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Show HN: Play a pen-and-paper game that is almost unknown in the US and Europe

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Re: Show HN: Play a pen-and-paper game that is almost unknown in the US and Europe

#31

Post by evolve2k »

Here’s my super short description for those that have never played.

Draw a grid of dots on some blank paper. Your X, your friend is O.

Start by drawing a line between two adjacent dots, no diagonals (this is a wall). Take it in turns to draw a line between two adjacent dots.

If you draw a line that closes a square (or two!)(the smallest possible square), claim the closed square/s by writing a X inside the claimed square.

Game ends when nothing more to draw, count up your symbols for the winner.

Re: Show HN: Play a pen-and-paper game that is almost unknown in the US and Europe

#32

Post by airstrike »

evolve2k wrote: post #31

Here’s my super short description for those that have never played. Draw a grid of dots on some blank paper. Your X, your friend is O. Start by drawing a line between two adjacent dots, no diagonals (this is a wall). Take it in turns to draw a line between two adjacent dots. If you draw a line that closes a square (or two!)(the smallest possible square), claim the closed square/s by writing a X inside the claimed squ…

different game

Re: Show HN: Play a pen-and-paper game that is almost unknown in the US and Europe

#33

Post by airstrike »

whywhywouldyou wrote: post #11

A game like this with a million variations is almost immediately uninteresting. It makes it seem like the rules / strategy aren't fully formed and doesn't feel like something worth learning. The implementation is great though.

Rummy has a million variations and it's great. I'm partial to Brazilian Buraco, but only the specific variant my grandpa taught me ;-)

https://www.pagat.com/rummy/buraco.html

Re: Show HN: Play a pen-and-paper game that is almost unknown in the US and Europe

#34

Post by airstrike »

Kharacternyk wrote: post #2

Hi HN, I played this game a lot in school over here in Ukraine and was surprised that there is almost no coverage [1] of it in English. So, I built this tiny website where one can read the rules and play the game online. There is also an optional game mode that is impossible IRL on paper (with the "fog of war"). The game is usually known as "virus wars", but I didn't feel like registering a domain name with the word…

I would suggest listing players "looking for partners" somewhere so I can join their game instead of being specifically limited to finding someone with the exact same variants as me. I may be fine with, say, any number of neutral units, so I could be matched with anyone looking for 15%, 25% or 35% instead of having to guess which number will yield a match quicker

Re: Show HN: Play a pen-and-paper game that is almost unknown in the US and Europe

#35

Post by esrauch »

chrisfosterelli wrote: post #26
frei wrote: post #23

Unfortunately the bot is not very good. Just by reading the rules I was able to beat it every time on multiple rulesets. The matchmaking is also difficult to find a partner since the rules are so customizable, and there's no way to tell what rules potential partners could be searching with. Maybe a list of games that are looking for an opponent would be good.

I just read the first paragraph and then decided I wanted to play and I still beat the bot first try. At least that means the game rules are fairly discoverable :)

I didn't understand the rules until most of the way through the game and I still won against the bot. I'm not clear if its really doing anything better than playing randomly based on that.

Re: Show HN: Play a pen-and-paper game that is almost unknown in the US and Europe

#36

Post by zibada »

The rules of the game are itself like a virus. Looks like everyone here played a slightly different variant. It mutated wildly across space and time.

After I learned two different rule sets from two different sources, I went on and invented my own version. It became an instant hit in our class for many years to come.

Basically:

1. the map is randomized, with some "islands" randomly drawn, separating the map into "land" and "water"; map size is the whole A5 sheet, which is around 30x40 I think

2. player has 10 moves per turn, moving on "water" cells counts as 2 moves

3. the objective is not to kill everything, but only the enemy starting unit ("the mothership")

4. we even added FFA multiplayer later, where each eliminated opponent nets you +2 moves per turn for the rest of the game, to promote aggression. The diplomacy was intense at times, with "vassal states" and coalitions formed against stronger players.

Oh the memories.

Re: Show HN: Play a pen-and-paper game that is almost unknown in the US and Europe

#37

Post by russellbeattie »

frei wrote: post #23

Unfortunately the bot is not very good. Just by reading the rules I was able to beat it every time on multiple rulesets. The matchmaking is also difficult to find a partner since the rules are so customizable, and there's no way to tell what rules potential partners could be searching with. Maybe a list of games that are looking for an opponent would be good.

Yeah, the bot is good for learning, but after a few games it becomes easy to just go after it directly, kill the Os which connect the walls and win easily.

Re: Show HN: Play a pen-and-paper game that is almost unknown in the US and Europe

#38

Post by aidenn0 »

whywhywouldyou wrote: post #11

A game like this with a million variations is almost immediately uninteresting. It makes it seem like the rules / strategy aren't fully formed and doesn't feel like something worth learning. The implementation is great though.

Rummy, whist, euchre, and chess all have many variants.

Re: Show HN: Play a pen-and-paper game that is almost unknown in the US and Europe

#40

Post by klysm »

autoexec wrote: post #39

A pen-and-paper game, and yet all I get is "This web application requires JavaScript to run." I'm sure there's some kind of interactive demo or something, but do the rules themselves need JS?

You'd get more if you turned on JavaScript I think
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