Variants/House Rules
From Polarity
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[edit] Resolving the Action Piece
This variant gives the game consistent scoring and resolves ambiguities about leaving the action piece on the board.
After a fault:
- If the action piece is still in your hand - Put it back in your stack.
- If other pieces have snapped up to the action piece in to your hand, and you are STILL holding on to them - put them all back in your stack.
- If the action piece has fallen and is touching other pieces - It remains on the board as a potential tower to be captured by your opponent on his turn.
- If the piece has fallen and is not touching other pieces“ you must pick it up and put it back in your stack. (Note: This applies to leaning pieces as well. You cannot play a leaning piece AND cause a fault. For example: if a fault is created and the action piece is still leaning afterwards, it must be put back in your hand)
The basic idea here is that if you create a fault, you cannot on the same turn play your action piece... it must be returned to your hand or go to your opponent as a tower.
[edit] Dropped action piece
This variant prevents abuse of the action piece in impossible captures
Say a player fumbles (or intentionally drops) the active piece so that it falls and is touching a tower or foundation creating an impossible capture. According to the rules, this is a fault - but it rewards the faulting player! Therefore I offer this additional rule:
If the action piece is the ONLY piece touching a foundation or tower, the inactive player can choose to capture it as a tower or force the active player to take the action piece back in to their stack. (In this case you are allowed to touch your opponent's foundation/tower to hold it in place as you remove the action piece.) Either way, it is still a fault and the active player's turn is over.
[edit] The Well Defined Turn
This varient attempts to resolve some ambiguous scenarios, specificaly in capturing towers and retrieving out of bounds pieces.
The turn has 3 parts which are played in order.
- (A) Capture any potential towers (one group at a time)
- (B) Lay a standing piece.
- (C) Take any out of bound pieces back in to your hand.
These are all the actions for the active player's turn. However, he/she is still the active player, and therefore responsible for any faults, until his/her opponent begins his turn by either declaring it verbally or moving over the play area.
(A) If at the beginning of your turn there are pieces on the board that are touching, these are potential towers and you get the chance to capture them. To do this you must pick up the touching pieces and turn them into a tower. You can place the tower anywhere on the board. Each group of touching pieces is resolved seperately and become seperate towers. If you cause a fault while doing this, the action piece (in this case the tower) is resolved as above and you immediately go to part (C) of your turn. There is an additional fault that can occur during a tower capture if you cause touching pieces of a potential tower to separate. This fault is resolved normally remembering that EVERY piece of the potential tower is considered an active piece.
(B) In this part of the turn the active player MUST do ONE of the following: lay a standing piece or create a fault. If a fault is created, figure out what to do with the action piece and then move to part (C).
(C) This is the last part of the turn and is played only if the active player caused pieces to move out of bounds. The active player must take each out of bounds piece and put them in to their stack. If a fault is caused it is resolved normally: potential towers are left for your opponent and the piece being grabbed is considered the active piece. If during this part of the turn, more pieces are caused to go out of bounds, they must be taken as well. Out of bounds for a foundation or tower means that the piece is entirely outside the circle and no part of it is touching the blue line. A standing piece is out of bounds if the part that contacts the mat is outside the blue circle. This means that sometimes you will have to take standing pieces off their foundation if they roll out of bounds.
(The active player is finished now and his/her opponent may begin his/her turn at will)
[edit] Ending the Game
This variant attempts to make the game more fair
The game ends in one of 3 ways:
- A player begins their turn and has no pieces left - proceed to scoring towers. This differs from the printed rules because your opponent still gets to play even after you are out of discs. This is important in case one last fault could make a difference. Also this is based on the idea that if each player played a standing piece on their turn and never faulted, the game would end in a tie.
- The red piece is touched - The game ends immediately, the active player loses.
- A player begins their turn and has no foundations or towers of their color. The game ends and towers are scored. I don't think the player without foundations should lose outright (As I have seen on the forums). If the game is settled by score, stealing opponents foundations becomes undesirable.
[edit] Tower Power Game
This variation makes the game faster and more chaotic
The change here is that all touching pieces become towers, and never go back to the stack. When resolving the action piece, if pieces have been sucked up in to your hand, these must be handed to your opponent and they can place them as a tower. Likewise if a you cause a fault while capturing a tower, these pieces must be handed to your opponent. With these rules the only time you put a piece back in to your stack is if you cause a fault and the action piece is alone in your hand. Out of bounds pieces are captured as well.
[edit] New Definition of Fault
This variant gives some more leeway if the action piece is dropped or fumbled
Faulting is treated in the same way as the official rules, except the action piece alone cannot cause a fault. For example, say a player fumbles while trying to play a standing piece and the action piece ends up touching a tower or another foundation. If nothing changed on the gameboard, this is not a fault. The active player can (using 2 hands if necessary) retrieve the action piece and play it as a leaner. If in this process they cause a fault (involving pieces ALREADY on the board) it is resolved normally.
This way the game is kept moving through non consequential action piece faults.
