame board into 2 completely disconnected sections. When this happens, count
 thenumber of tiles in each section of the Game board. All tiles in the section with
 fewertiles are removed from play! Any players whose pawns are in the smaller
 section ofthe board are killed (see Killed section above)! If the 2 sections of the
 board have thesame number of tiles, then the section containing the player whose
 turn it is remains,and the other section is removed from play. Suicide is possible
 so beware. (Seefigure below.)

232
4 4
Sun 4 is removed from play.

Crown 2 is moved

Note: It is possible to split the board by removing a tile for movement, and then
reconnect the game boardelsewhere when the piece is replaced. You do not check to
see if the game board is split until thepiece being moved, has been placed in its
new position. Resolving Attacks: If you move a tile of your own suit, then you may
use it to attackyour opponents. If you move a tile belonging to an opponent, then no
attack ispossible. Every opposing tile that the moved tile touches after it is moved
isattacked. Add up the value of all tiles the attacker owns that are touching the
tileunder attack. Null tiles are worth zero and ace tiles are worth 1. Add the value
ofthe tile under attack and all tiles of the same suit that it is touching. Compare
the 2values. If the attacking total is greater than the defense, then the attack
issuccessful. A tie always goes to the defender. IMPORTANT: You cannot attack a null
tile or an ace tile of an opponent. You cannot attack with your nulltile, but you
can attack with your ace tile. It is possible for a single moved tile result
inmultiple successful attacks. If you win an attack, you may select ANY coin from
the losing players hand. Only theattacker can win a coin. If the defender wins, no
coin is transferred. (See figure below.)

32
3

4 2

The Moon player moves the Moon 3
Tile to attack the Crown 2 Tile, and
the Arms 4 Tile. The attack on Crown 2
succeeds because 3 is greater than 2.
The attack on Arms 4 succeeds
because the Moon 2 Tile is also touching
the Arms 4 Tile yielding an attack
strength of 5.
 Example of a successful double attack by the Moon player.  Step 3 - Slide
 Tiles:After completing the optional movement of a single tile, you may spend
 anyremaining coins to slide tiles. The cost to slide a tile is always 1 coin
 regardless ofthe value or suit of the tile or coin. Only tiles that are being
 touched by other tiles on three sides may be slid. You may not slide a tile that
 has a pawn or a die on it You may not slide an ace tile owned by another player. To
 slide a tile, pay one coin. Then move the tile by sliding it in the direction of
 theside of the tile that initially was not touching any other tile. You may slide
 the tile

into contact with other tile, but it must remain in contact with at least 2 of
theoriginal tiles it was touching.

4

3
42
5

2 53

The highlighted tiles in this
diagram are legal
candidates for sliding. The
arrow shows the direction
each tile may be slid.
Sliding some tiles would
make others no longer be
legal candidates for sliding.

Ace tiles may not be slid
except by their owner.
  IMPORTANT: You may NOT slide a tile in such a way as to split the game board into
  2 unconnectedsections. IMPORTANT: Do not place your die onto any tile that you
  slide. The die is only placed on a tile thatyou removed from the game board and
  replaced somewhere else entirely.  When sliding a tile, if it comes into contact
  with a new tile, you must stop sliding thetile. End of turn: At the end of your
  turn return all spent coins to your hand. Play then moves to thenext player to the
  left. End of Game: Game play continues until only 1 player has a pawn on the
  board. The remaining playeris the winner. NOTE: It is possible to reach a draw
  game, where the 2 final players will not be able to attack each othereffectively,
  and will only move pieces in a circular manner that prevents them from losing.
  Thepossibility of a draw is rare. If such a case arises, then you should declare a
  draw.