Icehouse, Zendo, Zarcana, and Nothing

I am pleased to announce that I’ve finally revised and reformatted the rules for 3 of the biggest classics of the pyramid game system – IcehouseZendo, and Zarcana – in the style of the Pyramid Arcade rulebook. This is something I’ve been needing to do for almost 8 years, ever since 2016 when PA was first released.

Also, I think I’ve finally fixed that annoying deadlock issue in Nothing Beats a Large!

Icehouse

The original game for the pyramids has become something of a dinosaur: a fearsome beast that used to rule the land, but which died off a long time ago.

Icehouse began its slide into obscurity as soon as we started inventing other games for the pyramids. As new, easier-to-learn games crowded into the spotlight, we decided to start calling them Looney Pyramids, instead of Icehouse Pieces.

We didn’t even include the rules for Icehouse in Pyramid Arcade, although that decision was driven in part by the fact that Icehouse requires a classic “full stash” of each color (15 pyramids) whereas Pyramid Arcade focuses on the small stash of just 9 pyramids per color.

But the original game still has its fans and we still want to make the rules available for those who might yet discover it. So here at last are the rules for the original classic, reorganized and formatted in the new style. (The previous version of the downloadable rulesheet dates back to 2012.)

Zendo

In 2017, we released a newly reimagined version of Zendo, featuring 3 shapes (pyramids, blocks, and wedges) instead of pyramids. For this edition, we dropped the “Buddha Nature” theming and introduced rule cards for the Moderator, which are marked with clips to indicate which options currently apply.

That edition has now sold out, and we’ve decided to let it go out of print. We are back to Zendo being just one of the many games you can play with Looney Pyramids.

Fortunately, the rule cards (which were the best part of that boxed set) will live on. Three years ago, when we published the Pyramid Quartet games, we revised the Zendo rule cards to work with pyramids as an extra for Kickstarter backers, and those cards will continue to be available at our website.

I’ve been meaning to update the downloadable rules for Zendo ever since releasing those cards, but now I’ve finally gotten those redone and approved by Kory and here they are!

Zarcana

One of my very favorite pyramid games is also one of the oldest: Zarcana, designed by John Cooper. The rules for Zarcana were first published in More Icehouse Games in 1996, and it was an instant hit with the Icehouse community. It was one of the most popular pyramid games when we included it in the plastic box edition of 2000.

But then, John began tinkering with the rules, eventually creating a very different — yet superficially similar — game called Gnostica. In 2002, initial enthusiasm for Gnostica led to its inclusion in Playing with Pyramids, in the place of Zarcana, since there was only room in the book for one complex pyramid game played with Tarot cards.

But I was never happy with that decision, and soon afterwards I posted an article explaining in full detail why I like Zarcana better. But the damage was done: by featuring it in PWP, the community bought into the idea that Gnostica was the official game for pyramids on tarot cards, and either made the switch or moved on to other games.

One issue both games have is that tarot cards can be off-putting for some folks. For that reason, in 2008 I created Zark City, a similar but much easier game that instead uses regular playing cards. At that point, I began exclusively promoting Zark City, which provides much of the same fun (but none of the baggage) and which is featured in Pyramid Arcade. But like Gnostica, Zark City is a good game… but it’s not as good Zarcana.

That said, the original rules for Zarcana are not without flaws. (This is why John started experimenting with other rules in the first place.) But instead of going wherever new ideas might take him (and his re-design cohorts, Kory Heath, Jacob Davenport, and Kristin Matherly), my goal was to change as little as possible about the original, while also making a couple of important improvements.

During the past year, I’ve been playtesting my tweaks with John and re-writing the rules from the ground up, using the new standard rulesheet format. I’m extremely pleased with the results!

If you’ve never played Zarcana, you can skip the rest of this section and just start playing. But for game design scholars, here are the details about what actually changed:

1) I think the original game’s biggest problem is what I call Action Starvation, i.e. when you just can’t get the type of move you need. You might have some really good cards in your hand, causing you to be reluctant to choose the “discard entire hand” option, but you have other cards you can’t use and no ability to get what you need at that moment. Therefore, we added a new option: You can discard two cards of the same type to take a Wild action.

