DVS Games

This game is new! For a limited time, instead of marketing it I am merely providing the rules here for free. If you are willing to find your own materials (as described below) and use playing cards instead of especially designed cards you can play it for free!

Goal (the Simplified Version):
An underground magical labyrinth has several stairway exits, each climbing up to the surface and ending beside a city. The players represent these cities. The goal is to have heroes/heroines exit the labyrinth to your city -- and the more treasure such heroes/heroines carry the better!

Materials:
The board is made of a chessboard (floor) and set of dominoes (walls). Each domino must be the length of a chessboard square or slightly shorter.

The living inhabitants of the labyrinth are represented by tokens. In the photograph you can see I use painted pewter miniatures, but you can use anything (even paper squares with drawings). For the first time you play you need: 2 heroes/heroines, 1 giant, and 2 four-giant-rats-in-a-group.

After you have seen the game played once, it is recommended that you play with 4 heroes/heroines and an additional two tokens which each represent one-giant-rat-by-itself. (You can use any number of heroes/heroines, but there should be an equal number of rat-groups of which 2 have four rats and the remainder have 1 rat.)

Each player is represented by a stairway leading out of the labyrinth. These also need tokens/pictures.

You need two decks of cards, with jokers and face cards removed. You also need 4 papers to represent the 4 "wonders"; each "wonder" corresponds to a card suit. You could simply use the 4 kings from one of the decks of cards, but drawing the suit symbols on other papers might be less confusing.

You need a piece of paper and a pen or pencil.

Finally, you need two piles of little counters to keep track of two kinds of treasures. You could use coins of 2 types, checkers of 2 colors, etc.

Setup:
Arrange the dominoes on the edges of the chessboard squares to make symmetrical walls. Declare which chessboard direction is north-south and which is east-west.

In what follows, if the tokens are set up symmetrically the game will be fair. However, the setup can purposefully be made nonsymmetrical to give an advantage to younger or less experienced players.

First decide where the stairways should be located. Then decide where the heroes/heroines start. Then place the giant. Then decide where the rats start. (See my photo for an example symmetrical setup.)

Shuffle the cards and deal 8 to each player; the remainder become the draw pile. Place the cards representing the 4 wonders beside the draw pile.

On one piece of paper write the names of the heroes/heroines. Later in the game counters tallying treasures will be placed next to the names.

Designate one type of treasure-point counter as the "sword" treasures and the other as the "jewel" treasures.

Card Use:
You cannot use a card unless you have the wonder corresponding to its suit. During the game players compete for (temporary) possession of the wonders. For now, assume you have managed to acquire all 4 wonders.

For every heart you discard you may move one north-south wall. You may slide the wall north or south one spot if that spot is not already occupied by a wall. (Assuming the "spot" is an edge of a chessboard square: walls may not be slid off the edge of the board.) Alternately, you may pivot your wall 90 degrees, keeping one end at its same intersection. (Again, assuming the destination is a valid place to which it may pivot).

For every club you discard you may move one east-west wall. As with hearts, you may either slide the wall one edge or pivot it 90 degrees. (Note that east-west walls will naturally slide east or west, unlike north-south walls which slide north or south.)

When a pivoting wall moves through a square with a hero/heroine/giant/rats the token is "pushed" into a new square.

For every diamond you discard you may place one "jewel" treasure on the board.

For every spade you discard you may place one "sword" treasure on the board.

Line-of-sight:
During your first game, consider two squares within line-of-sight if they are in the same row or column and have no walls in the way. This will make the game simpler, especially on boards with a low wall density.

In later games it is recommended to play with "true line-of-sight", in which two squares are considered within line-of-sight if there exists any straight line connecting them with no walls in the way.

Treasures:
Heroes/heroines like "jewel" and "sword" treasures, and will immediately move to a chessboard square containing a treasure any time one is within line-of-sight. The giant also likes treasures, and will also immediately move to a treasure's square if the treasure is within line-of-sight.

(Players who only place treasures on squares already within line-of-sight of a hero/heroine/giant are not appreciating the game's full breadth of strategy! The same criticism is true of players who never move the giant...)

More than one hero/heroine/giant token may move to the same treasure.

If, after moving, a second treasure is within line-of-sight the token(s) will move again. If a hero/heroine/giant moves to a location from which multiple treasures are within line-of-sight then the player whose turn it is chooses to which treasure (each) moves.

If multiple heroes/heroines/giant moves to a treasure the treasure is discarded. If only one hero/heroine/giant moves to a treasure that token "gets" the treasure: for the giant this does not matter so discard the treasure; for a hero/heroine put the treasure by its name on the piece of paper.

During the game "jewel" treasures bestow no benefits to heroes/heroines. But at the end of the game each player scores 2 points for each "jewel" treasure that has been carried up his/her stairway.

During the game "sword" treasures help heroes/heroines fight rats. A hero/heroine carrying one or more "sword" treasures will kill a 1-rat token if they meet. A hero/heroine carrying four or more "sword" treasures will also kill a 4-rat token if they meet. Also, at the end of the game each player scores 1 point for each "sword" treasure that has been carried up his/her stairway.

Combat and Death:
If a hero/heroine/rats is killed remove its token from the game. Also discard the treasure it carried, if applicable.

Any time a hero/heroine is in the same square as the giant the hero/heroine is killed.

