Draft:Pentagame

• Comment: No indication of why it is notable and sources do not meet the bar for notability. Lopifalko (talk) 20:15, 3 January 2024 (UTC)

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Pentagame is an abstract strategy board game for two to five players, invented by Jan Suchanek. It is notable for being a pure strategy game (a game of full information) playable for two, three, four, or five players. Besides its simple appearance, its complexity rating is surprisingly high. Pentagame was first published as a kickstarter edition in 2020 and is now published under CC-BY-SY.

Pentagame is loosely based upon Parcheesi. The chief differences are:

• the board is in the shape of a pentagram in a circle, with corners and junctions in five colors,
• every player commands one shape (rather than one color), and has one piece of each color, each starting on one of the star's corners; these could e.g. be rabbits vs. hedgehogs, etc.
• there is no element of chance: there are no dice involved, and players can move at free will.

Setup

Player's pieces are placed on the corners of the pentagram. Five Black Blocks are put on these goals at the beginning of the game. Five Gray Blocks wait in the center.

Goal

Each piece wants to reach the stop of its color in the center of the board. The player who manages that with three pieces first wins.

Rules

• You can move one of your pieces as far as you like.
• If the path is free, you can also turn corners.
• You cannot jump over anything.
• Black Blocks you can beat and place them on a free stop of your choice, where it may hinder you less than other players.
• You can move to a stop occupied by another player's piece; you then swap position with it.
• Upon reaching your destination, your piece moves out (into the center); you gain a Gray Block, which you place on a free stop of your choice.
• Gray Blocks are one-time blocks; if you beat them, they "disappear" again (are moved back into the center of the board).

Edge Cases

• Prohibition of repetiton: If you swap one of your pieces with a piece of another player, that other player can re-do that move; you are then not allowed to re-do that same move you have done before.
• If you are moved passively to your goal, you remain on that goal until it is your turn; then, you must move out, gaining a Gray Block, but no further move.
• If there is no Gray Block left in the center when you move out, you may re-place on that is already in play.

Game Properties

The game is suprisingly complex for such simple rules.

Players can sit at any angle to the board. All players share the same objective. Pentagame is best for two, thee or four players. The rules remain exactly the same. Four players can decide to play in teams of two, where a team consists of the player sitting opposite. Each team then has to bring out five pieces in total.

Pentagame can also be played with five players. Then each player should indeed command a color, and only have three pieces, to make the board not too crowded.