2) The previous change makes the unpopular Discard Hand action completely unnecessary, so that option is being removed.

3) Zarcana can be a long game — too long, in many cases. So we decided to add a “short game” option in which a large number of randomly chosen cards are set aside at the beginning of the game. This creates a wonderful uncertainly about which cards are actually in play each time, so we decided you should always remove at least three cards at the start.

4) The power of the Gateway has been broadened to allow teleportation to any card, not just a card of the same type.

Those are all of the gameplay changes reflected in my new Zarcana rules. And they make the classic better than ever!

Nothing Beats a Large

I was never really happy with the version of Nothing Beats a Large that we released as our Holiday Gift back in 2009. Two years ago, I posted a greatly simplified new version, and almost immediately realized that I hadn’t done enough playtesting and had missed an edge case that basically breaks the game. It took me two more years, but I’ve finally come up with a truly elegant solution: faking it!

Here’s what I mean by that: You can now Cast with a size you don’t have by combining two smaller pieces. Specifically, a Small and a Medium can pretend to be a Large, or two Smalls can represent a Medium.

Stalemates may still be possible under certain circumstances but overall I think these new rules are a big improvement.

Happy New Year!

Now I Am Sixty

Happy Birthday to me! Yes, I am now 60 years old, and I gotta say, I’m really quite pleased with the State of My Life at this time. Although my heart breaks when I think about the many terrible things going on in the world at large, on the personal level, I couldn’t be happier. 

Thank you to everyone who sent me a birthday greeting via social media! I Liked them all, but my favorite was from Mikemc who created this picture of a birthday cake for me, using the Icebreaker level editor. So cool!

I had a lovely birthday weekend and received some other very nice gifts, but one of the best gifts I got this year was something we all received: one final song from the Beatles! I really like it, and the official video is delightful. For me at least, “Now and Then” passes the ear worm test. What a joy to have a new Beatles song stuck in my head one last time!

Happy Halloween!

We love Halloween and one of our favorite things about the holiday is carving jack-o-lanterns. Kristin started hosting pumpkin carving parties back in 1986, and Alison has been keeping the tradition going over at her house since 2008. (Thanks for hosting, Alison!)

I stopped trying to post detailed reports about our annual pumpkin carving efforts a long time ago, but in the spirit of that grand tradition, here’s a selection of photos of this year’s group of glowing gourds.

Happy Halloween!

 

Camping Fluxx is at the Printer!

If you were following along as I traveled the country during the last couple of months, you already know that our next release will be Camping Fluxx, since I talked about playtesting it during that epic journey. I think I’ve also talked with Keith about it on The Download.

But for those who haven’t heard, you can read a bunch of details about it on our official announcement page.

I’m pretty excited about this one because I love camping — as soon as I got back from that six-week road trip I went camping again for almost a week at a regional “burn” event — and I think it’s pretty fun to be making a version about something rather ordinary instead of dragons and spaceships and zombies (oh my).

Just as Across America Fluxx has become the perfect version to take along on a road trip, Camping Fluxx will become the ideal version to take with when camping, which is great because we’ve already heard many a story of fans who play Fluxx during campouts.

Another fun thing about Camping Fluxx is that it will include the Scout Bonus. As an Eagle Scout myself, I am often asked to send other new Eagles a congratulatory letter, and for many years we’ve been including with these letters a promo card called the Scout Bonus. This was obviously the perfect edition in which to include this as an actual card, and the new version looks better than ever!

The illustrations for Camping Fluxx were created by Ted Kinyak. This was our first time working together and I’m extremely pleased with how they all turned out. The awesome packaging design was created in-house by Morgan.

Camping Fluxx will be released on Feb 2, 2024!

AAAFRT Day 43: DC Monuments and HOME!

Well, my epic journey is over. I have reached Washington DC, location of the last card in my set, and the city whose suburbs I call home. I’ve had such a great time!

I didn’t use it often on this trip, but here at the end I was glad once again that I’d brought my bicycle with me. I was able to scoot around the mall getting these photos in a fraction of the time it would have taken if I’d been on foot.

DC is filled with monuments but the main ones shown on the Keeper are the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. I’ve already been to the top of the Washington Monument (although that was decades ago) and nowadays you have to get on a waiting list for that.