Any time a hero/heroine is in the same square as rats it fights the rats. If the hero/heroine has accumulated as many "sword" treasures as there are rats then the hero/heroine is victorious and the rats are killed. If not, the hero/heroine is killed.

The giant and rats do not fight each other. They may occupy the same square, and the giant may move "through" rats with no effect.

When a treasure is placed on the board it may be placed on a square containing rats, but not a hero/heroine or giant. If this causes a hero/heroine to move onto the rats the treasure is not picked up until after the rats are fought.

When moving to a treasure, the giant or heroes/heroines may move "through" rats. If the giant moves through rats the rats remain unchanged. If a hero/heroine moves "through" rats they fight as described previously.

More than one rat token may occupy the same square. If so the number of "sword" treasures required to kill the combined rat pack increases correspondingly. Similarly, more then one hero/heroine can occupy the same square and the total of their "sword" treasures is considered if they fight rats. If placing a treasure causes multiple heroes/heroines to move "through" the same rats they fight the rats together.

What Happens During Your Turn (and Monster Movement):
During your turn you may play cards in any order. So you can move a wall, lead a hero/heroine around the maze by placing treasures, move another wall, and so forth.

When you are all done playing cards, draw four cards from the draw pile.

Then monster movement happens.

The giant does not move during monster movement unless it is within line-of-sight of a hero/heroine. If so, it moves to the square occupied by the hero/heroine, and the hero/heroine is killed. If it is within line-of-sight of more than one heroes/heroines you choose which it attacks since it is your turn.

The rats do not move unless they can smell one or more heroes/heroines. This is true if there is some straight or winding path from a rat to a hero/heroine not totally blocked off by walls. All rats that can smell a hero/heroine move one square towards the nearest hero/heroine. If multiple heroes/heroines are "closest" to the rat then the rat does not move. Often a rat token may be able to move in more than one direction along differing "shortest paths" to the closest hero/heroine: the player whose turn it is chooses which way to move the rats.

Rats and/or the giant may move onto stairways. But these creatures do not climb up out of the labyrinth.

Goal (the Detailed Version):
The game ends when every hero/heroine has either been killed or has escaped up a stairway.

Each player scores points for what has come up his/her stairway. Each hero/heroine is worth 5 points. Each "jewel" treasure carried by such a hero/heroine is worth 2 points. Each "sword" treasure carried by such a hero/heroine is worth 1 point.

Also, to make wonders' initially-unclaimed state less significant, players are not allowed to move a hero/heroine onto a stairway their first turn.

The Four Wonders:
Ready for the big catch? You cannot simply play a card because you want to. You need the wonder for that card's suit.

The 4 wonders start out owned by nobody. Once a player claims one, that wonder will forevermore be possessed by some player or another, until the game ends.

To claim a wonder discard one or more cards of its suit, and say something like, "I am bidding 15 for the heart wonder." Instead of "15" say the actual total of the number-values of the cards you discard. Instead of "heart" say which wonder you want.

For example, you could discard a 3-, 7-, and 9-of-spades and say, "I am bidding 19 for the spade wonder."

If the wonder is still not owned you get it!

If the wonder is owned its current owner (only) can try to stop you from stealing it by discarding cards of the relevant suit whose number-values sum to at least what yours did. If he/she cannot do that, or chooses not to do that, then you get the wonder!

You keep the wonder until someone else steals it from you. (You can simply give a wonder to someone. But they have no obligation to give it back. This might happen as players agree to save an otherwise doomed hero/heroine, or there are more than two players and people have formed alliances.)

You can only claim wonders on your turn, during that nothing-in-particular-order part of your turn before drawing 4 cards and doing monster movement.

Rule Variants:
1. The Mortal Giant: Also write the giant's name on the paper of hero/heroine names. The giant accumulates treasures just as heroes/heroines do. But the giant begins the game with ten of each type of treasure. A hero/heroine with more "sword" treasures than the giant can kill the giant. When the giant and a hero/heroine fight the victor gains all the treasures carried by the defeated. (As always, all treasure is lost if there are multiple claimants, so don't have heroes/heroines gang up on the poor giant!)

2. Never-ending Super-vicious Rats: When a hero/heroine fights a rat-group and wins the hero/heroine discards as many "sword" treasures as there were rats in the rat-group to represent being wounded. Furthermore, a defeated rat-group reappears on a stairway chosen by the current player.

3. It's Getting Crowded: Player turns now have an additional step. After monster movement each player must put a new wall onto the board (from a pile of walls initially not on the board.) Furthermore, drawing cards is different: on each player's first turn the player draws only 1 card, on each player's second turn the player draws 2 cards, and so forth. Finally, sliding walls off the edge of the board is permissible.

4. Multiple Boards and Teleporters: Set up additional boards and walls with their own heroes/heroines/rats/giants. However, all stairways are on the same board. There is a new fifth wonder, the Teleporter Wonder. It is claimed by bidding with one card from each suit (or 8 cards with two from each suit, or 12 cards with three from each suit...). Its owner can block its theft with a similar set of 4 (or 8, 12, ...) cards of equal or greater total value. This fifth wonder is used by playing one card from each suit, which puts one teleporter token on any board. If a hero/heroine/giant/rats moves into the same square as a teleporter the current player has the option of moving that token to any other square with a teleporter (on any board).

That's all the rules. Have fun!