Jolt! A game by Robert Elliott. For 2 6 players aged 10+

Transcription

1 Jolt! A game by Robert Elliott For 2 6 players aged 10+ I n troduction The year is Following the cessation of World War 3 in 2110 where most of Earth s population were wiped out and in order to prevent such a mass slaughter happening again, a one world administration, known as EURUS was formed by the victors of the conflict. It was not long until EURUS became a totalitarian regime and sport in the 2200 s is very different compared to the 21 st century. Nuclear fallout from the conflict resulted in all outdoor sporting activities to be prohibited indefinitely. Subsequently, advances in technology during the conflict allowed the exponential rise in the use of performance enhancing drugs and genetic splicing and led to the prohibition of all non-eurus approved activities. In order to prevent the populace from rebelling, EURUS sanctioned one sport, Jolt! In this sport, human competitors have been replaced by gargantuan mechs, engineered from war machines used in the conflict. In this fastpaced arena elimination game, up to 6 teams, each consisting of 2 mechs, try to out-manoeuvre each other and force each other out of an ever shrinking arena. O b j e ct of the game To eliminate all other mechs from opposing teams by moving (jolting) them into a disconnected zone or out of the arena. Components 1 x Game board 60 x Disconnected zone tokens 60 x Doubled sided Pressure Sensor counters 1 x six-sided dice 1 x Powerup deck containing 48 cards 10 x Mobile Override Device (MOD) tokens 6 x Activation tokens 1 x Timer 6 x Sets of 2 mech Standees & Stands Setup 1. Using the game board, create one of the setups as shown in Figure 2 based on the total number of players: a. Place disconnected zone tokens onto the board as required 2. Place the timer, powerup deck and counters / tokens within reach of all players 3. The youngest player sets up first and player setup proceeds in a clockwise fashion. a. Pick a team colour matching those in Error! Reference source not found. for your player count b. Place both mechs into connected zones matching your team colour specified in Error! Reference source not found.2 c. Take 2 powerup cards from the powerup deck and place them into your hand. Page 1

2 2 player game 3-4 player game Figure 1: Overview of the game board tokens and counters 5-6 player game Figure 2: Setup dependant on player count C o n n e c t e d Z o n e s Connected zones are zones to which a mech can safely move into without being eliminated. A connected zone may only contain 1 mech, and is designated as occupied. The arena is made up of a large electrical framework and is divided up into 61 hexagonal shaped connected zones. Each connected zone in the arena has a pressure sensor. On your turn, each time your mech moves out of a connected zone the pressure sensor rating for that zone increases by 1 level and the zone will disconnect from the framework once its pressure sensor limit has been exceeded. The pressure sensor limit is set at 2. As the game progresses, connected zones will disconnect from the framework once the pressure sensor rating for that particular zone has been exceeded and the arena will naturally shrink in size. D i s c o n n e c t e d Z o n e s A disconnected zone remains disconnected for the remainder of the game and cannot be re-connected. If a mech moves into a disconnected zone for any reason it is immediately eliminated from the game and is removed from the board. Place disconnected zone tokens on the game board once a connected zone becomes disconnected from the framework. Turn order Beginning with the starting player, take turns consecutively in clockwise order. If it is felt that a player is taking too long on their turn, any player may flip the timer (90 seconds) at any stage during Points 2 or 3 below for the current player to compete their actions. Your turn proceeds as follows: 1. Select the active mech. a. When neither mech has been eliminated: Select either mech to perform actions for your first turn. The mech selected becomes the active mech. For subsequent turns, select your mech that was not active during the previous turn. b. When one of your mechs has been eliminated: Perform actions using the remaining mech. 2. Declare how many powerup cards you are going to play this turn and place them face up in front of you (Including jump cards). 3. Perform actions up to the limit with your active mech. (Pg. 3) a. If used, when the timer runs out, you may not perform any more actions this turn. Any initiated actions must be fully resolved e.g. Jolts before moving to Point Move the Activated mech token to your active mech for this turn. Page 2