I’ve also been to the BOTTOM of the Lincoln Memorial (a really cool tour I also took decades ago). So I was happy enough just to see these landmarks again from the outside.

Since I parked at the Tidal Basin, I also got a photo-worthy view of the lesser known but just as lovely Jefferson Memorial.

I love this city and could easily spend all day downtown, but of course, I couldn’t wait to get home. Because look who’s here! It’s our new kitten, Neko!

Thanks for following along with me on the greatest road trip of my life. Where will I go next as I continue to #TravelWithFluxx?

AAAFRT Day 42: Driving North

I’m on the final stretch, the drive up I-95 towards home!

As anyone who’s been here will know, you cannot make this drive without at least becoming aware of South of the Border, a Mexico-themed roadside attraction located just a few feet south of the border between North and South Carolina. Like Wall Drug (which I described as being the South of the Border of the West), travelers are informed about this place with dozens and dozens of colorful, pun-laded billboards, in this case featuring the SotB mascot, Pedro. These billboards, of course, increase in density as the much-heralded exit ramp approaches. So I had to stop, at least to take a few photos!

South of the Border is cleverly located on the driving route between Florida and the urban sprawl of the Washington-New York region, at the mid-point (more or less) of that drive, making it well positioned as a “halfway-there” stopping place for vacationers. But even if you don’t stop, you can’t help but notice that giant sombrero as you pass.

Speaking of roadside attractions from the South, I had my first Buc-ees experience on this trip. As I’ve been hearing, it’s quite a place. The location I went to even had someone in a mascot costume to greet people, complete with a minder ready to take photos for you on your phone. How could I resist? I was even given a sticker after my photo-op!

Meanwhile, the once-ubiquitous blue-roofed roadside emporiums known as Stuckey’s have all but vanished from the great American highway system. I noticed a number of their distinctive buildings during this road trip, usually either repurposed or in ruins, but I did find one establishment that hearkened back to their former glory.

I spent the night at a rest area in northern North Carolina. I’m just 250 miles from home!

AAAFRT Day 41: Cape Canaveral

I owe a lot to NASA. My dad was an engineer at the Goddard Space Flight Center for almost 50 years, from the time of its founding in 1959 to his final retirement, and since he was the sole breadwinner of our family, NASA put every meal on my table growing up, and even sent me to college. From there, I went directly to work for NASA myself, which is where I met Kristin, so again, all of our bills were paid by NASA, until we decided to get into the game business instead.

Furthermore, I’m a member of the Apollo generation and someone who thinks landing on the moon was one of the greatest human accomplishments of all time, so of course, the Kennedy Space Center had to be on my list of the most important landmarks in America.

Needless to say, I’ve been here many times over the years: on multiple family trips, an Explorer Post “super activity,” twice with Kristin when we went to see space shuttle launches (Atlantis STS-43 in 1991 and Endeavour STS-61 in 1993), and even just a few years ago with Leila and a group of JoConauts, when we did the whole tour yet again. Also, I have to admit that I’m getting pretty eager to get on home. So I decided not to take the extra bus trip out to get a good photo of the VAB (that’s the giant cube-shaped building where the Vertical Assembly of rockets is performed). My photos aren’t going to match the card anyway, since no launches were happening while I was there this time.

Since I got started early and made it a short visit, I was able to get a good start on the drive north before it got dark. I’m really looking forward to getting home!

The final stop on my #TravelWithFluxx road trip will be the Monuments of Washington DC!

AAAFRT Days 38-40: Driving East

I don’t have much to report about my drive across the Gulf Coast. I’ve been on the road for so long now that I’m in the mood to cut things short and just focus on getting home. So I drove straight on through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and even most of Florida. I am now in Titusville, in the shadow of the Kennedy Space Center, the penultimate stop on my incredible grand tour.

My route went right through Orlando, but I wasn’t planning to visit the Mouse on this trip, since I’ve already made an official Amusement Park visit, and since I’ve been to Disney World already this year; however, when I realized I would be there in the early evening, I decided to detour through Disney Springs.

