Trax

In this Death Match, create a loop or line in your color by placing straight or curved pieces. (Original Design by David L. Smith)

Designer(s): Non-original Game Match Type: DM (for 2 players)
Featured in: The Genius: Code Red

DMB - Trax


📖 -- Rules -- 📖


Summary

Place tiles on the grid, creating a closed loop, but be mindful of forced moves, as a single mistake can cost you the game.


Gameplay

The game is played on an infinite square grid, using 2 types of tiles: Straight and Curved.

All of the played tiles can be fit into a rectangle, aligned with the grid. The smallest of such rectangles is the Bounding Box.

One player will be playing as Red, other player will be White. Other colors can be used if both players agree.

Both types of tiles have both a Red road and a White road on it. Straight tile connects opposite sides of a tile with a same colored road. Curved tile connects adjacent sides of the tile with the same colored road. By rotating these two tiles it is possible to connect any edge to any other edge with a color of your choice.


:Token: The goal of the game is to form a Loop or a Line using their colored roads. Creating either pattern wins you the game, even if you create one of the patterns for the opponent as well.

A Loop is a continuous path of roads that connects with itself.

A Line is a continuous path of roads that connects two opposite edges of the Bounding Box.

⚠️ In addition to the above, the Bounding Box has to be at least 8 tiles long in the direction of the Line.


Before the game starts, Lasped, as the player with higher priority, will select the First Player.

First player starts the game by putting either tile in any orientation on the empty grid.


After that, players alternate placing tiles on the empty spaces on the grid, adjacent to at least one other tile by edge. In addition, the color of the road on the connecting edge(s) has to match the other tile.

⚠️ After a tile is placed, the board is checked for Forced Moves. If there is only one possible tile and orientation that can be placed a specific spot in the grid (a.k.a there are 2 adjacent pieces to the empty spot, which have a same colored road adjacent to the empty tile), that tile is automatically filled in. This can cause a chain reaction of multiple tiles being placed one after the other after a single turn.

🔍 Here is an example of one tile being placed causing 2 more tiles to be forced.



Game End

The game ends when a loop or line is made. The player whose color the loop is wins the DM

The winner of the DM gets 15 garnets.


Time Controls

This game will use a one grace time system.

Players will have 60 seconds to make their move, and each player can go above this limit once. After that, the player has an unlimited amount of time to decide on their move.

When the player has decided, they should check that both the host and the opponent are present, after which they can post their move and the game can continue.

If a player misses the 60 second period again, they are eliminated.


📌 One grace update

Your grace can't last longer than 10 minutes.


Tags


Piece placement    (The game involves pieces being placed on a board.)


Strategy    (The game tests the players' strategic & tactical abilities.)


Turn-based    (The game involves players taking turns one after another.)