Nimbus
Under development
This game is currently under development, in the Initial Design stage. Feedback is strongly encouraged! Feel free to give comments on game design or structure on the talk page.
| Nimbus | ||
|---|---|---|
| Designed by Erik Oosterwal | ||
| A multiplayer combinatorial game with an icy association to the game Nim. | ||
| Players: | 2 - 10 | |
| Length: | Fast | |
| Complexity: | Low | |
| Trios per color: | 3 | |
| Number of colors: | 0 | |
| - - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - - | ||
| 1 Chessboard | ||
| Setup time: | 1 minute or less | |
| Playing time: | 0 minutes - 0 minutes | |
| Strategy depth: | Medium | |
| Random chance: | None | |
| Game mechanics: | Placement, Capture | |
| Theme: | Abstract | |
| Status: Not Specified (v1.0), Year released: 2987 | ||
Objective
The objective of the game is to score the highest number of points. Points are awarded to the winner(s) of each round for the number of pips on pyramids they collected.
The winning condition of the round can be played in one of two variations:
- Win the round by being the last player who can remove a pyramid from the board.
- Win the round by being the first player who cannot remove a piece from the board. This is called misere play.
Equipment needed
2 Treehouse sets (3 or more Treehouse sets are better)
- and
- and
1 Chessboard (8x8 playing grid)
Setup
Place all the pyramids in a pile accessable to all players. Players take turns placing a pyramid from the pile onto the playing board. Pyramids may be placed in a flat or upright orientation, upright pyramids may be stacked into trees or nests, flat pyramids may point in any orthogonal or 45° diagonal direction. Regular game-play starts after the last pyramid has been placed on the board.
Game play
Each player will perform two actions during their turn. One action will be to move or reorient a single pyramid, and the second action will be to remove one or more pyramids from the board. The two actions may be performed in any order, i.e. a player may remove pyramids before performing a move action. Each action can be one of the following:
- Turn a flat pyramid upright.
- Turn a single, upright pyramid flat (not a tree or a nest.)
- Rotate a flat pyramid to point in a new direction.
- Move a flat pyramid any number of unobstructed squares in the direction it is pointing.
- Move the top-most upright pyramid one square in any direction.
- Collect all the top-most pyramids in any single row, column, or 45° diagonal that share a single property.
Turn a flat pyramid upright
When setting a flat pyramid upright it no longer retains any directional orientation, i.e. an upright pyramid cannot be considered to be pointing North even if it had previously been pointing North.
Turn an upright pyramid flat
Only single, upright pyramids can be turned to a flat position; trees and nests cannot be flat.
Move a flat pyramid
Flat pyramids may move any number of spaces along a straight, unobstructed line in the direction they are pointing. At the end of the move action they remain in a flat position and continue to point in the same direction as before. The eight valid directions are along a row or column towards a side or along a 45° diagonal (like a bishop's move in chess.)
Move an upright pyramid
The top-most upright pyramid may move to any adjacent square in an orthogonal or diagonal direction as long as that square is not occupied by a flat pyramid. The pyramid being moved will occupy the top-most position in the new square. In this way trees and nests can be broken down or constructed. Lower level pyramids in a tree or nest are essentially hidden during the collecting action. At the end of the move action the pyramid will remain in an upright position.
Collect the top-most pyramids
Remove all of the top-most pyramids from a single row, column, or diagonal (not restricted to the two main diagonals) that share a single property. Valid properties are:
- Color - Red, pink, orange, yellow, green, blue, cyan, purple, black, white, or clear.
- Size - 1-pip, 2-pips, or 3-pips.
- Orientation - Upright, North, North-East, East, South-East, South, South-West, West, or North-West.
A player most remove at least one pyramid from the board during each turn. All the pyramids that have been removed are added to the player's collection.
Winning the round
The round ends as soon as the last pyramid is removed from the board. The winner of the round is determined by which variation of the game is being played:
- The player who removes the last pyramid from the board is the winner. This is the default, and preferred, variation.
- The first player who cannot remove a pyramid is the winner. This condition is also called misere play and is a common variation in similar games.
The winning player gets one point for each pip in their collection. This score is added to their running total for the game.
Winning the game
Variations:
- The first player to exceed (50?, 60?, 100?) points is declared the winner.
- The player with the highest score after (5?, 10?) rounds is declared the winner.
Tie breaker rules
In case of a tie use the following rules in sequence to determine the winner:
- The player who has won the most rounds wins the game.
- The player with the most pyramids (not pips) in their collection at the end of the winning round wins the game.
- The youngest player wins the game.
Variations for large groups
The following rule variations can be used when there are four or more players:
- Each round will have two winning players; the player who removed the last pyramid and the first player who cannot remove a pyramid.
- Each round will have one losing player. This is misere play applied to the whole group. Depending on which variation is selected, either the player who removes the last pyramid is the losing player or the first player who cannot remove a pyramid is the losing player. All players except the losing player will tally their scores for the round and add them to their running scores for the game.
- Combine the two previous variations and declare two losing players for each round (the player who removes the last pyramid and the first player who cannot remove a pyramid.) All other players tally their scores for the round and add those scores to their running totals for the game.
License
http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/88x31.png
This work is distributed by Erik Oosterwal under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