There are four full-fledged theme parks at Disney World, but there are a number of other features at the resort that often get overlooked. Disney Springs (aka Pleasure Island for us old-timers) is a shopping and dining venue you can visit without a ticket — even the parking lot is free. Strolling around this highly-themed area is a lot like spending time wandering around in one of the actual parks (except for the lack of attractions) and on a beautiful evening like it was here last night, this can be quite enjoyable.

But I did have an agenda (I always do): I was curious to see what had become of the building that housed one of the greatest things Disney ever made: the Adventurer’s Club. Sadly, it’s just a regular old restaurant now, called Edison. I will never understand why they gave up on the Adventurer’s Club and I wish they’d bring it back. Kungaloosh!

Check back soon for one of the last reports on my #TravelWithFluxx road trip!

AAAFRT Days 34-37: Texas

Texas is big — really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-boggling big it is until you spend four and a half days driving all the way from one side of the state to the other.

But to be fair, I haven’t been proceeding with particular haste. As I mentioned in my Mesa Verde report, we are in the final stages of production on Camping Fluxx (official product announcement coming soon!) and I’ve been needing to spend a lot of time just parked at a picnic area or rest stop, working, managing the project from my four-wheeled office.

BTW, I really like the Rest Areas of Texas: you can stay for up to 24 hours! Compared to those with an 8 hour limit (or even shorter!) these feel almost luxurious, and I took advantage of that a couple of times, lingering all day in a lovely pastoral setting, doing game design work.

Anyway, my key destination here in the great state of Texas was, of course, the Alamo. I overheard someone else talking to the group he was leading in describe it as “the cradle of Texan Independence,” and I can’t think of anything better to say about it than that.

That said, there’s not really very much to do at the Alamo…I mean, the place doesn’t even have a basement! (If you get that reference, then either you are old, or well-versed in the classics of cinematic comedy.) So after taking my photos, I soon moved on to exploring the beautiful Riverwalk area of downtown San Antonio, which is right next to the Alamo.

This whole section of town is the former site of Hemisfair ’68, another mid-century expo that revitalized a downtown urban area (like Spokane and Seattle) so of course I was eager to check out the lingering artifacts of that event, the biggest of which is Tower of the Americas, this fair’s version of the Space Needle and the Eiffel Tower. (Our family actually attended the Hemisfair in 1968 when I was 4, but all I remember from that trip was an incident in which I became separated from the others but remembered my training about getting lost and stayed where I was until someone found me.)

Well, my epic journey is almost over. I have just two stops left (although with a lot of driving in between). It’s also become a bit more lonely… when we got to Albuquerque, my companion Leila flew home (with my new cat Neko) and I’ve been traveling alone since then. But that’s ok, I love traveling alone, too, and I’m continuing to have the Best Time Ever. But I do have to admit that I’m starting to look forward to getting home again.

Check back soon for the next report on my #TravelWithFluxx road trip!

AAAFRT Day 33: Meow Wolf (Santa Fe)

What IS Meow Wolf? Even after finally going there, I’m not sure how to answer that question. How do you convey the experience of traveling to other dimensions?

Let’s frame the question in terms of Across America Fluxx: Is Meow Wolf a theme park? I decided it was close enough to warrant taking this picture.

But that question just leads to another: what IS a theme park? I raised this question with Leila and she offered an interesting test case: Colonial Williamsburg. It certainly has a theme, and it’s definitely a park, but even so, I don’t think most people would think of Williamsburg as being a theme park. (I’d say it needs more roller coasters.) And since Meow Wolf doesn’t even have a park element — being entirely indoors — I guess it’s more like a museum, or perhaps an art gallery. But that doesn’t seem like the right way to describe it, either.

A single photo from inside does very little to convey what the place is like, but even so, here’s just one photo from inside.

In many ways, Meow Wolf is similar to the City Museum of St. Louis. Both offer the same sort of wander-thru-bizarre-rooms experience, and both are very difficult to describe.

Anyway, I absolutely loved Meow Wolf and would totally recommend it to everyone. The Santa Fe location, called the House of Eternal Return, is the original installation; there are now three others, in Las Vegas, Denver, and Dallas. Each one is reportedly unique, and I hope to visit them all someday.

Check back soon for more of my #TravelWithFluxx adventures!