CoinCollectorsTextVersion

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Coin Collectors
A Solitary Confinement game for the piecepack by Don Kirkby
Version 0.1, December 3, 2003
Copyright © 2003 by Don Kirkby
1 player, 10 minutes

Equipment: 1 piecepack

Object
Collect all the coins using the four pawns.

Setup
Shuffle the tiles suit side down, then place them suit side up in the standard 5x5 square
with a hole in the middle. Shuffle the coins suit side up, then place one coin on each tile
with its number side up. Place the four pawns in the hole in the middle of the board. Roll
all four dice.

Moving
On each turn, you must collect one coin by moving a pawn one space horizontally or
vertically onto a tile with a coin on it. You can move a pawn onto a tile if one or both of
the following are true:
1. The die face that matches the suit and number of the tile is showing. For
example, you can move to the three of crowns tile when the crowns die has the
three on top.
2. The die that matches the pawn is showing the number that matches the coin on
that tile. For example, you can move the moons pawn onto a tile with a number
four coin on it when the moons die has the four on top.
Once you have moved a pawn and collected a coin, pick up some of the dice and roll
them. You may pick up all four dice, no dice, or any number in between. Shake them
together and roll them. Now begin your next turn using the number and suit from any one
of the four dice.

Ending the game
You win when you collect all 24 coins. You lose when you roll the dice and none of the
pawns can collect a coin.

Scoring and ratings
Score one point for every coin you collected. 24 is a win, 20 or better is above average,
below 20 is sad. Odds of winning are about one in ten; see below for some harder
variants.

Strategy
The two most important choices you have to make are which direction to move the
pawns, and how many dice to roll. I typically send one pawn to each corner, but
sometimes the only move you can make will send two pawns to the same corner. Just be
careful not to completely isolate a group of coins. If more than one of the dice have legal

moves, save the extras for next turn. That way, you're guaranteed a move. You might also
keep a die that your pawn is one or two moves away from and hope that you roll the
preceding move on another die.

More Difficult Variants
Four Die Stud - Roll all four dice every time. That takes away your safety net of a
guaranteed move.
Last One Out - Leave some of your pawns in the centre hole. The more you leave
behind, the harder it is to win.

Easier Variant
Acceptable losses - When you get stuck, remove a pawn from the game and reroll the
dice. Obviously, that only helps when a pawn has finished its corner,
or when you have two pawns working on the same corner.

License
Copyright 2003 by Don Kirkby. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify
this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections,
no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license can be found
here: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html.