Death Match

Here are some potential rules for a game called "Death Match" that is designed to celebrate the Death Matches of the community.

DM1: Death Match

In this Death Match, players will play in 3 Death Matches at the same time, concurrently, all at once. Players will submit for all 3 sub-games at the same time and must try to win one of the sub-games before losing the other two.

The three Death Matches featured will be the following: Liar's Dice, Flower Field, and Sliding Tic-Tac-Toe.

For transparency's sake, here is a list of ORGs that have previously featured these games:

• Liar's Dice was played in The Genius: Variations on a Theme.
• Flower Field was played in Genius Game 4, Squeaky Genius: Legends Untold, and Shardren's Minecraft Genius: How to Play.
• Sliding Tic-Tac-Toe was played in Genius Online: All Stars and Squeaky Genius: Legends Untold.

Players are not allowed to use calculators, programs, spreadsheet formulas, or any sort of automation in this DM. However, you may take and use notes.

The Death Match Opponent will choose if they want to play first or second. Do note that choosing to play first means playing first in every single sub-game, since you will be submitting for them all at once.

The rules for each sub-game will be posted below.

🎲 Liar's Dice

In Liar's Dice, players will make increasingly stricter and stricter claims about the dice until one of them challenges the other.

Players both begin with 4 dice. In each bout, each of the dice are rolled, and players know the results of their own dice (and only their own dice).

On a player’s turn, they must either claim or challenge, except during the very first turn — the player making the first move must claim.

• Claim - Make a claim that there are at LEAST x dice with the number y across both players’ dice. If you are making the first move of a round, there are no restrictions on x and y. Otherwise, x must be greater than or equal to the value of x in the previous claim. If x is equal to the previous value of x, then the value of y must be greater than the value of y in the previous claim.

Example:

If your opponent claimed there were 3 3’s, claiming there are 3 4’s, 4 2’s, or 100 1’s are all valid, though the last one would get you instantly challenged. Claiming there are 2 5’s or 3 2’s would be invalid.

• Challenge - Challenge your opponent’s previous claim. The round immediately ends -- if your opponent’s claim was true, they win. If your opponent’s claim was false, you win.

The loser of a bout gets a die added to their collection, which is rolled and considered in future bouts.

A player wins Liar's Dice when their opponent exceeds 8 dice.

🌺 Flower Field

In Flower Field, players place flowers on a 7x7 grid while avoiding creating duplicate patterns.

Players begin the game with 3 lives and take turns placing "flowers" in the garden. The middle tile of the garden (D4) starts with a purple flower filled in. Flowers can be either red, blue, or purple.

During their turn, a player may plant 1-2 flowers on the grid. You may only plant a flower in a cell that is orthogonally adjacent to a cell that contained a flower before your current turn.

A player may also decide to challenge instead of placing flowers on their turn. When you "challenge," you are claiming that your opponent's most recent move has created duplicate flower fields on the board. Duplicate flower fields are tetrominoes of orthogonally connected flowers that are equivalent and distinct to one another. Flower fields are equivalent if one flower field may be rotated and/or flipped to be identical to the other in shape and color, and distinct if there is at least one cell in one flower field that is not in the other. When you are challenging, you must point out the two tetrominoes that you claim are duplicates. If successful, your opponent loses 1 life and must re-do their turn. If unsuccessful, you lose 1 life instead and must re-do your turn.

Note that you are considered to be unsuccessful if you declare two flower fields that are not duplicates, or don't include at least one of your opponent's most recent flowers in a flower field.

A player wins Flower Field if their opponent runs out of lives.

🇽 Sliding Tic-Tac-Toe

In Sliding Tic-Tac-Toe, players will take turns placing and sliding their pieces in an attempt to get 5 of your pieces lined-up in a row at the end of your turn. This can be done either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.

Sliding Tic-Tac-Toe is played on a 6x6 board. Each player is given 18 pieces. On the first turn of a bout, the starting player will place a single tile on the board. Every turn afterwards, the current player can choose to either:

• Place a tile on the board
• Slide tiles on the board
• Place a tile on the board, then slide tiles on the board

If you choose to slide tiles, your slide must adhere to the following rules:

• You can make at most one slide per turn.
• All tiles you choose to slide must be adjacent to each other, unless you are sliding a single tile.
• All tiles you choose to slide must be in one row or column of the board, and must be slid along that same row or column. (You can’t slide a group of tiles “sideways”.)
• Tiles can only move into empty spaces, and cannot “push” tiles that are not a part of the initial slide.
• You may only slide tiles in orthogonal directions (up, down, left, and right).
• You may slide tiles as many or as few spaces as you wish, as long as all tiles remain within the board and all other rules are followed.
• If you both place and slide on your turn, you do not have to slide the tile you just placed.

Additionally, the player who moves second will have access to the neutral tile. The neutral tile acts as a normal tile, but it will not contribute towards a 5-in-a-row for either player. It can be placed at any time during your turn, without counting as an action. However, placing one of your own tiles still must come before sliding, if you choose to do both on your turn.

When there are four empty spaces left on the board, players may no longer place tiles, and can only slide tiles.

A player wins Sliding Tic-Tac-Toe by making a 5-in-a-row with their pieces before their opponent.

⏰ Timing

Each player will have 2 minutes per turn to submit all their moves. They must submit a valid move for each sub-game to properly conclude their turn. Both players will additionally start with 10 minutes of reserve time, used in periods of 10 seconds. If a player runs out of reserve time, they automatically lose the Death Match.

👑 Winning

The first player to win a sub-game wins the Death Match, regardless of how they are doing in the other two sub-games.