Re: [piecepack] new game -- Worm Derby

["Tim Schutz" <hexchex@...>]

Mark
    I played with my daughters last night and they enjoyed the game a lot and we even came up with another variant, the slalom. We took  2 complete sets of colored tiles and placed them  suit side down starting at the starting gate and going to the turn pylon. We placed them pretty much in a straight line with at least on tile worth of space between them. Once all the tiles were down we flipped them over. Red you had to go to the right of the tile and blue you had to go left. 

    P.S. I did catch my younger daughter trying to cheat. When she placed down the coins in her worm she would try and leave a small gap in between to make the snake move a little farther on each move. 

Tim Schutz

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: mark_biggar 
  To: piecepack@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2002 11:26 AM
  Subject: [piecepack] new game -- Worm Derby


  Here is a weird little game I've invented of racing worms.
  Please try it out and let me know what who think

  Piecepack game -- Worm Derby

  2-4 players

  The object of the game is to race your worm through a field of 
  obstacles around a distant pylon and back to the start line 
  before any if the other player's worms.

  Worms

  A worm consists of a connected string of touching (at the edge) 
  piecepack disks of the same suit.  A worm always has two end 
  disks that only touch one other disk in the worm and may have one 
  or more body disks that touch exactly two other disks.  Worms may 
  never form loops or branching structures.  A worm can be curved 
  in any way allowed by the above description.

  In the basic rules all worms are six disks long; the advanced 
  rules allow for worms of lengths from 2 to 6 long.

  Worm Movement

  A worm moves in steps.  Each step consists of picking up the 
  disk at one end of the worm and moving it to touch the disk 
  at the other end of the worm.  A worm can move in either 
  direction, but is a worm is moving multiple steps in one turn 
  it must move all in the same direction (all the steps must take 
  disks from the same end of the worm).

  Obstacles

  Facedown Piecepack tiles are obstacles that worms must go 
  around as they race.  Worms cannot go over obstacles and an 
  obstacle can never be placed on top of a worm.  If there is 
  not enough room between two obstacles for a worm's disk to fit, 
  the worm cannot go between the two obstacles.  Worms also treat 
  other worms like obstacles.

  Game setup

  Give each player the six disks form one suit form his worm.  
  It is convenient to place the correspondingly colored pawn 
  in front of each player so that it is easy to tell which worm 
  belongs to each player (there is no other use of the pawns in 
  this game).  Also give each player the corresponding colored die.

  Place two tiles, suit side up, about 4 tile widths apart to 
  form the start/finish line.  Place another tile, suit side up, 
  three to six feet away along the perpendicular bisector of the 
  start line as the turn pylon for the other end of the racecourse.  
  The distance you choose will determine the length of the game; the 
  farther away the pylon is the longer the game length.  These three 
  tiles are considered obstacles except unlike other obstacle tiles 
  cannot be moved during the game.

  Choose a first player by any agreeable method.  Turns will go 
  clockwise around the table starting with the first player.

  Deal out the remaining tiles evenly to the players, putting 
  any odd tiles aside.  Starting with the first player, each 
  player in turn places a tile, suit side down, anywhere on the 
  racecourse between the start line and the pylon.  These tiles 
  form the set of obstacles for the race.  No obstacle may be 
  placed at the start within three tile widths of either the start 
  line or the pylon.  Obstacles my touch but cannot overlap.  
  Obstacles may be placed in any orientation. Continue placing 
  tiles in turn, until all the dealt tiles have been placed.

  Starting with the first player, each player in turns builds 
  his worm behind the starting line.  The starting position of a 
  worm must be built in a straight line perpendicular to the 
  start line, with only one end disk between the two start 
  line tiles.

  The race

  Starting with the first player, players take turns moving 
  their worms.  The goal is to move your worm from the start 
  line to and around the far side of the pylon and back to the 
  start line first before any other worm.  

  To move your worm, roll your die and move accordingly.  On a 
  2-5 move your worm that many steps (remember that you can move 
  your worm either direction, this may be necessary if blocked by 
  obstacles).  On a null you do not move this turn.  On an ace you 
  may move an obstacle and then roll again.  An obstacle may be 
  moved no more then one tile width from its current position 
  and may be reoriented as the player chooses.

  Winning

  The first player to move one end of his worm between the two 
  start line tiles after having traveled around the far side of 
  the pylon has won the race.  The remaining worms may continue 
  to race to determine second and third place.

  Variant

  For a shorter and simpler game reduce the number of (or 
  completely eliminate) the obstacle tiles.

  Advanced Rules - Cannibal worms

  If when moving your worm, a step would allow you to overlay 
  one of the end disks of another player's worm you may do so 
  and your worm eats that disk, pick it up and give it back to 
  its owner.  This ends your movement for that turn.  The 
  attacked worm, on its next move, must move away from the 
  attacker (steps must be made by picking up disks from the 
  end of the worm that was eaten).  A worm can never move more 
  steps then its length, if you roll higher than the worm's 
  length, the additional steps are lost. When you roll an ace, 
  instead of moving an obstacle, you may add an eaten disk back 
  on to one end of your worm (you still get to roll again).  

  Copyright 2001 by Mark A. Biggar. 
  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 at 
  http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html.


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