Looney Labs Icehouse Mailing list Archive

Re: [Icehouse] playtest request from Kristin (fwd)

  • From"Peter Aronson" <pbaronson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • DateFri, 20 Jan 2006 21:51:45 -0700
I'll see if I can get one or more of the kids to try this game this weekend.
But even without trying it I can tell you -- these rules are no fun to read.
I felt like I was decoding them.  The game may be great, but rules these
terse do not, at least for me, make for a fun first play experience.  There
are a lot of things left out that experienced game players will just figure
out on their own, but that casual players might miss, such as: who goes
first and the order of play.   Diagrams would be nice, since I suspect it
would be easy to miss the fact this is essentially a linear game.

Better rules on the internet are no replacement, since many people will
resent being told to look them up, and it might not be convenient, anyway.
These outside of the tube rules would be a good reference for when you play,
but I just don't see them being sufficient for a casual gamer of the sort
that a lot of your sales seem to be to.

Also:

What happens if the house is modified so that multiple players suddenly have
the correct trios -- a tie?  The moving player wins?

The term "tree" is used to mean the player initial trio arrangement, and
then never used again -- thereafter all references are to the player's trio.
This is confusing if you don't regularly play icehouse games.

I find the use of "beyond" in the description of Dig kind of confusing -- 
beyond *what*?  I assume it means just beyond the piece pointed at, but
that's not entirely clear to me.

Peter