Daredevil Rock

Daredevil Rock is a 1 to 4 player card game that simulates competitive rock climbing. The game has elements of luck, but a skillful player will certainly fare better in the long climb. The object of the game is to climb a tableau of cards and reach the summit first. To achieve this, players can perform up to four actions per turn. The actions, which can be performed in any order and multiple times, are:

Examine the Face (of the cliff tableau) – Turn an adjacent, face-down card face up. This action may cause the climber slips or falls.
Climb – Move to an adjacent, face-up, unoccupied card if its rank is within three of the climber’s card rank.
Set a Cam/Anchor – Place a cam token on the climber’s card. This tethers the climber and minimizes the effect of falling.
Probe – Replace an adjacent, unoccupied card with a face-down card from the draw deck.
Repel – Move down any number of levels below an owned cam token.
Hang from Daredevil Rock – Reveal a draw deck card and move to the summit if the rank of the revealed card is within three of the climber’s card. This wins the game!

Components

The game of Daredevil Rock requires the following components:

A standard deck of playing cards with two Jokers; 54 cards,
Four color-coded climber tokens; one for each player,
Twelve color-coded cam tokens; three for each player, only one per player is used in the standard game.

Set Up

The setup for Daredevil Rock is as follows:

1. Select a dealer. Cutting the deck will work. “Highest” player deals.

2. The dealer shuffles the deck and builds a smaller deck of twelve face-down cards. This is the draw deck. Leave space for a discard pile nearby and a large area for the cliff of cards.

3. With the rest of the cards the dealer lays out, face down, in a tableau of two to five columns of cards each with the same number of cards. The number of columns should equal one more than the number of players. The cards should not overlap. Any cards left over are added to the draw deck.

4. Each player takes one climber and one cam token and places them near the base the cliff columns. See Figure 1.

Figure 1. Set up for four players.

Important Concepts

Adjacent Cards

Tableau cards are adjacent if they touch alone any edge or a corner. The base is adjacent to all of the bottom row cards of the tableau and the summit is adjacent to all of the top row cards.

Refreshing the Draw Deck

Any time a Joker is revealed, the Joker, previous discards (if any), and the draw deck are combined and reshuffled to create a new draw deck!

Card Rankings

In this game card rankings are to be considered cyclic; the King is followed by the Ace which is followed by the two, similar to the numbers on a clock. Note that card suits are not used in this game.

Game Play

Starting with the player to the left of the dealer and proceeding clockwise, each player in turn becomes the active player and may perform up to four actions per turn. The actions available are:

Examine the Face (and possibly Falling)
Climb
Set a Cam
Probe

Repel
Hang from Daredevil Rock, and
Retrieve a Cam (Optional)

These actions can be performed in any order. Actions can be used more than once but each use costs one action. For example, a player may set a cam; examine the face; climb; and set a cam again.

Examine the Face

Whenever a player’s climber is at the base of the cliff – not on a card, the player may turn any one of the level-one (bottom row) face-down cards face up. See Figure 2.
When a climber is on a face-up card, a player examines the face of the cliff by turning over any unoccupied face-down card adjacent to the card occupied by the climber.
If a climber is hanging over a face-down card due to a fall or repelling, the climber’s card must be examined before any other face- down card adjacent to the climber’s card.
If the card turned over is a Joker, the climber slips or falls! How far depends on whether or not and where his or her cam is set. The player may even get eliminated from the game. See Falling for more details.
Climb Bonus: When a player examines the face and turns over a card with the same rank as the climber’s card, the climber may move immediately to the new card at no added cost, a free move.

Figure 2. The Red player examines the face by flipping over the middle card of level 1. This costs one action.

Climb

If a player’s climber is at the base of the cliff, he or she may move the climber to any unoccupied face-up level-one (bottom row) card. See Figure 3.

A player’s climber may climb, move laterally, or descend to any face-up, adjacent, unoccupied card whose rank it within three of the climber’s card rank. A card is unoccupied if no other climber is present. Any number of cam tokens can be present.