3 5. Place / replace pressure sensor counters as appropriate to reflect the current pressure sensor rating for each zone that your active mech moved out of this turn. Only adjust the pressure sensor rating as a result of movement by the active mech, i.e. do not place any counters for mechs that were jolted this turn. a. If your mech did not perform any actions this turn, increase the pressor sensor rating by 1 level in your mechs current hex. 6. Place disconnected zone tokens for any connected zones that became disconnected this turn (See movement rules). Remove any counters (Pressure rating or MOD counters) from disconnected zone and return them to the supply. 7. Remove any eliminated mechs from play. If you eliminate a players last mech, take all of their unused powerup cards and place them into your hand P o w e r u p c a r d s P l a y i n g a p o w e r u p c a r d At the start of your turn, before performing any actions, you may activate a powerup card from your hand by placing it face up and resolving any effects. Any number of powerup cards can be played each turn. Once a powerup card is used it is placed into a discard pile. If a powerup card is played and not used for any reason the card is discarded at the end of your turn. Drawing a powerup card is detailed in the Actions section. A c t i o n s Each turn your active mech may perform any combination of actions from the following list of actions. You may perform up to 3 different actions on your turn (e.g. Jump, Jolt & Move) or the same action twice (e.g. Move & Move). Draw a Powerup card (Pg. 3) Perform a movement action up to two connected zones from your starting location into an unoccupied connected zone (Pg. 3) Perform a jump (Pg. 4) Rotate adjacent Mobile Override Devices (MOD) in unoccupied zones by up to two 60 turns. (Pg.4) Place or remove a MOD in an adjacent, unoccupied connected zone (Pg. Error! Bookmark not defined.) Jolt any mech occupying an adjacent zone (Pg. 5) Adjust the pressure sensor rating in an adjacent connected zone by 1 level (Pg. 5) D r a w i n g a p o w e r u p c a r d Drawing a powerup card counts as an action. Draw 1 powerup card and place it and place it face down in front of you. Once you have completed your turn, take the faced down card and place it into your hand and can be played on a subsequent turn. Once played, any effects from a powerup card override the core rules. There is no limit to how many powerup cards you can have in your hand. If the powerup deck is exhausted, reshuffle the discard pile to make a new powerup deck and draw cards as appropriate. In the rare event that there are no powerup cards in the powerup deck or the discard pile then no cards can be drawn until powerup cards are played and discarded. M o v e m e n t Move your mech up to two into adjacent unoccupied connected zones from its current location. For each connected zone that your active mech moves out of this turn, increase the pressure sensor rating by 1 level for each time your active mech moved out of it. If your mech did not perform any movement actions this turn, increase the pressure sensor rating for its current zone by 1 level. The red player performs a movement action twice and moves 4 hexes as shown by the arrows. Once the turn is over, the red player places pressure sensor rating tokens on hexes the mech moved out of during the action. Note that the mechs starting hex has increased to 2 and the final hex is unchanged. Any connected zones that have a pressure sensor rating that exceeds the pressure sensor limit at the end of the turn will result in the zone being disconnected from the framework. A mech may move over a zone that will disconnect at the end of the turn but as long as it doesn t finish it s turn occupying that zone, it will not be eliminated. Page 3

4 The red player wishes to move to the connected zone marked with X. The red player performs a movement action twice to move 4 spaces to reach this location. The mech would not be able to do this by moving 3 spaces in a straight line from its current location over the disconnected zone as it would be eliminated as soon as it moved onto it. J u m p A jump action is performed by playing one or more jump cards from your hand. Each jump card that you play allows you to move your active mech one space from your current location. As part of the action, your mech may jump over disconnected zones and is not eliminated by doing so. Once the jump has been completed, increase the pressure sensor rating of the zone your mech jumped from by the number of cards played. The red player performs a jump action to jump to the connected zone marked with X. The red player discards 2 Jump cards from their hand. The red player increases the pressure sensor rating for the hex they jumped from by 2 levels as they played 2 Jump cards. Because the pressure sensor rating was already at 1, this increase exceeds the pressure sensor limit of 2 therefore the hex is disconnected from the framework at the end of the turn. M o b i l e O v e r r i d e d e v i c e s ( MOD) P l a c i n g / R e m o v i n g a M O D A MOD may be placed into (or removed from) an adjacent unoccupied connected zone. When removing a MOD token or when a zone containing a MOD token is disconnected for any reason, return the MOD token to the supply. A MOD cannot be placed on a disconnected zone. When placing a MOD, take one MOD counter from the supply and place it in an adjacent zone to your activated mech, ensuring that it is clear which direction the arrow is facing. If there are no MODs available then no more can be deployed until MOD tokens are returned to the supply. R o t a t i n g a M O D A MOD may be rotated twice in 60 increments from its current location. The player rotates the MOD by 60 clockwise. The player can still perform another rotation by 60. M o v e m e n t o v e r M O D s If a mech is occupying a zone that contains a MOD before commencing or during a movement action, the first space the mech moves into must be in the direction specified on the MOD, i.e. the direction of the bolt. This only applies for the first space and does not apply to subsequent spaces, unless the mech moves onto another MOD. If this movement results in the mech moving into another mech, the jolting rules apply, the jolt is performed automatically and is considered as part of the current movement action. Once the jolt is resolved, your mech automatically moves into the zone vacated by the jolted mech. J u m p i n g f r o m a M O D Instead of moving in the direction specified on a MOD, your mech may attempt to override the MOD by performing a jump. Perform a jump as per the Jump rules however you will need to play an additional card to perform the jump, i.e. to jump 2 spaces away you will need to play 3 jump cards. Page 4

