Lotus

A six player abstract chaos game

Components

I game board

12 player tokens (2 red, 2 blue, 2 yellow, 2 grey, 2 white, 2 black)

6 player token numeric identifiers (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) (tokens of one color with a different number on it)

1 cloth bag

6 objective cards

50 action cards

6 reference cards (list of 6 possible objectives)

30 blank action cards (dry-erase whiteboard cards)

1 dry-erase type marker

 

Setup

Put 6 of the 12 player tokens (1 of each color) in the cloth bag

Pass the bag around and each player blindly picks one token from the bag.

Each player takes the 2^nd player token of their picked color.

Each player puts 1 player token an unoccupied blue corner hex.  (Each blue hex should have one player token on it of a different color after this is done)

Each player leaves the other player token in front of him as a color identifier.

Put the 6 number identifiers in the bag.

Pass the bag around and each player blindly pulls a number identifier from the bag.

Each player leaves the number identifier token in front of him as that player’s number identifier.

Each player takes a reference card so they can always be aware of all possible objectives throughout the game.

Shuffle and deal the 6 objective cards to the players (do not show the objective cards to other players)

Put the stack of Blank Action cards and the dry-erase marker next to the board.

Shuffle the Action Deck and put that deck on the other side of the board.

Objective

The game ends when the first player meets the objective on his objective card or when there is one player left on the board.

Rules

The last player that took a deep breath is the start player.

The active player reveals the top 2 Action cards and lays them out on the table.

The active player chooses an Action card for himself and gives an Action card to another player or chooses a Blank Action card for himself.  Players always lay their Action cards in front of them, in their play area where the actions are visible to all players.

After the active player chooses his Action card:

If the active player chose the blank action card, the two drawn Action cards get discarded. Then he will create a new action that the possessor of that card (currently himself) can use during his turn.  He will write that action on the Blank Action card with the dry-erase marker, and then read it to all players still in the game.  If all players agree the action is within the rules boundaries, the action remains.  If the other players point out that it is outside of the rule boundaries, the active player erases the new rule on the Blank Action card, returns the Blank Action card to the Blank Action deck and he will not get another Action card or Blank Action card this turn. 

Next, the active player:

Activates up to two Action cards and moves his piece one space on the board in any direction as long as it lands on a hex space (can’t move off the board).  The player can choose to activate zero, one or two Action cards this turn.  The player MUST move his token one space this turn.  It’s the player’s choice when he moves his token 1 space. The player may choose to move his token before actions, in between action 1 and action 2, after actions or instead of actions. 

If any player’s objective is met, they should say so and show their objective card.  That player has won the game!

If no one’s objective was met, then if any player thinks he knows the secret objective of another player, he can make an accusation at this time if he chooses to.  That player announces that he is going to make an accusation.  He must name the player and the objective.  The accused player shows the accuser his objective card.  If the accuser was correct, the accused removes his piece from the board and is out of the game.  If the accuser was incorrect, the accuser removes his token from the board and is out of the game.  The accuser must not reveal the objective to the other players is the accuser was incorrect.  Whoever ends up out of the game reveals their objective to the other players.

Play Passes to the left.

When the Action Deck is exhausted, reshuffle the discard pile to make a new Action card deck.

Each player may have up to a combined total of 5 Action or Blank action cards in their play area. If there is a situation where they are about to obtain a 6^th Action card, they must discard an action card that is already in their play area. (Unless the action is a card exchange with another player in which case at the end of the action they will be back down to 5 cards).  If they discard a Blank Action card, they erase the action and then add it to the Blank Action deck.

Example: John has three Action cards and two Blank action cards in his play area.  This counts as his limit of five.  If he were to receive another Action OR Blank action card, he would need to discard either an Action card or Blank Action card that he already has in his play area. John decides to discard one of his Blank Action cards.  He erases the Action and puts the Blank Action card back in the Blank Action deck.

Tokens move as far as they can go according to the current action. If the action specifies tokens move 1 hex north and your token is already in the north most hex, you stay where you are.  If the action specifies tokens move 2 spaces north and your token is one space south of the north most hex, you move your token one space to the north most hex and stop movement there.

