Friday, May 11, 2012

Terratri

I'm not only a software/web developer and game developer in my spare time. I'm also in love with tabletop games.
Great classics, like Risiko or new games, for example Dominion. Both two strategy games, if you notice that.
So when I've found this link about Terratri, a tabletop game in playtesting (with nice explations about mechanics) made by Adam Saltsman, mind behind Canabalt

So let's talk a about terratri: first I haven't played it, mostrly because I need to build it and not buying it :(

Reading Adam blogs, Terratri seems to be a nice game: no ramdomness, just strategy between two players in a 5x5 grid.
Rules are simple:
  • Players start in the middle cell of opposite sides of the board.
  • Players get 2 actions per turn.  Viable actions are: Move one space (up, down, left or right), or Fortify.
  • When a player moves to an unoccupied territory they automatically claim it, placing or flipping a territory marker to show their claim.
  • Unoccupied territory is any grid cell, claimed or not, that has neither a player pawn nor a fort.
  • Players cannot move onto any tile that is occupied by the enemy pawn or an enemy fort.
  • Players must end their turn on a different tile than where they started if the territories or forts did not change during that turn.*
  • Players may Fortify the territory they currently occupy if they have claim over at least 5 unoccupied territories.
  • Players do not need to use all their actions so long as they do not break any other rules by doing so.
  • First player to 5 forts wins.
  • If multiple games are played back to back, players should take turns going first.

And could be learned in no time. I love simplicity in way game is presented and how simple rules could build a complex game (chess anyone?).

This kind of game could be a nice inspiration for a desktop-web-portable game, if only I have some nice artist on my side!

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