This is the first teaching diary of F2FGamers. Please be patient while we shake the bugs out. :-)
Number of players: 2 - 8 players
Age group: box says 8+, we've played 6+
Easy Game
playing time: 15 - 30 minutes
Tile laying game
Can be found in (niche) gaming stores
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Pieces:
8 plastic pawns of various colors
35 tiles
1 dragon tile
1 board
1 rule book/sheet
Objective: Stay on the board, be the last one standing.
I have played and taught this game many times. It can be a very genteel, let's sip tea. and discuss intellectual pursuits while we play, type of game play, or [with 7 middle school boys] it can be very cut throat.
The game is very fun and easy to learn. With it being a tile placement game, no two games are every alike.
Before I start explaining the game I just want to take a moment and point out the artwork in this game. It is a very beautiful game, right down to the board - you may even be loathed to put tiles on it covering it up.
More below the squiggle.
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Playing Tsuro
"Shuffle" the tiles and pick your pawn. Shuffling is usually accomplished by placing all tiles face down on the table, individually, and then sort of "mixing" them ("wax on, wax off" style) without turning them face up.
Gather the tiles, still face down, into a stack and deal out three tiles to each player. After dealing out tiles, put the "Dragon Tile" on the bottom of the undealt stack and place the whole stack on the side of the board (do not put it in the center of the board). This is the "draw pile"
Now you can being playing!
Player's turn consists of placing tile in front of their pawn, moving their pawn to the end of the new tile, and drawing another tile. Until the Dragon Tile is drawn all players should have 3 tiles in their hand at all times. No player should ever have more than 3 tiles in their hand (though they will as the game wears on, have less)
Oldest player starts (hey there's gotta be some perks to growing old. I'm not making it up, it's in the rules!)
To begin, place your pawn at any "notch" on the board. The notch does not have to be in front of you, however it's less confusing if it is.
The notch is your "starting path." When you lay down your first tile during your turn you begin your path.
Things to know about tile placement and movement:
• You can only place your tile in front of your pawn.
• You can only go forward you cannot go backward.
• When you or your opponent (we'll get to that) places a tile in front of your pawn, you must follow the path until the end.
The "shoe lace" lines on the tile is your path. They line up perfectly with all other tiles and the notches. Tiles are placed in the squares on the board.
• Your pawn moves along the curve of the path, but it cannot turn a corner.
• When a player's pawn's path leads it to a starting notch, it is off the board.
Most players try not to have their tiles and pawns meet up early in the game (unless you're playing a cut throat game), but eventually your options for tile placement become such that you will meet up with other tiles and possibly other pawns.
If the tile you place meets up with another tile, you must move your pawn to the end of that entire path, which may or may not take you off the board. If it takes you off the board, you lose.
If someone else while placing a tile in front of their pawn also means that the tile is placed in front of you, you must move your pawn along the path until the end, even though it is not your turn. That tile placement could keep you safe, or take you to the end and off the board. Your movement to this placement is considered part of the player who placed the tile's turn, and when the turn is finished, the next player takes his/her turn.
The important thing is if you haven't been taken off the board and out of the game by the tile the other person played, you don't lose your turn.
So what happens if you find that by some quirk someone's tile placement means that two pawns are on the same path? As I explained it to the middle school boys, it's like a car crash, you're both out.
If a player is holding tiles when it is taken out, either by the path leading off the board or the crash, the tiles go back into the draw pile above the Dragon Tile.
So what is the "Dragon Tile?"
The Dragon Tile is a marker. It is ALWAYS the last tile in the draw stack. When a player draws this tile, there aren't any more tiles in the draw stack.
Play continues as normal, except that each successive player cannot draw a tile.
Once a player has gone out their tiles go to the player with the Dragon Tile. That player picks one of those tiles. Then passes the other tiles to the next player who didn't get to draw a tile, they pick and then if there is another tile that player passes it on to the next player that didn't get a draw. The Dragon Tile is then placed back in the draw stack.
This happens each time a player is taken out of the game. If they don't have any tiles, well, there are no "spoils."
Game continues until only one player remains on the board.
Questions? Comments? Story or anecdote about a Tsuro game you played?
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Tsuro Tstuff
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(yes that's Wil Wheaton)
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pdf of basic rules
Calliopegames has the whole "book/sheet" as a pdf download
Tsuro on Boardgame Geek
Tsuro on Wikipedia
Good Abstract Games
Complexity of Tsuro
More Tsuro Combinatorics
More from COMBINATORIAL GAME THEORY
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8:19 PM PT: Oh! Forgot to say. When I taught games (as after school clubs/activities, and as part of a summer vacation program) I would always instruct the kids (and adults) not to make their mind up about whether they liked a game or not until they played it twice.
The first time is the learning time and it's not fair to judge a game on the learning time. The second time, after you've gotten a taste of the basics, is when you can make a better judgement about the game and you.