5 J o l t Your mech may fire a burst of electrical energy to force (jolt) any adjacent mech directly backwards from your mech, including your own. Performing this action moves the jolted mech into one of three zones as shown in the example and is chosen by the active player. The jolted mech must be moved into an unoccupied connected zone where possible. If this is not possible, the active player chooses which direction the mech is jolted. If the jolted mech is forced into a disconnected zone or out of the arena, the jolted mech is eliminated from the game. The active mech does not automatically move into the zone vacated by the mech that was jolted. Place each mech that you elimimate beside you as it will be used to determine the winner in the event of a tiebreak. Note: You may not eliminate a mech on your first turn of the game using a Jolt. The red mech Jolts a blue mech. The 3 possible locations the blue mech can be forced into are zones A C. In this case the red player selects zone C If zone A contained a mech or a disconnected zone and B & C were connected zones, then the red player would only be able to choose to force the blue mech into zone B or C. C o n s e c u t i v e j o l t s If a mech is jolted and forced into another mech, another jolt is performed automatically by the jolted mech. This jolt is performed as per the jolt rules. The initially jolted mech automatically moves into the zone vacated by the subsequently jolted mech. All successive jolts are considered part of the initial jolt action. The red mech Jolts a blue mech. There are no valid unoccupied connected zones therefore the red player chooses to jolt the blue mech into the green mech. The blue mech performs an automatic jolt and forces the green mech backwards and the blue mech automatically moves into the zone vacated by the green mech. Note the blue mech automatically moves however the red mech does not move. J o l t i n g a n d M O D s The electrical surge caused by a jolt will override a MOD therefore the direction specified on a MOD is ignored when a mech is jolted. A d j u s t t h e p r e s s u r e s e n s o r r a t i n g Your active mech may adjust the pressure sensor rating in any adjacent connected zone by adjusting the value displayed on the pressure sensor counters by 1 level. If the zone is occupied by another mech, then the pressure rating for the zones cannot be adjusted. If the pressure sensor rating exceeds the pressure sensor limit then the zone is disconnected at the end of the turn and the pressure sensor rating counter is returned to the supply. Page 5

