Gamehelpfptutorial

Overview

People in your neighbourhood have gathered together to build a pyramid out of straw, wood, and stones! You join in happily but soon you notice there are collapses, fires, and even explosions happening. Turns out, this may not be a friendly cooperative community project after all....

Goal

Be the first to get rid of all your tiles, no matter how much mayhem you may cause!

Components

There are 40 regular tiles showing straw, wood, or stone. Each tile has a unique colour/symbol and number combination. The number represents the tile’s weight. There are also five special tiles: two Coals, two Blowtorches, and one Millstone.

Each player has a hand of 5 tiles and a personal draw pile. At the beginning of the game all tiles are distributed equally among the players (5 into the hand, the rest into the draw pile).

Taking a Turn

Choose which of your five tiles you’d like to play. The red square shows you where this tile is going to be placed in the pyramid. If you have multiple places to choose from, they are marked as blue squares and you must choose one by clicking on it.

Each turn, you must play exactly one tile. If that tile does not fit with the ones below according to the building regulations, then you must suffer the consequences. Place your tile on the pyramid (see next section) and resolve any subsequent mayhem. Draw back up to five tiles (unless your draw pile is empty.)

You can never skip a turn. If you have to cause mayhem, try to keep it small.

Triggering Mayhem

Collapses

Numbers on the tiles reflect their weight. Tiles placed on the pyramid’s base level can be any colour and weight (number). Otherwise, when placing a tile on top of two others, it must match one of them in either colour and/or weight. Also, the tile’s weight must be equal to or less than that of the sum of the 2 tiles below.

If you do not obey these rules, a colapse will happen. The two tiles below the one you just placed are removed from the pyramid and put then at the bottom of your draw pile. The tile you just placed, falls down and over to the right or the left, your choice. Two green boxes will display your two fall options. Click on one of them.

That can be the end of the mayhem, but it might also not. The game will check each row of the pyramid carefully from top to bottom and left to right to see if any other tiles don’t match or are overweight now. If so, another collapse is triggered. This process continues until all of the tiles fit.

Remember that collapses occur when a tile: Is overweight (its number is greater than the sum of the two tiles below it) OR doesn’t match the colour or number of either tile below it

The Millstone

The 200 tile has every colour. Like stone tiles, it cannot burn. Due to its extra heavy weight, it easily causes collapses if it cannot be placed low in the pyramid.

Straw Fires

The two Coal tiles of weight 1 can start a fire as soon as one is adjacent to flammable straw tiles. This can happen if the Coal is already incorporated into the pyramid (e.g. if Coal is resting on inflammable stone or wood tiles and a straw tile is placed adjacent to it.) The fire can spread quite far because every straw tile that catches on fire spreads the fire to any and every other adjacent straw tile. All burnt tiles go under the fire-starting player’s pile. The Coal tile that started the fire is removed from the game.

Please note: the game first checks for collapses before checking for fire.

Wood Fires

The two Blowtorch tiles of weight 7 act in the same way as the Coal tiles, but they are more dangerous because they can ignite both wood and straw tiles. Every straw or wood tile that catches on fire spreads the fire to any and every other adjacent straw or wood tile. All burnt tiles go under the fire-starting player’s pile. The Blowtorch tile that started the fire is removed from the game.

Please note: the game first checks for collapses before checking for fire.

Explosions

An explosion occurs whenever two or more Incendiary tiles (Coals and/or Blowtorches) come into direct contact with each other, assuming there has been a legal placement. Every tile, no matter its material, that directly touches one of the Incendiary tiles goes under the active player’s draw pile and the Incendiary tiles are removed from (that round of) the game.

Please note: the game first checks for collapses, then for explosions and then for fire.

The Curse

An Optional Variant If three tiles of the same number form a mini-pyramid (two of the tiles next to each other, one on top of them), either via placement or after resolving mayhem, the curse is activated. The three tiles are removed and go under the draw pile of the previous player. Any tiles coming off the pyramid from follow-on collapses and other mayhem also go under the draw pile of the previous player. That player decides the direction any tiles fall after follow-on collapses.

Pleaes note: the game checks for the curse after checking for collapses, explosions, and fires.

A Tile on One Tile?

After mayhem, players may find they’re left with a pyramid where a tile sits on one signle tile and a gap. This tile is still legally placed if it is the same colour and not heavier than the one beneath.

Such a overhanging tile can never be actively placed by a player, but can result from mayhem.