Squibbing

From Reach

Wherever there is a continuous source of stress, people will come up with a diversion to take their mind off of it. Squibbing is one of those diversions.

Squibbing is a sport played in the polar regions, where temperatures are lower. The "sport" takes its name from the squib, a native lifeform found in the equitorial region. A squib is a 4 legged arthropod much like an earth crab: It has a thick upper shell, and 4 thick armored legs, arranged evenly around the round body. Due to the extreme temperatures in the equitorial region, the bottom half of each of its legs are all bone: This helps insulate it from the harsh temperatures of the ground. The upper shell is thick to prevent heating of the main body, which rests underneath the shell. It has a viscious bite, but can only snap at targets below itself, giving it almost no recourse against creatures larger than itself.

Due to the chemical mixture of the ice pools near the poles, the water has a higher freezing temperatures, but flash freezes: This leaves sheets of ice that are almost perfectly smooth. After some casual play, it was discovered that squibs cannot move on ice; because their lower limbs are all bone with no nerves, they can never gain a grip on the ice, and will scramble in place, accomplishing nothing. This led to some creative rules, and the current sport of squibbing.

Squibbing itself involves affixing a handle to the back of the squib with a strong epoxy, and throwing it down a sheet of ice. A target will be marked approximately 200 feet down range, and the goal is to get the squib on the center of the target. After each toss, the opponent is allowed to throw a squib as well. Due to the scrabbling of the squib as it heads downrange, it will often deviate from a straight line. During official matchups, someone will run alongside the squib with a blowtorch, melting the ice to make it harder for the squib to change direction. 3 squibs are tossed per team, then the score is tallied.

Scoring is as follows:

• 1 point for the squib closest to the target
• 1 point for each squib closer than the opponents closest squib
• 3 points for each squib of the opponents eaten by your squib
• -1 points for each squib burned by a blow torch

After five rounds of play, the score is tallied. If there is a tie, 1 squib from each team is placed on the ground, facing the other team's squib, and the one that lives determines the winning team.