Ice Stackers
| Ice Stackers | ||
|---|---|---|
| Steve Omodth | ||
| A dexterous stacking race game. | ||
| Players: | 2 - 6 | |
| Length: | unknown | |
| Complexity: | Low - Medium | |
| Trios per color: | 1 per player | |
| Number of colors: | 5 | |
| - - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - - | ||
| A single coin | ||
| Setup time: | 1 minute | |
| Strategy depth: | Low | |
| Random chance: | Low | |
| Theme: | Race Stacking | |
| Status: Complete (v1.0), Year released: 2007 | ||
Originally titled, "Martian Ice Speed Stack Tournament Race Fiesta Championship Extravaganza (in D minor)" Ice Stackers is loosely inspired by the Speed Stack Tournament Stacking Cups, but it's better just because instead of plastic cups, we'll be using plastic pyramids.
Getting Ready[edit | edit source]
First off, you will need one treehouse stash per player and a single coin. Everyone places their pieces in front of them into solid color nests. You are now ready to stack.
Terminology[edit | edit source]
The Caller: The person who calls the formation for that round.
Crashing: When a player drops a piece or stack it is a crash. That player must have both hands touch the table and fix the crashed piece or pieces before he may continue his stacking formation.
Limbo: The player who came in last place.
Formations: The formation is the chosen way the pyramids will be stacked from round to round.
- Scrambled: All pieces standing by themselves on the table.
- Stack by Nest: All pieces of the same color stacked into five nests.
- Stack by Trees: All pieces of the same color stacked into five trees.
- Stack by Size: All pieces of the same size stacked into three different stacks.
- Mixed color Stacks: Say someone calls "Mixed Trees". All the stacks must be in trees, but no tree may have any pieces that are the same color.
- The Tower: A single stack of all five queens on the bottom, then all five drones, with all five pawns on the top. Careful, this one's unstable. (not as bad as the reverse tower)
- The Mushroom: Pieces must be stacked with the queen on the bottom, the pawn next, and the drone on the top, it actually kinda looks like a mushroom. There is some debate if it should be Drone, pawn, queen instead of queen, pawn drone. We'll let you make the call.
- The Circle: All pieces must be on their sides pointing in a clockwise circular pattern. No piece of the same color may point at another of that color, and no piece of the same size may point at another of that size.
There are any number of formations that can be called, as long as the caller can explain it, (no matter how confusing) all players must stack to that formation.
Play[edit | edit source]
The player who has the longest beard goes first. If no one has a beard, or any facial hair for that matter, you must decide amongst yourselves who would look the best with a rockin' beard.
The first player calls a formation. All players start with both hands, palms down, touching the table. The caller then takes the coin and flicks it so it spins on the table, and puts his palms on the table as well. As soon as the coin comes to a complete stop, the race is on. Each player may ONLY have one piece in each hand at a time. Go with great skillful skill, and great speedy speed to complete the stack formation. Once the formation is complete, you put both of your palms back on the table and declare yourself finished. The player who comes in first place is the caller for the next round. The player who comes in last place is in limbo. If you finish your formation and it is incorrect, say you made trees when you should have made nests, you are automatically in limbo for that round. If multiple people make this kind of mistake, multiple people are in limbo simultaneously.
Elimination[edit | edit source]
When a player in limbo finishes last, they are out of the game. Play continues until all players but one have been eliminated. That person truly is the stack master.
Solo Stacking[edit | edit source]
The solitaire version is really more practice than anything. You can use a timer to set and break personal records. You can also practice getting the pieces in and out of the tube to give you a faster set up time when playing other Icehouse games. Either way, it never hurts to have an edge on the competition.
Disclaimer[edit | edit source]
It usually goes without saying, but the discussion page is always open for anyone who chooses to use it. I never did post this as a game in development just because it's up to the individual group to take the stacking formations to the limit that group plays at. I play tested it with my usually group, James M. Hazelton III, Steph, Blazej, and Usopp, and we all agreed there's really not much more to develop. Let me know if we're wrong.