Hexteroyd

Hexteroyd is an abstract strategy game for 2 players with a background theme of Asteroid Mining. It plays in approximately 20 minutes. Players take turn placing and removing pawns (the Colonies) on an hexagonal board (the Asteroid belt) with 5 hexagonal cells (the Asteroids) per side. Playing the Colonies allow to have the controls of the cells through double-sided discs (the Mines). Aim of the game is having control of the most valuable group of Mines (a Chain): the value of a Chain is given by the sum of the values of the adjacent Colonies. The game will participate in an Abstract Strategy Game Design Contest in the mathematics festival "Tutto è Numero" in Caldè (Italy) at the end of July 2011 What's so special about Hexteroyd ? Hexteroyd is a kind of connection game but with several twists: - First and foremost, you don't need to connect distant parts of the board. You must connect points to... gain points ! - The pawns you use are shared between the players and have a double role: they allow the players to make actions and they are the points themselves: positive if you connect them on the board, negative if you keep them in your hand. - You don't directly place the connecting pieces on the board: they come into play as a consequence of your playing a pawn, whether you place it on, or remove it from, the board. - Connecting pieces (the discs) aren't fix, they have a certain degree of variability as the result of players' actions: once they are on the board, they remain on their cell, but they change owner, therefore changing the connected pawns. Thanks to these characteristics, some parts of the board (usually the peripheral ones) are constantly subject to subtle but meaningful changes and the victory is somewhat uncertain till the end. The strategic aspect of Hexteroyd originates in the different ways in which you can use pawns: if you tend to empty your hand, you will have more territory control but less mobility; if you keep them in hand you risk to lose points in the end if you can't get rid of them.