Cuatto is an open source abstract dice race game aimed for the whole family, designed for 4 players, and playable by 2 to 6.
It has a basic set of rules that are easily understandable by a 5 years old, and layers of rules that enhance the game complexity and are great for a group of adults.
You can bend Cuatto's rules as you like, and create different setups that can differ on each other in length, board architecture, amount of checkers on each team, and classes of checkers for the teams.
Cuatto is actually hundreds of games based on a simple modular 3d-printable board design, and a root mechanic.
Cuatto was born when I wanted to make a backgammon like game for a group of people in my office.
I would like Cuatto to be improved by the community if they find it fancy enough. Because of that, I'm posting:
- The 3d models I made (both in OpenSCAD source code (with functions and variable names in spanish :O) and ready to print STLs).
- This book of rules.
- Some observations about other rules.
The field is composed of 12 to 24 four-checkers-sized positions.
Each team has 6 checkers.
The goal of the game is to move all of your checkers from the start position to the end position. The first team that gets all of its checkers out of the board wins.
In the basic form, the starting position of the team is just outside the board (position 0, where everybody is).
On each turn, a player throws 2 dice, and has two movements to make, for each die face value.
The checker can move if the position where it lands is not full, and is not blocked (owned) by another team.
- A position is full if it has four checkers on it.
- A position is blocked (owned) by a team, if it has two or more of it checkers in it.
If a checker is in a position that becomes blocked by another team, that checker is hit and must start over from the beginning of the board. In other words: if that team place a second checker in a position, all other checkers in that position that are not his teams are hit.
That's it!.
As far as I have tested this rules, they are very simple to follow and produce a fun game that can be enjoyed by kids.
You can use special rules to spice up the game mechanics, and create a game that is super fun and more complex.
These special rules are (as of now) special structures and classes of checkers. Each, with their own behavior.
I developed 2 kinds, but many more could be added.
- This checker pins other teams checkers on the position it currently stands.
- If a team's pin is in the same position of other team's checkers, those checkers can not move, until the pin is removed, or hit.
- Pin do not pin pins. If you have a pin in a position, along with another's team pin, both can move.
- This checker is stronger than the others, and hits every other checker that is not in his team.
- If a strong checker lands in a position where another team's pin is (alone), that pin is hit and has to go back.
- If a pin lands in a position where a strong checker is (alone), that pin pins the strong checker.
- If a strong checker lands in a position where another team's strong checker is (alone), that strong checker is hit and has to go back.
- The bridge is an special part of the board, fist concieved (and only tested) as the starting position, but it maybe usable on middle field.
- On a bridge there are 6 (or less), 1-checker-sized positions, and each checker on it blocks the path of those who are behind. They can not pass it.
- As a starting position, you put each team on its own bridge, an they start playing from that given position following the above rule until they reach the middle field.
- If a checker is hit, it must come back to the first free position of that bridge.
- You can skip bridges entirely when playing with kids if you like, and use a free start position for each team member.
- I guess you can use the bridge as a ending point too. I have not figure it out a rule that makes sense for that yet (without making an horrorifically luck oriented ending).
- 18 squares.
- Checkers per team:
- 6 regular.
- Starting Bridge, one per team. A 4 team bridges piece is provided.
- 18 squares.
- Checkers per team:
- 4 regular checkers.
- 1 pin checker.
- 1 strong checker.
In the 3dmodels subfolder, you can find 3 STL files ready for print.
- The starting position
- The 4 checkers square
- One complete team in one file.
In the 3dmodels subfolder the file board.scad has the source code in Open SCAD format.
- I'm now in a phase of testing. I have played it with many friends and amazing results, but I feel I coul'd change many macro rules in order to making it more fun, like team composition, board architecture, an so on.
- I'm not sure about the amount of checkers vs the amount of players that would be optimal. I'm testing with 6, planning on more, maybe 10/12 for two people.
- The double mechanics, like backgammon's, where you get 4 movements if you roll a double, is on testing too. Because you are not confronted, too many doubles gives too much advantage without the backgammon's hassles.
- I'm considering adding bridges in the middle of the board, as a bottle-neck device. Idea phase, needs testing, probably won't work.
- I have other classes of checkers to develop and test:
- Wounded, odd and even: Those checkers can only move odd, or even numbers. You have one of each.
- Bidirectional: You have one checker that can go back and forth.
- The addition of this classes depends on the ammount of checkers in one team. You need to have at lest 60% of regulars checkers. Why? I Don't know, normal distribution I guess. If everybody is special, no one is.
- A multi path board could be made, with splited paths that join again further in the board, one longer than the other but without a bottleneck (for instance). Board architechture could be a huge new world for the future.
Many people tells me games are better off themed. In that case, I think a Vulcano Escape theme should fit here, but I'm an abstract type of guy.