Strings of Suits
Designed by MY Tian
Players 2
Length About 20 minutes.
Extra Material Suitchips and a tool to track scores.

A N-in-a-row style abstract game.

Materials

1.The extended decktet. Recommend to use a small-size deck, or you'll need a large table.
2.48 suitchips, 8 of each suit.
3.A tool to track scores. Recommend to be another kind of tokens, but it's also okay to use paper and pencil.

Game play

Setup

1. Take the Aces ,the Excuse,pawn.pngsuns.pngwaves.pngknots.pngLight Keeper and court.pngmoons.pngleaves.pngwyrms.pngRite out of the deck. They won’t be used in the game.

2. Shuffle the remaining cards, and then spread them face-up to form a 6×6 grid.

3. Give one player 8 Sunsuns.png suitchips, 8 waves.pngWaves and 8 knots.pngKnots, (i.e. all the suits of Light Keeper) 24 in total. And give the other 8 moons.pngMoons ,8 leaves.pngLeaves and 8 wyrms.pngWyrms (all the suits of Rite).

During the game

Start from the player who took suns.pngwaves.pngknots.png (i.e. all Light Keeper's suits), the players play alternately. You're allowed to skip your turns.

On your turn, flip an empty(face-up) card, and place one of your suitchips on it, which should match one of the card’s suit(s). You can never place a suitchip on a face-dowm (non-empty) card.

After placing the suitchip, if you form a 3-on-a-string, you get 1 point. If you form a 3-on-a-string into a 4-on-a-string, you get 2 points. Likewise, 4 into 5, 3 points; and 5 into 6, 4 points. If you form more than one X-on-a-string (in different directions) in a single turn, you will get the points respectively.

In the game, X-on-a-string refers to exactly X suitchips of the same suit, placed in a line horizontally, vertically or diagonally. The X suitchips do not need to be adjacent.

If you failed to notice that you had formed an X-on-a-string during your move, and your opponent has already made his/her move, you can not get the point(s).

End of the game

When both players skip their turns successively, the game ends.

Take back all your suitchips and turn all the cards face-up do not reshuffle them. Then play a second game with the players exchanging their suitchips. Add up the scores of two games, the player who scores more wins. If there is a tie, the player who score more in the second game wins.

If you have plenty of time, recommend to play 4 games (instead of 2) and add up the scores. Cards should be reshuffled before the third game.

picture_new
Current Score:
Sunssuns.png=1 Waveswaves.png=2 Knotsknots.png=0
Moonsmoons.png=0 Leavesleaves.png=1 Wyrmswyrms.png=0

Game Tips

  • Find the most important position and seize it as early as you can.
  • There are some cards that you opponent can never place a suitchip on.
  • Keep it in mind that you do not have infinite suitchips.
  • A 4-on-a-string counts a lot.

Variants

  • Beginners' Game: Only get 1 point when upgrading an X-on-a-string to an X+1.
  • Advanced Game: Give each player 6 tokens per suit, instead of 8.
  • Double Decktet: Replace all the Crownscrown.png with 6 extended deck cards from the second Decktet (Exclude pawn.pngsuns.pngwaves.pngknots.pngLight Keeper and court.pngmoons.pngleaves.pngwyrms.pngRite ).

Credits

Playtest: 韩镇远、北枫。

Comments

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