Ranking is cyclic. For example, if your climber is on a card of rank two, the climber can be move to any unoccupied adjacent card of rank Queen, King, Ace, Two, Three, Four or Five. Card suit does not matter.

Moving usually costs one of your actions. The exception to this occurs when a player examines the face and turns over a card with the same rank as the climber’s card. In this case, the climber may move immediately to the new card. Your climber found an easy way to the new location.

The last possibility to consider is if the player’s climber is at the top level of the face and about to reach the cliff’s summit. See Winning the Game – Hanging from Daredevil Rock below.

Figure 3. Since Red was at the base, his climber token can move to any empty level-1 face up card. This costs one action.

Probe

The active player probes or pokes about for loose debris by exchanging any face-up or face-down unoccupied card that is adjacent to the player’s climber card with the top card from the draw deck. The new card is placed face down while the replaced card is discarded face up on the discard pile. If the discarded card is a Joker, the draw deck is combined with the discard pile and reshuffled. This action can be used to replace a card that is blocking the player’s climber or to slow down your competitors See Figure 4 and 5.

Figure 4. Red spends his third action examining the face but the King is out of reach. Red was hoping for a rank between 3 and 9.

Figure 5. For his fourth and final action, Red probes the face-up King card in order slow down his opponents. The King is replaced by the top card from the draw deck and the King ends up in the discard pile. Note that examining a new card would leave two face-up cards for his opponent to use so this is rejected. Setting a cam is not a high priority while on the level-1 row.

Falling

The active player’s climber slips or falls any time a Joker is revealed. The active player determines what happens to his or her climber token. See the possibilities below.

If the player does not have a cam set, and:

If the player's climber is on the first level, the climber falls to the base and the player’s turn ends.
If the player's climber is on the second or higher level. the climber falls to the base of the cliff and is out of the game. See Figure 6.

If the player has a cam set, and:

If a player’s climber token is on the same card as his or her cam token, at the base of the cliff, or anywhere directly below his or her cam card, the player has a minor slip. The only loss is the action point used to reveal the Joker. The climber does not fall to a lower level.
If a player has a cam set but his or her climber is higher than, or off to the side of, his or her cam card (on any level) the climber falls and the player's turn will end or the player will be eliminated from the game. To determine how far the climber falls, count the shortest distance from the cam card to the climber card – exclude the cam card but include the climber card. Next count straight down towards the base of the cliff from the cam card (again excluding the cam card).

a) If the ground is reached, the player is out of the game.

b) If you reach an unoccupied card, place the climber on the card. The player's turn ends. If the card is face down, the player must either use the first action of his or her next turn to examine the card and turn it face up, or, the player may repel further down the cliff.

c) If an occupied card is reached, the climber falls one more level at a time until the climber reaches an unoccupied card and survives the fall but the player's turn ends or the climber hits the ground and is out of the game.

Regardless of what happens to the player’s climber token following the results of the fall, the revealed Joker is replaced by a face-down card from a refreshed draw deck at no cost to the active player in the following way.

Figure 6. Exposing a Joker triggers a fall. Green has used 3 actions to get to the Ten of Spades. For her last action she decides to risk it and examines the face one more time. As chance would have it, she reveals a Joker and falls to the base and is out of the game! She should have set a cam.

Refreshing the Draw Deck after Examining the Face

The revealed Joker, previous discards (if any), and the draw deck are combined and reshuffled, forming a refreshed draw deck! The space from which the joker came is filled in with a face-down card from the refreshed draw deck. Note that the removed Joker may reappear later in the same space!

Figure 7. Before the Fall.
Red’s climber is on his cam card the Ten of Hearts.
Yellow is two cards directly above her cam card, the Queen of Diamonds.
Green is one card away from her cam card, the Three of Clubs.
Blue’s climber is three cards away from his cam card, the Two of Clubs.

