Starry Night

Starry Night uses two components; The "Night Sky" which is a sliding puzzle that is affected by all players, and a "Horoscope" that is a personal collection of cards for each player. While these components don't interact with each other, they will combine to determine your points in each round.

NIGHT SKY: The night sky is represented by a 4x4 grid filled with 15 tiles, with one empty space referred to as 'the void'. At the beginning of the game the orientation of these tiles and the location of the void will be randomized. The border of the sky includes 4 half-circles, one centered on each side.

Each tile shows a trail of light connecting two adjacent sides of the tile. Trails of light that meet at the edges of the tiles are considered connected. The half-circles on the border of the sky can extend these connections, but they do not count as tiles. These trails of light are used to determine the features of the night sky; planets, comets, and the void's expanse.

Planet: A planet is created by a 2x2 ring of light that forms a complete loop. A planet can be created by two tiles and a half-circle.

Comet: A comet is any trail of light that is 3 or more tiles in length. While half-circles can create longer connections, only tiles are counted for the length of a comet. If a trail of light ends on the border of the void it does not count as a comet. Tiles that count for planets do not count for comets.

Void: The 'void's expanse' is calculated as the number of trails of light that border the void space of the board. Half-circles do not count towards the void's expanse. A trail of light that loops back to the void counts as one even though it touches two borders of the void.

COSMIC MOVES: Players shape the night sky round to round using 'Cosmic Moves'. The cosmic moves include:

1) Lock. Choose a tile on the board, that tile's position and orientation cannot be changed. 2) Mirror. Choose a tile on the board, its light trail reflects a neighboring tile of your choosing. 3) Rotate. Choose a tile on the board, you may rotate that tile to a new orientation. 4) Swap. Choose two neighboring tiles and swap their position. 5) Slide. Choose a tile bordering the empty void space. The tile slides to occupy the empty space, leaving a new void in its place.

Choosing Cosmic Moves: Before the first round there will be a 24-hour period of garnet bidding to determine player order. These bids are submitted in private and may be changed until the deadline. The player to bid the most garnets will be first in the player order. The 2nd highest bid will be the 2nd in the order and so on... Tied bids will be decided by a random sort.

Players will rank the cosmic moves from most to least desired. Cosmic moves are then distributed in player order, granting each player their most desired cosmic move that has not been claimed by another player.

PLAYER ORDER: The cosmic moves are ordered 1-5. Claiming a cosmic move will also determine your player order in the next round. For example, claiming the 'Lock' move allows you the first pick of cosmic moves in the next round. Claiming 'Slide' means you will be the last player to receive a cosmic move in the next round. Hands are passed in player order, with the last player in the order giving their hand to the first player in the order.

HOROSCOPE: Starry Night uses a deck of 56 numbered cards. This deck contains (in a random order):

14 Planet Cards 14 Comet Cards 14 Void Cards 14 Star Cards

At the start of the game you will be given a random hand of 14 cards. In each round you will choose two cards from your hand; you may add these cards to your horoscope or discard them. When adding cards to your horoscope note the card's number; cards added to your horoscope must be greater or lesser than the cards already present in your horoscope (In the first round your horoscope will be empty, any two cards are valid). If the chosen cards cannot be placed in your horoscope they are discarded automatically. At the end of the round your hand will be given to another player and you will receive a hand from another player to use in the next round.

Example above: This player already has card #28 and #32 in their horoscope. They have received a new 12-card hand for the round, however they will not be able to add the #29 or the #30 card to their horoscope.

SCORING: After you have applied your cosmic move to the night sky, the features in the night sky will be compared to the cards you have in your horoscope. Each card scores points equal to the number of times that feature appears in the night sky (in the case of void cards, they score points equal to the void's expanse).

Example above: This player has 2 planets, a comet, and a void card in their horoscope. There are two planets in the night sky, so each planet card will score 2 points, for a total of 4. Although there is a continuous trail of light that is 4 tiles in length, it borders on the void so the comet card scores no points this round. The void's expanse is equal to 2, so the void card scores two points. The player scores 6 points total for the round.

Not all features are scored in every round. This is the schedule of the features that will be scored in your horoscope.

Round 1: Planets

Round 2: Planets and Stars

Round 3: Planets and Comets

Round 4: Planets, Comets and the Void

Round 5: Planets, Comets and the Void

Round 6: Planets, Comets, the Void and Stars

ROUND SUMMARY

-Pass hands in player order

-Distribute Cosmic Moves to each player

-Player Submission

1) Add cards to Horoscope 2) Use Cosmic Move 3) Rank Cosmic Moves for following round

-Scoring

-Update Night Sky for next round

GARNETS

Pre-round: Before the first round there will be a 24-hour period of garnet bidding to determine player order. These bids are submitted in private and may be changed up until the deadline. Players also submit a ranking of their preferred night moves for round 1.

Community Garnets: Once per round a pair of players may choose to trade one of the cards in their horoscope. After paying the requisite community garnets the players will name a card in their horoscope to give to the other player.

The first time a pair of players wish to trade it will cost 1 community garnet. Every trade from then on will cost one more than the last (2 community garnets for the 2nd trade, 3 for the 3rd and so on)

Payout: The player(s) to score the most points in a round will receive 1 garnet.

The winner of the match will receive 3 community garnets, one for each player-pair

TOL AND EC

At the end of the sixth round the player with the most points is the victor and receives 1 ToL. If multiple players tie for most points at the end of the game, the earliest player in the cosmic move order for the sixth round is the victor.

The player with the fewest points at the end of the game becomes the elimination candidate. If multiple players have the fewest points then the EC is determined by the victor of the match.

NON-SUBMISSION

If you do not submit by deadline each element of your submission will be determined by a random sort, including what tile to use your cosmic move on and your ranking of cosmic move for the next round.

The two cards chosen from your hand will automatically be discarded.