TariffsTextVersion

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Tariffs 
an abstract rail game for the piecepack by Jonathan C. Dietrich 
Version: 0.5 2003-03-21 
Copyright (C) 2003 Jonathan C. Dietrich 
Players: 2-4 
Required Bits: a piecepack set, dominoes (double sixes) 

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free 
Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no 
Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. 

Introduction 


Setup 
Choose one of the suggested board arrangements (see below) or construct one of your own 
choosing. Tiles are placed face-up. The Null tiles represent the competing companies starting 
locations, the Aces their destinations, and all of the other tiles represent factories that have goods 
that need to be moved to the destinations. 

Take the coins and place them all suit side down. Mix the coins then separate by rank, placing all 
of the Aces together, all of the 2's and so on. Each person draws one coin of each rank. (One 
Ace, one 2, etc. totaling 6 coins) Keep the suits on the coins secret. These 6 coins represent your 
contract for this round. Each coin corresponds to its matching tile, and represents the tiles(cities) 
you must visit on your run. 

Place all of the dominoes face-down and mix well. Each player should draw 2 dominoes to start. 
The dominoes are used to represent the tariff charges accrued as players move their trains and 
goods across the landscape. 

Randomly determine who will start the first round. Agree on the number of rounds to be played, 
though the number of rounds played should be a multiple of the number of players. 

A turn 
On your turn you must do one of the following: 
trade a domino with another player (TRADE) 
trade both of your dominoes with the stockpile (TRADE) 
place a domino on the board (PLAY) 
rotate a domino 180 degrees (ROTATE) 
declare a run (SCORE) 
Then you may draw back up to 2 dominoes. 

TRADE 
Trading a domino with another player and trading both of your dominoes with the stockpile are 
both exactly as they sound. If you trade with another player you may make any sort of agreement 
you like, however the deal must involve the exchange of exactly 1 domino from each player's 
hand. Any agreements made during the trade are not binding. 

PLAY 
Dominoes are placed on the tiles so that they connect exactly two neighboring tiles that share a 
common edge. Once placed their should be half of the domino, and thus one of the two values on 
the domino, in each of the tiles. A placed domino represents the tariffs charged when moving 
goods between the two connected cities. 

ROTATE 
A domino on the table may be turned exactly 180 degrees such that its values are in the reverse 
order. 


SCORE 
Once there is a path of dominoes such that, starting with the Null tile matching the Null coin in 
your contract, you can make a continuous trail that passes through all of the numbered tiles that 
match your coins and ends in the Ace tile that matches your contract, then you have the option of 
declaring a run. This path may run back on itself. 

To calculate the tariffs charged against you, sum the values found on the dominoes in your path, 
but only count the value on the half that is in the tile to which you are entering. 

As the declarer, you end the round and everyone else must also calculate their tariff charges. 
However, if they can not complete their runs, they must add enough UPSIDE DOWN dominoes to 
the board so as to complete their run. All upside down dominoes score as if they had both sides 
equal to the declarer's individual most expensive tariff charge plus two. Note, if a non-declaring 
player already has a route, but figures it will be less expensive to add UPSIDE DOWN dominoes 
to form an alternate route, then they may do so. 

[example] 

Record the scores. The player to the left of the person who went first last round, starts the next. 

FINAL SCORING 
After the agreed number of rounds have completed, tally the scores. The person with the 
LOWEST score wins.

Suggested Board Arrangements 


Figure 1 : Simple Zones 
Figure 2: Grouped Zones 



Figure 3: Scattered Zones