Figure 8. After the Fall. Here is where each climber ends up after revealing a Joker.
Red is on his cam card so does not fall, remains on the Ten of Hearts, and only wastes one examine action.
Yellow falls straight down two cards below her cam card (four cards total) to the Six of Hearts, almost hitting the base of the cliff. Yellow’s turn ends.
Green was hanging on Daredevil Rock but falls to a face down card, one card below her cam card the Three of Clubs. Green’s turn ends.
Finally, Blue was taking a big risk and falls three cards below his cam card to the Six of Hearts. Blue’s turn ends. If the Six of Hearts was occupied by the Yellow climber, Blue would drop one more level, hitting the ground and would be eliminated from the game!

Set a Cam

A cam is a safety anchor device that protects climbers from falls and can be used to repel down the cliff. The climber is tethered to the cam which is locked into a cliff-side crevice.

To set a cam, the active player places his or her cam token on the same card as is his or her climber token. Note that if the cam token is already in play, it is simply moved to the climber’s card.

Any number of cams may be placed on the same card. However, only one climber may occupy a card at a time.

A player’s climber can never use another player’s cam to prevent a fall or to repel.

Repel

If a player’s climber is on or anywhere directly below his or her cam card, that climber may repel vertically downward towards the base of the cliff any number of levels! The destination must be an unoccupied card or the base. This is considered one action. If the player repels to a face down card, his or her next action, whether during the current turn or not, must be used to examine it or the player may repel yet again.

Winning the Game – Hanging from Daredevil Rock

If a player’s climber is at the top level of the cliff, he or she may reach the summit by hanging from Daredevil Rock. Instead of flipping a card in the cliff tableau, the player flips over the top card of the draw deck and places it on the discard pile. There are three possible results.

If the card drawn is a Joker, the climber may or may not fall. See Falling above. Whether or not the climber falls, the player’s turn is over (an exception to a minor slip) and the draw deck is refreshed.
If the rank of the drawn card is not within three of the climber’s card rank, nothing happens except that one action is used up. The player may hang from Daredevil Rock again if he or she has actions left.
If the rank of the drawn card is within three of the climber’s card rank, the climber defeats Daredevil Rock, makes it to the summit and wins the game!

Variations

Blind Man’s Bluff

At the end of each player’s turn, all cliff cards without a climber or cam token are turned face down. This variation requires much more concentration and a good memory.

Limited Cams

In the standard game, players have, in effect, an unlimited number of cams to use. In this variant, players are limited to two or three cams in reserve but cams may be retrieved and reused; the fewer the cams, the more difficult the game. Logistics becomes part of risk management. Retrieve a Cam is a new action and repelling becomes more strategic.

Retrieve a Cam

To retrieve a cam the climber must move onto one of his or her cam cards and spend one action to put the cam back into reserve for reuse.

Figure 9. Suggested Set up for Solitaire

Solitaire

Daredevil Rock can be played as a solitaire game. The player must climb 21 levels and then hang from Daredevil Rock. Playing with limited cams is recommended but optional. Players can obtain a score by keeping track of how many actions or turns (sets of four action points) needed to reach the summit. Lower scores are best. If played with abandon (no cams) and extreme luck, the best score possible is 28 actions in 7 turns:

Turn 1: E, C1, E+FC1, E+FC1;

Turn 2: E+FC1, E, C2, E+FC2;

Turn 3: E+FC2, E+FC2, E, C3;

Turn 4: E+FC3, E+FC3, E+FC3, E;

Turn 5: C4, E+FC4, E+FC4, E+FC4;

Turn 6: E, C5, E+FC5, E+FC5;

Turn 7: E+FC5, E, C6, H,

where E=Examine, Cn=Climb and n=Rank, E+FCn=Examine with Free Climb, and H=Hang from Daredevil Rock).

Please note that these game rules may be duplicated and distributed via the web but the rules may not be altered and full credit must be given to the designer, Phil Leduc. Otherwise, all rights are reserved. Those that wish to program or sell this game in any form should contact the author at philleduc.pled@gmail.com for permission or a license to do so.