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Arborius: Game of Trees
Compose your ultimate hero by nesting units together, build unique combos and adapt to your opponents. Craft any tiles in any order to create something truly unique. Each collectible tile snaps and stacks together. Tiles have orientation that effects where they can move and attack. Players compete over an abstract fractal plane, moving in and out of each other and reshaping the battlefield. A random player starts, and players alternate doing one of the following. Every tile has the same Basic Actions:
-Move a stack -Attack -Unplay -Play
-Use an ability -Enter tiles -Exit tiles
The ability action enables tiles to chain multiple actions together in a turn.
Moving a stack:
Tiles can move forward:
Tiles can jump down.
Or step up exactly one.
Unplay:
Tiles can be unplayed, returning them to your deck
Play:
When played a tile must: - Face an ally - Not cover an enemy
Attack a tile below and directly in front. Tiles cannot attack up, but they can attack as far down as needed.
Enter a tile:
Enter the top tile directly in front.
Exit a tile:
Exit a tile from the top of the inside.
Setup:
You will need:
- Two decks of tiles - A flat play surface Arborius is played over multiple small boards that come and go as tiles move in and out of each other in the abstract space. Each new board represents the space inside a given tile, and moving to and from that board represents moving in and out of that tile. Players start with only one tile in play. Moving tiles to and from the board efficiently is key. A player may not make a move that would separate the board into two non-contiguous groups of tiles. Tiles are contiguous if they are adjacent. Diagonals are considered adjacent. This means all the tiles on a "board" will be touching, so physical grid markings aren't necessary.
Basic starting positions:
Ability symbols:
Here is a list of symbols used to describe the abilities on the tiles.
Rotate ⟳
Descend ⮷
Play
Attack
Reorder ⤭
Unplay
Defend 🛡️
Ascend ⮳
Freeze ❄️
Exit
Enter
Stack ≡
Rotate ⟳ Rotate the tile 90 degrees in either direction. Tiles may not rotate on their own so rotation abilities are very strong.
Descend ⮷ Descend the top tile. When modified by the stack icon, descend any number >0 from the top, as long as at least one tile is left behind. Single stacks cannot descend, since they would not be able to leave behind a card.
Play As the first icon: activates when this tile is played. In the rest of the ability: play a tile facing this tile.
Attack Attack the tile directly in front of this. If a tile has no attack damage, it may not attack.
Reorder ⤭ Take the top tile of the target stack and insert it somewhere into the stack. It may not be inserted back onto the top. When modified by the stack icon, insert any number of top tiles >0. Do not change the order of the top tiles relative to each other. Single stacks cannot be reordered, as the tile would remain on the top.
Unplay Remove this tile from the board, retuning it to your deck.
Defend 🛡️ May only appear as the first icon in an ability. This icon is unique because it may not be activated on your turn. It is the only way to activate an ability on an enemy turn. You may choose to activate it after the tile is attacked on your turn. If the attack destroys the tile, it may not activate.
Ascend ⮳ Ascending on top of a tile. When modified by the stack icon, ascend any number >0, as long the stack is going up by exactly one tile.
Freeze ❄️ Flip the tile, disabling it. Internal tiles may not act. The owner must use a turn to flip it back.
Exit Leaving from inside a tile.
Enter Entering from outside a tile.
Stack ≡ This is an ability modifier that forces the related icon to effect the whole stack.
Interpreting abilities:
Here are two example abilities:
Sorceress:
Mask of the Blasphemer:
Using the key, read the abilities from left to right:
Unplay
: Descend ⮷
2adj
|
Rotate ⟳
Stack ≡
: Attack
So the Sorceress would be: Unplay, then descend 2 adjacent tiles. (Diagonals are considered adjacent.) Mask of the Blasphemer is: Rotate the stack, then attack.
Unless other tiles are specifically referred to (for example, effecting an adjacent tile), the icon refers to the user of the ability.
If a tile triggers an effect on a friendly tile, and it has an ability that begins with the same effect, they may choose to 'chain' to that ability, activating them in sequence.
In this example, with allied sorceress and horse. When the sorceress uses her ability, and descends the horse, it may chain its own ability. Further: if the horse is chained on the first descend out of two, finish the remaining descend after the horse is done using its ability. Since all abilities must be fully completed, the horse may not make a move that would stop the sorceress from using the second descend.
If the horse was an enemy, it could not interrupt the sorceress' turn to chain its ability.
Important: In order to use an ability, the player must be able to complete the ability in its entirety.
In other words: If a tile's ability attacks 3 times, but there are only 2 tiles available to attack, the ability may not be activated at all. Reasoning: Some abilities have icons which are harmful to the user, as a cost for the rest of the ability. The player must use the whole ability to ensure those costs are paid.
This tile reorders and freezes itself in exchange for attacking 2 adjacent tiles. If it was able to skip the first part, it would be too strong.
This tile is able to enter play and then reorder itself before playing an additional tile. The reorder symbol restricts it from using the ability when played on the 'ground' (it must be played on top of another tile to reorder).
When chaining, no ability may be used more than once per turn, to prevent infinite loops.
Building abilities:
Combining and chaining abilities together is a core feature of Arborius. - If tile is inside another tile, the outer tile may use the inner tile's ability as its own. - The inner tile must not be covered. - A tile may chain any of its abilities together through the rules above, as long as no internal tile's ability activates more than once. ie: if you have two internal tiles with the same ability, the outer tile may effectively use that ability twice (assuming they can establish a suitable chain). - If an enemy is internal, the outer tile can still use its ability as its own.
Example of play:
Only white's turns are shown in this example. White wants to use its circle to attack black's triangle. Unless an ability effects it, tiles may only attack directly in front of them, so the circle needs to be moved into position to attack. The whole process takes 5 turns, and uses only basic actions, no abilities.
Starting positions
First white unplays the circle
Then replays it facing towards black's triangle
Then the circle can ascend.
And attack down on the triangle.
Example of play:
This entire sequence is a single turn for red. Red uses the Sorceress' ability to chain into two other pieces, killing the enemy soldier.
Attacking:
When a tile attacks, deal damage equal to the height of the tallest stack of tiles in it. For example the tallest stack here is 4 tiles, so it deals 4 damage with each attack.
Defending:
A defender must remove stacks of tiles. If they take x damage, they must remove x stacks, and place them at the bottom of the attacker's stack. If they have x or less stacks, the defender is destroyed and removed from play.
Win condition:
A player wins when their opponent is unable to make a move. This happens when all their tiles are either dead, or covered up by other player's tiles. Tiles are completely disabled while covered. Here blue has won by covering all of yellow's tiles.
CRAFTING AND INVENTORY
Now it gets interesting.
Tiles can also move inside each other...
This is the building/crafting system. When a tile moves inside another tile, we start another separate board.
This additional board represents the "inside" of the tile, or its "inventory" You still make only one move across all boards, rather than one move in each board.
A tile may use any of the abilities from its inventory as its own.
Equipping your tiles with internal structures makes them more powerful.
Enemy tiles can enter your own, and attack your items directly, but enemy tiles' abilities can also be used from your inventory.
There are no limits on the depth of inventories.
Note:
A player may not make a move that would separate the board into two non-contiguous groups of tiles. To distinguish a new "board", just put the tiles more than one tile away from the others. Tiles can't be away from each other and still be on the same board.