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ABSTRACT GAMES

CONNECTION GAMES

MISC. GAMES

GAME SITES

ABSTRACT GAMES

No luck.  No draws.  No themes.  Simple games for two players, usually adults.  No hidden information.  Generic equipment: the Checkers set, the Go set, dice, printed game boards, and highlighters.  The dice are used as playing pieces, not rolled, since there's no luck in these games. Define "MAG": modern abstract game.

NEW   FLUME (square)	Territory.  Closely related to Dots and Boxes. Equipment: Go stones, hex hex board. Played at: ig Game Center, games.wtanaka.com.
NEW   FLUME (hex hex)	Territory.  Closely related to Dots and Boxes. Equipment: Go stones, hex hex board. Played at: nowhere yet...
OUST (hex hex)	Magnificent architecture.  Oust is one of my most innovative games.  The board starts out empty and you win by annihilation, paradoxically.  Your opponent has to add at least one stone before you can kill all of his stones. See also OUST (square), same rules but played on a rectangular grid. Equipment: Printed game board, broad tip highlighter pens. Played at: ig Game Center, games.wtanaka.com.
CEPHALOPOD (board)	Clever dice mechanism.  The dice in Cephalopod are not rolled.  Instead they're used as playing pieces.  By placing a single die on an unoccupied square of the board, you can capture up to four dice simultaneously (if all of them were touching your placed die).  Capture from within.  Equipment: Printed board, 25 red dice and 25 blue dice. Played at: ig Game Center, games.wtanaka.com, Boite a Jeux, Games By Email, Gamerz Net, Super Duper Games, Vying Games.
DIPOLE	Attacking game.  Stacks of like-colored checkers capture enemy stacks.  Gameplay is tense.  There are few "automatic" moves in Dipole.  Win by annihilation (my favorite type of ending).  Equipment: Checkers set. Played at: ig Game Center, Jij Bent, Your Turn My Turn, Games By Email, Gamerz Net, Super Duper Games, Brettspielnetz, Gold Token.
TANBO	Game of roots.  Root-like formations of like-colored stones dominate the boardscape in Tanbo, played with a Go set.  Roots grow, get constricted by surrounding roots, and die. Equipment: Go set. Played at: ig Game Center, games.wtanaka.com, Its Your Turn, Games By Email, Gamerz Net, Super Duper Games, Igfip.
DIFFUSION	Original seed sowing mechanism.  Diffusion employs a refreshing new stone distribution mechanism - fundamentally different from the standard mechanism used in all traditional Mancala games. Equipment: Mancala set. Played at: games.wtanaka.com, Games By Email, Gamerz Net, Super Duper Games.
SCRIBE  (board)	Pattern forming.  Mysterious non-occurrence of ties.  Form patterns on an array of 3x3 grids.  Points are totaled for patterns formed, and there will never be a tie, though it isn't obvious why not.  Tie scores were "designed out", so to speak.  Scribe is extremely portable.  You can play it on a cocktail napkin, sharing a pen with your opponent. Equipment: Blank sheet of paper and at least one pen to share with your opponent. You can print out the provided board if you like, but otherwise it's an easy board to draw. Played at: Games By Email, Gamerz Net, Super Duper Games.

COPYRIGHTS AND TRADEMARKS - All of the games presented here were designed solely by me, Mark Steere.  I retain all of the rights to all of my games, including copyrights and trademarks.