A player cannot fulfill his objective on his objective card during the first round of the game.  The first round means that everyone got 1 turn and play is now back to the start player for the first time since the start of the game.  After the first round, the first player to meet his objective wins the game.  (If no player meets his objective, the last player with a token on the board wins)

If it’s impossible to meet your objective (due to number of players still in the game), the only way to win is to be the last player remaining on the board by eliminating your remaining opponents through accusations.

Rule boundaries for creating new actions on a Blank Action card

New Actions can either involve the movement of tokens on the board or swapping of Action Cards (including Blank Action Cards in play) with other players or with the Action decks.

Token movement boundaries:

New Actions either affect all players or refer to player groups (or a combination of player groups) of at least two or more players still in the game.  There are six initial player groups in every game that you can use.  They are:

Odd players: have 1, 3 or 5 as their numeric identifier

Even players: have 2, 4 or 6 as their numeric identifier

Color Wheel players: tokens are Red, Blue or Yellow

Grayscale players: tokens are Black, White or Gray

Low players: have 1, 2 or 3 as their numeric identifier

High players: have 4, 5 or 6 as their numeric identifier

A new action can refer to one of these groups and/or a new group that applies to the particular people playing the game.  The main rule boundaries about this are:

1.       A player group cannot have a sole member when that group is first identified in the new rule.  If the group eventually has a sole member due to player elimination, that is fine.

2.       When creating a new player group, the group must have one thing identifiable about it.  You can’t call a group “Dave and Jim” or “Sue, Bill and Mary”.  You can call a group “The Steve Group” if there is more than one person named Steve still playing the game.  You can identify a group as the “Red Shirts” if there is currently more than one person wearing a red shirt at the time the rule is created.  When the rule is created, you not only read the action to the remaining players, but you identify the players in the game that fall into that new group identified in the action.  The players must agree that your group is valid based on this rule.

3.       You can refer to up to two groups (existing or created) in the new action. (Example: All Odd Color Wheel players move 1 space north).  The combination you use at creation time cannot isolate a player.  Again, through player elimination, later in the game, your rule may affect only one player; but it can’t at the time you create it.

4.       If there are only two players remaining in the game, all new token movement actions created must affect all players (otherwise you will isolate a player during action creation time)

5.       New token movement actions must result with all tokens on the board ending the turn in a hex on the board.  You can’t have an action that removes tokens from the board in any way.  Everything else is fair game in token movement.  You can have tokens move in any number of spaces towards a particular direction, towards a particular token (be aware though, if that token is off the board, the action becomes invalid), towards a certain color.  You can specify jumps and strange movement patterns in the new action if you want.

Swapping cards boundaries:

Swapping cards refers to exchanging Action cards and/or Blank Action cards with one or more players or the Action decks. 

1.       Players can use existing groups as described in the above section.  Players cannot create new groups for a swap action.  You may single a player out in card swapping, but it must be a generalization like “blindly swap a card with the player on your left” or a combo of existing groups as described in the above section.  (existing groups include the 6 predefined groups or new groups created in a previous token movement action)  So the main difference here is that in token movement you cannot isolate a player upon action creation, in card swapping you can but it must be by way of a generalization or a combination of up to two existing groups.

2.       The action can specify that the swap is blind.  A blind swap means that players involved in the swap gather their action cards, shuffle them, fan them out face down and then the players swap cards without knowing exactly which cards they are swapping.

3.       The action can specify that certain players or all can look at the available actions and choose the action card they want to take in the swap.

4.       The action can specify that certain current Action card owners or all choose which action card to give up in the swap.

5.       The action may specify a swap of one or more cards per player.  The swap could even involve swapping entire hands.

6.       All swaps must be at a 1 to 1 ratio.  You cannot swap 2 for 1 or 1 for 2.  But you can swap 2 for 2 or 3 for 3, etc.

7.       Players should never end up with more than the 5 card limit as a result of a swap.

8.       When swapping Blank Action cards, the current actions remain on the cards, there is no erasing and writing a new action.

9.       Actions cannot specify that certain players swap blind while others get to choose.  The swap is either all blind, all choose which card to get rid of, or all choose which card to take.

