Cascades
| Cascades | ||
|---|---|---|
| Gregory Lattanzio | ||
| ||
| A mountaineering two-players race. | ||
| Players: | 2 - 2 | |
| Length: | Medium | |
| Complexity: | Medium | |
| Trios per color: | 2 | |
| Number of colors: | 3 | |
| - - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - - | ||
| A deck of cards | ||
| Setup time: | 2 minutes | |
| Playing time: | 15 minutes - 30 minutes | |
| Strategy depth: | Low | |
| Random chance: | Medium | |
| Game mechanics: | Movement, Cards | |
| Theme: | Mountaineering | |
| Status: Playtesting (v1.0), Year released: 2012 | ||
Under development
This game is currently under development, in the Playtesting stage. Feedback is strongly encouraged! Feel free to give comments on game design or structure on the talk page.
Goal
Get your three climbers (a pawn, drone, and queen of your color) from your side of the mountain and to the ground level on the other side before your opponent.
Setup
You will be arranging pyramids similar to what you see in the diagram. The placement of the different colors doesn’t matter, except for those of the color’s picked by the players. Take turns putting these down first, with each player placing one piece down at a time. Arrange those so that no more than one of any one of the player’s colors exists in a given vertical row. The color of the neutral pyramids (here in pink) does not matter. In fact, you could play the game with a few monochrome stashes, just so long as there is one piece of the three sizes for each player in the mountain area.
Remove the kings and jokers from a deck of cards. Shuffle the remaining cards and deal out five to each player. Each player than puts one card of their choosing down in front of them as their initial skill card.
Rules
A turn consists of the following.
1. If you don’t have any cards in your hand, draw four.
2. Decide whether you wish to move a piece or to play a sabotage or miracle card.
3. If you decide to move a piece, do the following.
a. Turn the top card over from the deck. This is your hindrance for the round.
b. Pick a piece that you wish to move.
c. Add the Terrain bonuses and determine whether you succeed in your climb or descent.
d. If possible, move the piece of your choosing.
Movement:
A move consists of moving one piece one space on the board (forward or to the side).
On your turn, if you win your skill attempt, you may move a piece of your choosing away from you, toward your goal, or to the side.
If you tie with the hindrance, you may only move a piece side to side.
If you lose an attempt, you move no pieces this round.
Terrain Bonuses
The size of the piece you are moving onto determines the bonus or penalty for a move.
Pawn= 0
Drone= -1
Queen= -2
There is a bonus of +1 to move onto the ground level.
If a terrain pyramid is the same color as your team, you get a +1 bonus to land there (other terrain penalties still apply).
Miracle and Sabotage Cards:
1. You may perform a miracle, in place of your movement, by playing a queen from your hand.
Queens allow you to exchange any pyramid stack with another one (with our without occupants).
2. You may perform sabotage, in place of your movement, by playing a queen from your hand.
A Jack allows you to move an opponents piece one space in any direction.
- When they are played as skill cards or used for other than a miracle (such as when it come up as a hindrance), queens and jacks have the value of ten.
- Miracles cannot be performed on pyramids that have more than one climber on them. Jacks cannot be used to move an opponent's piece off the mountain.
Stacking/Blocking: You may never enter a space your opponent occupies. You may enter a space that you have a pyramid on if it is larger than the moving piece (this is “sharing a camp”).