Push-Pull
| Push-Pull | ||
|---|---|---|
| Dan Isaac | ||
| A single-stash game for 2 or 4 designed for play with a Treehouse set. It is similar in some ways to Rock-Paper-Scissors and the Prisoner's Dilemma. | ||
| Players: | 2 - 3 | |
| Length: | Fast | |
| Complexity: | Low | |
| Trios per color: | 1 | |
| Number of colors: | 5 | |
| - - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - - | ||
| Volcano board | ||
| Setup time: | 30 seconds | |
| Playing time: | 5 minutes - 15 minutes | |
| Strategy depth: | Medium | |
| Random chance: | None | |
| Game mechanics: | Hidden decision/programming, Piece Movement/Race | |
| Status: Complete (v1.0), Year released: 2012 | ||
Push-Pull is a single-stash game for 2 or 4 designed for play with a Treehouse set. It is similar in some ways to Rock-Paper-Scissors and the Prisoner's Dilemma. It was designed by Dan Isaac.
Equipment[edit | edit source]
- Volcano board (5x5 checker-board)
- Screen for each player to use to hide their moves before the reveal.
- One stash of IceHouse pieces (5-Large, 5-Medium, and 5-Small pieces)
- One trio for each player (two trios each for the 2-player team game)
- One additional trio to place on the board
Goal[edit | edit source]
The first player to get 2 pieces to move off of their side of the board wins.
Setup[edit | edit source]
Note: The 2-player individual game will be described first. This version does not actually use the full 5x5 board, instead it requires only a 5x1 strip of it. Therefore, some alternate 5x1 grid could be used here. See variants below for 2-player team and 4-player games.
Each player receives one trio of pieces (1-Large, 1-Medium, and 1-Small) to make their plays with, and a screen to hide their pieces until they are revealed each turn.
A trio of pieces is also placed in a stack on the center square of the board. The order of pieces in the stack is not important.
Each player sits along one side of the board, opposite from their opponent.
Play[edit | edit source]
On each turn of the game, the players use their screen to hide their trio of pieces, and then sets each of the pieces pointing in a direction to indicate what move they would like to make on that sized piece. Each piece can either be set pointing away from the player towards the board (this is called a "Push"), or pointing at them away from the board (this is called a "Pull"). Alternately, the player could choose to set that piece upright which would then be considered a "Pass" for that sized piece.
When the players are both ready with their move, they remove their screens to reveal their pieces.
For each size (Large, Medium, and Small):
- If one player played a Pull, and the other player chose to play upright, then that sized piece on the board moves one space toward the player that played the Pull.
- If one player played a Push, and the other player chose to play upright, then that sized piece on the board moves one space away from the player that played the Push.
- If one player played a Pull, and the other player chose to play a Push, then that sized piece on the board moves two spaces towards the player that played the Push.
- If both players have chosen to play their piece of that size pointing in the same relative direction (both upright, both Push, or both Pull) then that sized piece on the board remains where it is.
Player 1 Player 2 Resulting Move - WEST - - EAST - Pass (^) Pass (^) no move Pass (^) Pull (>) 1 space east (>) Pass (^) Push (<) 1 space west (<) Pull (<) Pass (^) 1 space west (<) Pull (<) Pull (>) no move Pull (<) Push (<) 2 spaces east (>>) Push (>) Pass (^) 1 space east (>) Push (>) Pull (>) 2 spaces west (<<) Push (>) Push (<) no move
(In short: If both piece point same direction, the piece moves two spaces in the opposite direction, and if one piece is pointing in a direction and the other is upright, the piece moves one space the direction pointed. If both are upright or pointing in opposite directions, then the piece does not move.)
Scoring[edit | edit source]
If the play causes a piece to move off the edge of the board, then the player on that side of the board collects that piece as his score. It can no longer be moved. (Players can either hold onto their movement pieces of that size or set them aside at this point.)
Variants[edit | edit source]
Note: The following variants all use the full 5x5 board as they are all 4-sided games. (Including the 2-player team varient where each player plays 2 adjacent sides of the board.) The pieces on the board can be moved both North/South and East/West on any given move in these games.
4-player individual game[edit | edit source]
Each player sits along one side of the board. Moves take into consideration only the players sitting opposite each other. Adjacent players have no impact on each others moves. If a move causes a piece to move off of two sides of the board at the same time, it is not scored for either player and is instead moved back to the center of the board. Goal: To score the last piece off of the board.
4-player team[edit | edit source]
Same as 4-player individual game, except players are on a team with one of the players adjacent to them. (Select teams before the game begins.) If a move causes a piece to move off of two sides of the board at the same time, if both sides are on the same team, it is counted as a score for them, otherwise it is not scored and is moved back to the center of the board. Goal: The first team to score 2 pieces off of their sides of the board wins.
2-player team[edit | edit source]
Same as the 4-player team game, but one player chooses the moves for both edges of their team.
Free-for-all[edit | edit source]
Same as the variants above, but in addition to making Push, Pull, and/or Passes, each player may also make a Left or Right Shift. (Point their movement piece to the left or right.) These moves do affect the players adjacent to that player. In this case, for each size piece, compare all plays for that size.
- Any uprights are ignored.
- Any opposing moves cancel each other out.
- And any remaining moves are considered based on an even or odd number of moves pointing in the same direction.
- If there are an odd number of moves pointing in the direction, the piece moves one-step in that direction.
- If there are an even number of moves pointing in the direction, the piece moves two-steps in the opposite direction.
- A piece can still move in two perpendicular directions during the same move, so you could consider all of the North-South moves separately from all of the East-West moves.
License[edit | edit source]
http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/88x31.png This work is distributed by Dan Isaac under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
