Joined: Sun Jul 20, 2014 2:55 am
Posts: 85
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JALABYRINTH
Jalabyrinth is a Jalak game for 2-4 players. I have found it works better for 2 players than for more.
SETUP: The board should be flat, either at lowest or middle height, with the barrier turned on. Each player brings a SMALL cube to one corner of the board.
GOAL: The goal is to be the first player to get your cube to the opposite corner.
GAMEPLAY: The game is turn-based. Each turn has 2 phases: first a Row Phase and then a Move Phase.
RAISE PHASE: During the Raise Phase, a player can move anywhere s/he can get to, but may not move either cube. The player may pick any row of 5 columns to raise one step. Diagonal rows are not allowed and this phase may not be skipped. The player MUST raise one column along a side, the opposite column on the opposite side, and the three columns between them. The player must always move all 5 columns in the row, with one very important exception: Goal-Locked columns may not be raised (see GOAL-LOCKING). When a column is goal-locked, a player may still raise the row it is in, but the player must leave the goal-locked column alone. Each column is raised exactly one step higher than its current position (See SOME EXAMPLES). After a player completes the Raise Phase, s/he goes into the Move Phase.
MOVE PHASE: During the Move Phase, the player may not move any columns. The player may, however, move their cube from one column to an adjacent column (no diagonals), with some important exceptions. The cube cannot be moved onto the same column as the opponent's cube. The cube cannot be moved to a higher column (this is nearly impossible anyway). The cube CAN be moved to a lower column, but this is known as a Cube Drop, and results in a penalty (see CUBE DROPPING). So it is usually best to move the cube to a column that is the same level as its current column. The Move Phase is OPTIONAL, so the player may choose to "pass", leaving their cube where it is. Sometimes it is preferable to pass than to Cube Drop or to move the cube in an unfavorable direction. The first player to reach the opposite corner with their cube wins the game.
There are two sets of unique circumstances that are also important, which were integrated to make the game more strategic and to avoid annoying repetitive loops in gameplay. These circumstances are "Cube Dropping" and "Goal Locking"
CUBE DROPPING: During a Move Phase, a player is allowed to move their cube onto a column adjacent its current column, so long as that column is the same height or lower. If it is lower, the player has just CUBE DROPPED. This results in a special advantage for the next player: the next player gets to move TWO spaces instead of one during their Move Phase. Note that it is NEVER legal for a player to move more than 2 spaces in a single turn (See EXAMPLES for times when this might matter). If the next player moves two spaces and either move is a Cube Drop, the bonus will apply again to the following player (In a two-player game, this means that the two opponents could conceivably move two spaces each for several turns, provided they each keep Cube Dropping).
GOAL-LOCKING: (New rule) Goal-Locking occurs when a cube is one column away from its goal column. When this occurs, the relevant goal column becomes "goal-locked". This means that as long as the cube remains one column away, the goal column CANNOT BE MOVED BY EITHER PLAYER. The rows it is a part of may still be raised, but when they are, the goal column must be left at its current height. All columns around the goal column can still be moved, but the goal column must remain at its current height until the player either succeeds in moving his/her cube onto it, or the player moves their cube away.
BOARD MAINTENANCE: It may often become necessary for a player to raise or lower a single column in order to move to a certain spot. Alternatively, a player may accidentally push a cube too far, or push a cube up against something and need to take some drastic measures to move it. It is fine for a player to do whatever is necessary, provided the turn ends with a legal setup--in other words, if you had to raise a column to get somewhere, you must lower it back to its original position before moving your cube, etc. A player may push his cube "illegally" in order to alter its position so as to be able to push it into a legal place, etc.
SOME EXAMPLES: It is not necessary to read these examples, but they help to explain some situations and concepts that may be confusing. I've put them in spoiler tags to keep the post a convenient size.
Example 1: Row Raising Causes Uneven Rows. In this example, the first player has just had their first turn, and as a result the height of the columns is as follows:
0 0 1 0 0
0 0 1 0 0
0 0 1 0 0
0 0 1 0 0
0 0 1 0 0
The second player decides to raise the row along the side depicted at the top of the diagram:
0 0 1 0 0 <--this row
0 0 1 0 0
0 0 1 0 0
0 0 1 0 0
0 0 1 0 0
When s/he is finished, the new heights are as follows:
1 1 2 1 1
0 0 1 0 0
0 0 1 0 0
0 0 1 0 0
0 0 1 0 0
Note that one of the columns is now TWO steps higher than at the start of the game, because that was the only column that was a part of both rows which have been raised. In a Raise Phase, every column in the chosen row is raised exactly one step, REGARDLESS OF THE CURRENT HEIGHT OF THE COLUMN IN QUESTION. This means that rows will quickly become uneven as both horizontal and vertical rows are raised over the course of the game. This is normal gameplay.
Example 2: Lots of Cube Dropping. In this example, Bob is playing against Annie and Bob has just finished a Raise Phase. Bob finds himself in the unfortunate position where his only choices are to pass, to move his cube "backwards" (away from his goal), or to move his cube to a lower column. He decides to do the second, and pushes his cube onto the lower column. This is a Cube Drop, and it means that Annie gets 2 moves on her turn. Annie goes through her Raise Phase and raises a row of columns, then gets to move, but she has a problem: she's in the same position as Bob, where moving closer to her goal means Cube Dropping. She does it anyway. Now she gets an extra move, because of Bob's Cube Drop. Uh-oh, she's still on a tough space and will have to Cube Drop again. She does so. Bob then raises his chosen row and says, "Ha! You Cube Dropped TWICE last turn, so I get TWO extra moves! I get to move three times!" But Annie, who is better at reading directions than Bob, reminds Bob that in Jalabyrinth, it is never legal to move more than 2 spaces. So Bob still only gets 2 moves. Annie's second Cube Drop was, practically speaking, a free one.
Example 3: Goal-Locking. In this example, "C" represents the cube of one player, and "D" represents the cube of the other. An X represents a column which has no cube on it. The starting position is this:
C X X X X
X X X X X
X X X X X
X X X X X
X X X X D
C's goal is to reach D's home column, and D's goal is to reach C's. After several turns of gameplay, the board looks like this:
X X D X X
X X X X X
X X X X X
X X X X X
X X X C X
Note that C only has to move one more column to win. Unfortunately the goal column is several steps higher than the column C is on. Fortunately, because C is exactly one column away, the goal column is goal-locked. If either player raises the far-right row or the bottom-most row, they must raise all columns EXCEPT the goal column. Among other things, this prevents D from simply raising the goal out of C's reach indefinitely.
Let me know if any of this is hard to understand or if there are any questions! This game has been extensively playtested for 2 players and works very well. It has only been playtested once that I am aware of for more (we tested it with 4), and it was found that in that situation, Players 3 and 4 were at a significant disadvantage, so I'd welcome any suggested variations for helping the later players. When there are only 2 players, Player 1 does have a slight advantage, because if both players manage to move their cube one space closer each turn, then Player 1 will win. Player 2 should adopt the strategy of using Raise Phases to force Player 1 into a position where s/he must either Cube Drop or pass on the Move Phase. I have seen Player 2 win many games, so I consider Player 1's advantage to be small enough that game balance is not significantly disturbed.
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Last edited by Carl U Palmner on Tue Aug 05, 2014 10:42 am, edited 8 times in total.
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