Looney Labs Icehouse Mailing list Archive

Re: [Icehouse] LAST CHANCE TO REVIEW TREEHOUSE RULES

  • FromDoug Orleans <dougorleans@xxxxxxxxx>
  • DateSat, 4 Feb 2006 17:21:28 -0500
Kristin Looney writes:
 > I'm sure you are all getting really sick of this - but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE 
 > look at these rules one more time.  Version 4 has now been posted.

Here are some questions that have been asked in the games I've played.
Maybe they can wait for the longer rules, but I'm reporting them now
in case they can be easily addressed in the short rules.

1. Can you win on someone else's turn?
2. Does "do the action to the House, or pass" mean that you may choose
   to pass, or you only pass if you can't do the action to the House?
3. Can you Tip just the top one or two pieces of a tower?
4. Can you Swap two pieces in the same tower?
5. Can a Hopped piece land in the same spot in line, i.e. do nothing?
6. Can you Hop or Dig to the end of the line?  Or only onto occupied
   spots or between them?
7. Can you Dig a single upright piece, i.e. is it a 1-piece tower?
8. Can you Aim a piece to the same orientation it started, i.e. do nothing?
9. Can you pass on a Wild?

Some copyediting suggestions:

1. Use "space" or "spot" everywhere, not both.
2. Maybe use "stack" in place of "tower", to match the verb "stack" in
   the prelude.
3. Change "roll" to "roll the die".  Just so smart alecks don't start
   rolling around on the floor.  :)
4. Change "and surfaces" to "surfacing", to match "landing" in the Hop rule.
5. Remove the commas from the Wild rule.

Almost everyone I've shown the rules to has been confused by
"forward"/"backward"/"sideways".  I realize "left"/"right" is also
confusing since those are relative directions-- how about
"East"/"West"?  Or, can you just say "Pieces can only ever point
upright or along the line."?

And, just for my own curiosity, what prompted the change to the
House-- to avoid the two-turn win?  (Dig medium under small, Dig large
under medium)

--dougorleans@xxxxxxxxx