Erebusicehouse
| Erebusicehouse | ||
|---|---|---|
| Travis Larchuk | ||
| A darkly-themed game of Life, Death, War, Disease, and Soul collection | ||
| Players: | 2 | |
| Length: | unknown | |
| Complexity: | Medium | |
| Trios per color: | 5 | |
| Number of colors: | 6 | |
| - - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - - | ||
| Chess board | ||
| Setup time: | 3 minutes | |
| Status: Not Specified (v1.0), Year released: 2002 | ||
A game of Life, Death, War, and Disease
by Travis Larchuk
What you need:[edit | edit source]
A stash each of clear, red, yellow, green, blue, and black Icehouse pieces
A chess board
2 players
Object:[edit | edit source]
To collect the souls of all of your opponent’s beings.
Erebus terminology: being: a body on top of a soul of the same color, with a trait on the top (the trait does not have to match the color of the being)
Erebus terminology: body: represented by medium pyramids
Erebus terminology: soul: represented by large pyramids
Erebus terminology: trait: represented by small pyramids, the 5 traits are life (clear), death (black), war (red), disease (green), sage (blue), and innocent (yellow)
Setup:[edit | edit source]
Take all of the small one point pyramids in the colors of clear, red, yellow, green, blue, and black, and put them in a pile accessible to both players. This is the gene pool, and each of the small pyramids represents a trait.
Erebus terminology: gene pool: a pile of traits accessible to both players
Give all of the bodies and souls in the colors of clear, red, and yellow to one of the players, and the green, blue, and black ones to the other player. Both players now form 15 beings out of the pieces they’ve been given. Currently, because the beings are off of the board, they are said to be in Erebus. When they are placed onto the board, they are in The World of the Living. When you capture one of your opponent’s souls, it is taken out of the game and is said to be in The World of the Dead.
Erebus terminology: color scheme: One player controls the clear, red, and yellow beings, and the other controls the green, blue, and black beings.
Erebus terminology: Erebus: when pieces are off the board, they are said to be here
Erebus terminology: World of the Living: pieces on the board are said to be here
Erebus terminology: World of the Dead: captured souls are said to be here
How to play:[edit | edit source]
On every turn, you may perform any combination of the actions described below, adding to 3 AP or less. You must perform at least 1 AP’s worth of actions on your turn, or you will automatically lose the game.
Place: 3 AP
Take a body and a soul of your color scheme from Erebus, and add a trait from the gene pool. Place the being on any empty space in The World of the Living.
Move: 1 AP
Move one of your beings one space orthogonally or diagonally. The only exception to this is beings with the sage trait, which can move up to two spaces using just 1 AP.
''Bold text'''Use special actions:
Each being has special actions it can use, which correspond to its trait.
Life:
Resurrect: 2 AP
Place a body from Erebus and a trait from the gene pool onto an adjacent lost soul of your color scheme.
Erebus terminology: adjacent: In this game, adjacency means next to orthogonally or diagonally.
Erebus terminology: lost soul: a soul in The World of the Living without a body and trait
Cure: 1 AP
Replace the disease trait of an adjacent being of your color scheme with a different trait from the gene pool.
Death:
Reap: 1 AP
Capture an adjacent lost soul of your opponent’s color scheme by removing it from The World of the Living and setting it aside, into The World of the Dead until the end of the game.
Disease:
Spread: 1 AP
Replace the existing trait of an adjacent being of your opponent’s color scheme with a disease trait from the gene pool.
Plague: 0 AP (automatic)
As soon as 5 beings each have the disease trait, they all die. The traits are removed and returned to the gene pool, and the bodies of these 5 beings are removed and returned to their owners in Erebus.
Sage:
Quicktime: 1 AP
Move 2 spaces orthogonally or diagonally instead of just 1.
Innocent:
Genetic Drift: 1 AP
Replace the trait of this innocent, or an adjacent being of your color scheme, with a different one from the gene pool. (Note: you may not use this like Cure [above])
War:
Attack: (May only be used in battle)
Kill an adjacent being of your opponent’s color scheme by removing its trait and returning it to the gene pool, and removing its body and returning it to its owner.
Provoke Battle: (Your remaining AP)
When you provoke a battle using war, your remaining AP for this turn are depleted. (Note: you may not perform this action if you have 0 AP remaining.)
Battle:[edit | edit source]
The battle takes place over a 3x3 area, with the provoking being (war) in the middle square. (Note: If the 3x3 area surrounding war extends off of the board, that’s OK. Just imagine the places off of the board as invisible empty spaces.)
During battle, actions cost 0 AP. Each being may only take one action, and then the next being in the battle order will use its action, and so on until the battle is over. If a being cannot perform an action, its turn is skipped. Actions can only affect beings and lost souls in the 3x3 battle area.
ACTION RESTRICTIONS:
You may not use Place during battles.
The only pieces that may use move are the outer eight, and they can only use it to escape from battle (exit the 3x3 area)
The battle will continue until no more actions by any of the beings involved can be taken. The order of the battle is as such:
(1) The provoking being: Attack
The central being (war) attacks an adjacent being of its opponent’s color scheme.
(2) The battle continues with this lost soul, and moves clockwise around the central being (war.)
The lost soul cannot take any actions, so the next being clockwise takes its action.
(3) Once all of the surrounding beings have had one turn, it’s back to the central being.
Central being attacks an adjacent being of its opponent’s color scheme, and the cycle continues at step 2.
(If the central being cannot perform any actions now, the battle is over.)
(4) Once no more actions can be taken by any of the beings involved in the battle, the battle is over, and it is now the next player’s turn.
There are three ways to win:
Collect the souls of all of your opponent’s beings, or...
Your opponent cannot perform at least 1 AP’s worth of actions on his/her turn, or...
A situation arises in which there is no possible way that either of the players will be able to collect any more lost souls, in which case the player who captured the most souls from their opponent wins.
References :[edit | edit source]
http://www.geocities.com/jumpingfrogstudios/erebusicehouse.htm
(C) 2002. Travis Larchuk. All rights reserved.