The Big Rules and PDFs thread

[Jubal]

Empedocles' Stones - Rules and Official Gameplay Guides

The Classical Rules

Download PDF

This PDF contains the complete classical rules of Empedocles' Stones. It, a chessboard, and counters of four colours are all that is needed to play the game.

[Glaurung]

This sounds interesting. There are intriguing similarities with other games: go, and Conway's "Life". It feels as if it might be quite old, with the established terminology and strategy, and the connection with Greek philosophy. I'd like to see it played.

One thought on the terminology: when I first read it, "transmutation" implied to me that stones of one type would turn into another type. It took a while for me to realise that in fact the relevant ones "died" and were removed from the board. Maybe a different word would be better here?

[Jubal]

Hm, possibly. I'll have a think. I was originally going to call it a "reckoning" then decided that evoked Homestuck rather too much. Any suggestions? The idea was that the board, rather than the pieces, were undergoing a transmutation; the balance of the four elements (generally) changes, which is why it seemed to encapsulate the relevant alchemic idea.

The feeling of age is definitely intentional, as are the Go and Game of Life parallels; good to see that they come over! 

[Glaurung]

Hm, possibly. I'll have a think. ... Any suggestions?

Not immediately, I'm afraid. Maybe it just needs a sentence to say that when a transmutation happens, all pieces with the wrong number of neighbours are removed from the board. You might have intended that - on closer inspection, it looks as if some of the text might have been lost. There's a paragraph that consists entirely of "When a transmutation occurs, and" !

The feeling of age definitely came across: when I first read the thread, I thought it was a genuine old game that I'd never heard of before. Then I read the rest of GS&S and worked out what the context was! I think ES could easily take on a life of its own, though.

[Jubal]

Yes, that sentence is missing, and will be added pretty shortly, along with changing the false claim in the current book that you only need a chessboard and four sets of counters (you actually need a die as well).