This is an AutoGeneratedTextVersion of Decay
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.