Temptation Island

Posted: 2009 February 15 | Author: sean | Tags: duncan, harris, valentine's day |

This week’s theme was “Valentine’s Day,” and taking a little bit of a cynical view on all of it, Kevin and I wondered: What if what was important in a love triangle wasn’t hooking up with someone, but making sure you weren’t the one who wasn’t hooked up with? (Yes, that’s a double negative). This game is for three players — no more, no less — and requires strategically thinking about whose answers best “fit” yours, while also figuring out how to screw over (or not be screwed over) by the other two in the crazy love triangle.

Supplies

• Three distinguishable player pieces
• A stack of “compatibility cards” [basically, Apples to Apples "adjective" cards, but we made our own romance-themed cards from index cards]
• A stack of “response cards” [basically, Apples to Apples "noun" cards, and again, we made our own cards]
• A stack of hexagonal tiles [big enough for the player pieces to fit atop; ours were plundered from the game Polygon]

How To Play

Setup

1. To start, first set seven hex tiles in the following configuration, placing each of the player pieces (e.g., red, green, and yellow) in the positions below:

2. Distribute three “response cards” to each player, and have each person do a die roll or series of coin flips or rock/paper/scissors or something equivalent to decide who begins play as the Decider. Order of play proceeds clockwise.

Play Sequence

1. To begin each turn, the Decider for that turn flips over a compatability card, with a simple adjective on it (e.g., “Stinky,” “Miraculous,” or “Romantic”).

2. The other two players each pick a card from their set of response cards (a set of nouns, e.g., “Richard Nixon,” “eggs,” or “depression”), and present it to the Decider for judging without the Decider’s knowledge of who presented each card. The Decider can choose whichever of the two response cards he or she likes the most, deems most appropriate, or just thinks is funny (yes, this is basically Apples to Apples). The player whose card is chosen becomes the Mover for this turn.

3. The Mover next has three options — (1) move his or her piece to an adjacent hex; (2) add a new hex adjacent to the hex his or her piece is currently on (if such a move is possible); (3) remove any piece adjacent to where his or her piece currently is. If the Mover places a new hex adjacent to the hex he or she is currently on, the Mover must move his or her piece to that new hex to end the turn.

4. Only one piece may be on any given hex tile at any given turn, and the Mover may not remove a hex that is currently occupied by another player’s piece. If the Mover is blocked from moving and from removing an adjacent piece by the layout of the board and the position of other players’ pieces, he or she must place a new tile adjacent to the currently-occupied tile.

5. Once the Mover has moved, built/moved, or deleted, each player’s response cards are replenished back up to three apiece, and the next player clockwise becomes the next Decider. Any hex tiles removed can be reused by any player in a later turn.

6. The order of play repeats until the goal state is reached. If all of the hex tiles are placed on the board (and there are no more to place), the Mover must remove a hex tile on his or her move (if possible). If, in the course of play, all compatibility and/or response cards are used, discarded cards are shuffled into a new deck and play proceeds with the deck.

Goal

The game is over when, at the end of any turn, one player’s hex tiles are separated from the other two (stranded on an “island” of hex pieces), such as in the following:

That is, the game will end when a Mover removes a hex tile which causes one player to be separated from the other two.

In the above case, red and green have successfully won, but more importantly, yellow has lost and will forever be stranded on a lonely island of remorse and solitude. Also, in the very rare case that a move is made by a Mover which causes all three players to reside on separate “islands,” the Mover who makes such a move automatically loses, because he or she is a total idiot.

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