The first open-source board game
I've been thinking a lot about open source applications recently. Well, this might be a bit of a lateral leap, but a few years ago, I invented a board game.
Nothing flash, no plastic moulded parts, no boxes of questions. I called it Dugi for reasons that elude me now, but this was the byline I thought up while anticipating my millions:
AS SIMPLE AS CHECKERS…Well, the riches never arrived, but the game is still here. So - in the spirit of open source and creative commons, here is the first open source board game. (Correction: Cory Doctorow reckons it probably isn't the 'first' open source board game. Chess is probably open source, if you think about it. Possibly the first under a CC licence then?)
AS STRATEGIC AS CHESS
Feel free to take it, use it, play with it, make suggestions for improvements and generally adapt, remix and pass it on.
RULES:
AIM: Capture your opponent’s pieces by surrounding it on opposing sides. When your opponent has only two pieces left, or cannot move on his/her turn, then you have won the game.
SETUP: The board is a circle consisting of 7 rings, divided into 24 segments. There is a circle in the centre called the ‘dead zone’. There are 12 black counters and 12 white counters. Arrange these on the board on the outer spaces (one per space on the outer ring of the board), with the black pieces closest to the black player, and the white pieces closest to the white player.
PLAY: Players take turns moving one piece per turn. The pieces may be moved ‘forward’ (toward or away from the centre of the board) or ‘sideways’ (left or right around the ring). The pieces may be moved as far as the player wishes, but must not leave the board on the outside, enter the dead zone, move diagonally or ‘jump’ a piece in its way.
To capture a piece, you must move your piece so that it completes a ‘surround’, then remove the captured piece from the board.
My graphic design skills at short notice are slim to none, but imagine these spaces are on a circular board. The outer edge is towards the bottom, the centre circle is towards the top.
Obviously, if you continue around to the left, you end up back on the right. Hope that's reasonably clear...
Black captures white
White captures black
Black is not captured: capture only occurs when pieces surround on opposite sides.
Black is not captured: White did not make the capture and so black remains safe, although it is between two white pieces.
White is not captured. A capture must consist of a single piece surrounded by two of the opponent’s pieces.
Both black pieces are captured. White has made two separate single captures in one move.
Illegal move: white may not jump or pass through another piece of either colour.
Note: As the board is circular, and the pieces may be moved as far as the player wishes, opponents can often be taken by surprise (assuming no other pieces stand in the path):
Black circles the board and ends up, around the ring, to the left of the white piece, capturing it.
Although black has four pieces remaining on the board, white has trapped the black player. Black cannot move on his/her turn. White wins.
And that's it. Make yourself a board (I went with 300mm x 300mm MDF and I used a big compass and some black marker pens. I stole the black and white counters from my game of Go - but later, I switched to garden pebbles. You can probably do better.
I'd love it if someone actually did a flash or shockwave style online version of it - but generally, the point of this is to just get it out there. I've run out of people to play it with.
As usual, the standard attribution, non-commercial Creative Commons licence applies.
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84. Ohio Players - Pleasure Westbound 1972
85. Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong - Ella and Louis Again Verve 1957
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