6 E n d i n g the game The winner is decided when all opposing mechs have been eliminated from the arena. T i e b r e a k At the end of the game, there may not be a free path to allow your mech to engage with an opposing mech due to the formation of isolated islands of connected zones. When opposing mechs are isolated like this, if no mechs make any attempt to engage after 3 rounds (i.e. jump to the same island as an opposing mech, perform a jolt action on or move adjacent to an opposing mech), the game is decided by a tiebreaker. In a tiebreak, the winner is declared as the tied player who eliminated the most mechs. If this is a tie then the tied player with the most mechs remaining in the arena is the winner. If this is a tie the tied player who has a mech on the largest island is the winner. V a r i a n t s a n d o p t i o n a l r u l e s T e a m J o l t! You could try team Jolt! where 6 teams (3 vs 3 or 2 vs 2 vs 2) square off. Do you have a strong player? Why not play 2 players vs 1. You could even play 1 vs 1 with 6 mechs per player or handicap by playing 3 mechs vs 2! P r o g r a m m e r s In addition to the powerup cards, you can add more variation to your game by incorporating one of the programmer traits as described below. This represents the programmers signature code and defines their playstyle. Sergei: Sergei spent some time in the city asylum for some unknown misdemeanours and is a little confrontational. Who can forget the asylum riot he instigated in 2183 where over 120 people were seriously injured? His mechs will always move into the zones vacated by a jolted mech and this movement is considered part of the movement action. Matthias: A professional circus performer before he gave it all up to be a lucrative Jolt! Programmer. He felt that there just wasn t enough adrenaline compared to the high-octane world of Jolt! Matthais needs to play 1 less Jump card than specified in the Jumping rules but must always play a minimum of 1 card. Amandine: A bomb disposal expert and is a veteran of 24 conflicts spanning 40 years in the special forces, disarming thousands of remotely charged devices. Since retiring, she has used her hacking skills to good effect to adjust pressure sensor levels in Jolt! arenas. In addition to the core rules, she may adjust 2 pressure sensor levels, either in the same adjacent zone or in 2 different adjacent zones Suzanna: Before humanised sport was outlawed, Suzanna was an upcoming sprinter but was cut short due to a serious muscle rupture linked to genetic splicing so she returned to university to study robotics. For her first movement action, her mechs can move up to 3 spaces rather than the usual 2. Max: Max is a former research assistant in the field of cryo-magnetism. He has modified his mechs to interact with each other using numarinium magnets. When both his mechs are adjacent to each other, he can perform a special action which will move his active mech to the opposite side of his inactive mech or vice versa. Ardal: A suave and sophisticated character, Ardal (otherwise known as the cat) is well acquainted with the finer things in life, due to his uncanny knack of landing on his feet. When drawing powerup cards, instead of drawing 1, he may draw 2 cards and discard 1 of them. Destiny: A modifications expert, Destiny has been able to fine tune and adjust the settings on the Jolt! Guns so that it can charge up and jolt 2 adjacent mechs. Instead of performing a normal Jolt, she may attempt to jolt both mechs as part of one action. Roll 1d6. On a roll of 3+ the jolts are successful and resolve each jolt individually, otherwise the gun has over heated and the jolt doesn t work. Yoko: Yoko exhibits a zen-like state and has extended this trait to her mechs. If one of her mechs is about to be jolted and another mech is adjacent to both her mech and the mech performing the jolt action, she may choose to transmit the jolt to the neighbouring mech. Roll 1d6. On a roll of 1, the neighbouring mech is jolted and on a roll of 2-6 Yoko s mech is jolted as normal. H i s t o r y o f J o l t! History and lore of the game will be fleshed out at a later date Page 6

7 The programmer executes some smart code that allows your mech to perform the same action 3 times instead of two times for this turn. When Do not jolting increase another mech, pressure you rating may jolt of them any zone into your any active unoccupied mech moved adjacent out at connected the end of your zones turn. to your active mech rather than one of the normal 3 zones. For this turn, play 1 less Jump card than normally required. You may increase / decrease the pressure sensor rating by a value of 1 in an adjacent zone once as a free action this turn. You can avoid being jolted once until your next turn. You can choose when you don t want to be jolted. If a mech jumps over your mech, roll 1d6. If the roll is 3+, then you may choose to move the jumping mech 1 space from the target space but must be an unoccupied connected zone. When jumping from a MOD, you do not play an extra jump card. Choose 1 player, they can only perform 1 action on their next turn. This You card are cancels difficult any to effect Jolt. produced When an from opposing another mech card. attempts to jolt your mech until your next turn, roll 1d6. On a 3+, the jolt happens as normal otherwise the jolt has no effect. Do not in any zone the end o Your mech may increase / decrease the pressure sensor rating from any connected zone in the arena. You may play this card as soon as an opponent announces that your mech will be jolted. Choose a valid zone to be jolted into. Pause the timer until the jolt is resolved. Reconnect any single zone that has been disconnected from the framework and is assigned a pressure sensor rating of 0. You can follow up a jolt for free this turn. Look at an powerup powerup card. If a mech jumps over your mech, roll 1d6. If the roll is 3+, then you may choose to If a mech jumps over your mech, roll 1d6. If the roll is 3+, then you may choose to You can activate a mech that you activated last turn. Page 7 Once, wh or jumps

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9 The programmer executes some smart code that allows your mech to perform the same action 3 times instead of two times for this turn. When jolting another mech, you may jolt them into any unoccupied adjacent connected zones to your active mech rather than one of the normal 3 zones. When Choose jumping 1 player, from they a can MOD, only you perform do not 1 play action an on extra their jump next card. turn. Choose 1 player, they can only perform 1 action on their next turn. You may increase / decrease the pressure sensor rating by a value of 1 in an adjacent zone once as a free action this turn. You can avoid being jolted once until your next turn. You can choose when you don t want to be jolted. If a mech jumps over your mech, roll 1d6. If the roll is 3+, then you may choose to move the jumping mech 1 space from the target space but must be an unoccupied connected zone. Page 9

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