Stonerush, A Stonehenge Racing Game by Tom Van 't veld
I think some of the best games have a number of characteristics in common: they have simple rules, they are quick and they have a high replayability factor. The Stonehenge games are a good example of this. With this in mind, I recalled a number of these games and all of a sudden, there was the idea of creating a game of my own; a quick racing game with easy rules and a high replayability factor: Stonerush.
Game Rules
Number of players: 3–5
Object of the game: The players are druids who come home to Stonehenge after a hard days work. As part of their daily ritual (or just having fun), they try to be the first to run around the great stone circle. The player whose druid arrives first on case 30 of the outer ring is the winner.
Getting Started
Equipment: - The board
- The number cards: you will need all the cards, except the "night"-cards from 13 to 30.
- The trilithon cards
- The 5 figures, also called druids (even with 3 or 4 players!)
Setup: Place the board on the table (obviously) and place the druid figures on case 1 of the outer ring.
Shuffle the trilithon cards and secretly deal one to each player at random. The other players cannot see which card you received. Look at you own card but don't reveal it to the other players.
Shuffle the number cards and secretly deal 4 to each player. Players can look at their own cards, but not at those of the other players. Put the other cards on a face-down stack in the middle of the board.
Randomly determine a starting player. The rush can now begin!
Playing the Game
Starting with the starting player and then going clockwise, the players play a number cards to advance or push back one of the figures. Each player plays one or several cards, after which the next player does the same, and so on until the end of the game.
A legal combination of cards to play must follow these rules:
- you MUST play at least one card.
- you may play a combination of cards of the same color. The day/night symbol does not count as a different color.
- you may not play cards of different colors at the same time.
When a player plays a number of cards, the figure of the corresponding color is moved (the number on the card is irrelevant). For every card with a day-symbol, advance the druid one case. For every card with a night-symbol, place the druid one case back. If you arrive on a case which is already occupied by another druid, advance (or move back) the figure you moved one extra case.
A neutral card (black) can be played together with any other color.
Examples:
- A player plays a yellow card with a day-symbol. He moves the yellow figure one case ahead.
- A player plays two red cards with a night symbol. He moves the red figure two cases back. However, since there already is a druid on this case, he moves the red another case back!
- A player plays a blue card with a day symbol and a blue card with a night symbol. The druid does not move.
At the end of your turn, put the cards you played on a discard pile. The maximum number of cards you can keep in your hand is 2. If you have more, discard extra cards until you are left with 2. You are allowed to discard as many cards as you like. After that, draw new cards until you have a new hand of 4 cards.
If the draw pile runs out, shuffle the discard pile and create a new draw pile.
Ending the Game
When a figure reaches case 30 of the outer ring, the players reveal their trilithon card. The player whose color matches that of the figure that reached case 30 is the winner. If this color belongs to no-one (for example in a 3-player game), the winner is the player who has advanced the most.
Variant: for a quicker game, use the bluestones as the racing track.
Tom Van 't veld is an IT-trainer who studied Germanic languages in Belgium. He tries to have a normal life outside the gaming club "De Spelfanaat" in Mechelen. But with paintball, wargaming and diving, that's not so easy.
This rule set is for use with
Stonehenge: An
Anthology Board Game™ from Paizo Publishing.
Stonehenge may be purchased at
paizo.com
or at your favorite local game store. ©
2013
Paizo Publishing, LLC. Titanic Games, its logo, and Anthology Board Game are trademarks of Paizo Publishing, LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries.
All rights reserved. This contribution was made under the Anthology Board Game Library Agreement, whose conditions apply to the material in this document. For more free
Stonehenge
rule sets, visit the Stonehenge
Library at
paizo.com/stonehengelibrary.
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