10.   All swaps with the deck are limited to blind swaps.

11.   Blank action cards may be swapped among players, but not with the deck.

12.   In a swap among players, getting a blank action card and giving a regular action card is valid.  Vice versa is ok, too.

Objective Cards

·         If your player token and one other token are in the north blue hex together at the end of any turn, you have completed your objective.

·         If your player token and two other player tokens are in the center red hex together at the end of any players turn, you have completed your objective.

·         If your player token and one other token are in the south blue hex together at the end of any turn, you have completed your objective.

·         If exactly four player tokens (any players) are occupying any combination of purple hexes (ring around center hex), you have completed your objective.

·         If exactly three player tokens (any players) are occupying any combination of green hexes (edge hexes with no direction notations), you have completed your objective.

·         If exactly two player tokens (any players) are occupying any combination of the following blue hexes: NW, NE, SW or SE, you have completed your objective.

Action Cards

1.       Even Color Wheel tokens move 2 hexes north

2.       Odd Color Wheel tokens move 2 hexes south

3.       High Grayscale tokens move 2 hexes north

4.       Low Grayscale tokens move 2 hexes south

5.       High Color Wheel tokens move 1 hex towards the center

6.       Low Color Wheel tokens move 1 hex towards the center

7.       Even Grayscale tokens move 1 hex towards the center

8.       Odd Grayscale tokens move 1 hex towards the center

9.       Grayscale tokens move 1hex north

10.   Grayscale tokens move 1 hex south

11.   Color Wheel tokens move 1 hex north

12.   Color Wheel tokens move 1 hex south

13.   Grayscale tokens move 1 hex away from the center except for tokens currently in the center hex

14.   Color Wheel tokens move 1 hex away from the center except for tokens currently in the center hex

15.   Odd tokens move 1 hex away from the center except for tokens currently in the center hex

16.   Even tokens move 1 hex away from the center except for tokens currently in the center hex

17.   Odd Grayscale tokens move 2 hexes towards the NE

18.   Even Grayscale tokens move 2 hexes towards the NW

19.   Low Color Wheel tokens move 2 hexes towards the SW

20.   High Color Wheel tokens move 2 hexes towards the SE

21.   Low Grayscale tokens move 2 hexes towards the SE

22.   High Grayscale tokens move 2 hexes towards the SW

23.   Even Color Wheel tokens move 2 hexes towards the NW

24.   Odd Color Wheel tokens move 2 hexes towards the NE

25.   Grayscale tokens move 1 hex towards the NE

26.   Odd tokens move 1 hex towards the NE

27.   Color Wheel tokens move 1 hex towards the NE

28.   Even tokens move 1 hex towards the NE

29.   High tokens move 1 hex towards the SE

30.   Low tokens move 1 hex towards the SE

31.   Grayscale tokens move 1 hex towards the SE

32.   Color Wheel tokens move 1 hex towards the SE

33.   Odd tokens move 1 hex towards the SW

34.   Even tokens move 1 hex towards the SW

35.   Grayscale tokens move 1 hex towards the SW

36.   Color Wheel tokens move 1 hex towards the SW

37.   High tokens move 1 hex towards the NW

38.   Low tokens move 1 hex towards the NW

39.   Grayscale tokens move 1 hex towards the NW

40.   Color Wheel tokens move 1 hex towards the NW

41.   All players pass their Action cards to the player on the left

42.   All players pass their Action cards to the player on the right

43.   Blindly swap an Action card with a Color Wheel player

44.   Blindly swap an Action card with a Grayscale player

45.   Blindly swap an Action card with a High player

46.   Blindly swap an Action card with a Low player

47.   Trade an Action card with an Odd Color Wheel player.  Pick an Action card of your choice, they pick an Action card of their choice

48.   Trade an Action card with an Even Color Wheel player.  Pick an Action card of your choice, they pick an Action card of their choice

49.   Trade an Action card with a Low Grayscale player.  Pick an Action card of your choice, they pick an Action card of their choice

50.   Trade an Action card with a High Grayscale player.  Pick an Action card of your choice, they pick an Action card of their choice