Original Rules in Black Text
Additional Rules in Red Text
Place dark pieces on the dark spots on the board and the light pieces on the light spots, leaving the central spot empty. There should be twelve pieces per player on the board to begin.
Players decide who will move first at random.
Each turn, a player will move one of their pieces along a marked line in any direction (including along board edges or center line vertically in the upward or downward direction, horizontally across the top or bottom curve of the board, diagonally upwards or downwards right, and diagonally upwards or downwards left) to an adjacent empty spot. If a capture move is available, then it must be made instead.
If possible, a piece must instead capture an adjacent enemy piece by leaping over it to land on the spot immediately beyond in the same direction, which must be empty. The enemy piece is then removed. Captures cannot be made if there is not available space immediately beyond the opponent piece in one continuous line.
If it is possible to make an additional capture in any direction with the same piece in its new position, then it must do so, capturing again and again as long as it may make such moves. These captures may change in direction between captures, but must retain the same directional movement for a single capture (e.g. a player may capture an opponent piece by moving diagonally left over it across the board, and then may take another opponent piece by moving diagonally right across the board in an immediately subsequent capture.) If at any point there is a choice of captures, the player may choose which capture to make. All of these captures will comprise one singular turn from one player.
To win, a player must capture all of the opponent’s pieces.
(Optional) Players may set a timer between moves to maintain pace of the game. This time should be decided upon and tracked by the participating players, and should reset upon the start of each player’s turn.
The only edits which I made to the original rule sheet (denoted in red text) were to clarify language used to describe the rules of movement and capture for this game. I feel that the provided rules outline game setup and stipulations to win with reasonable clarity, and needed very little adjustment if any. During my first play testing of the game in accordance solely to the original rules, there was a lack of understanding with some players on directionality of capture moves both in singular instances and in sequence. After more specifically describing what is and is not allowed in terms of movement of pieces during capture, there was less confusion and more opportunity for strategy within the game. This resulted in smoother play that allowed myself and other players to be challenged more by other player’s choices and strategies versus trying to figure out what mobility each piece was allowed. Additionally, we played some rounds of the game with a timer running per each player’s turn that restarted at the beginning of each turn. This created a more fast-paced experience where there was not as much time to think about individual moves, but instead forced players to think ahead about how to maneuver their pieces, as opposed to stopping to analyze the entire board with each turn. It also kept the game more exciting with less time waiting for your opponent to move. With this rule, we found that about twenty-five seconds was the ideal amount of time, as any less than twenty felt overly rushed and stressful, while over thirty seconds seemed too long for the opposing player.