"2P6C"

OVERVIEW

A game for 1+ player(s) to arrange words and score the most points on a 6-column board using letter cards with 2 polarities (+ / -) and 6 colors (Black / Yellow / Magenta / Cyan / Green / Purple).

REQUIREMENTS

  • One "2P6C" deck of 54 letter cards per one to two players

  • One playing space and game board

CONFIGURATION

  1. Determine the playing space's availability, seating capacity and arrangement, observer ticketing system, and general rules of decorum for the match.

  2. Create, obtain, or imagine (upon a suitably large surface) a game board composed of rectangular, card-shaped cells that is six columns wide and three rows tall.

  3. Add three additional rows for each additional two players.

  4. Clear a card-shaped space next to the game board for the draw patch.

  5. Integrate all "2P6C" cards into a single deal patch, have them verified by a local expert as necessary, and shuffle the deal patch thoroughly.

  6. Remove the top card and place it face down in the draw patch.

  7. Alternate placing one card face up in each of the bottom six cells of the game board with giving each player one card from the deal patch.

  8. Give each player one final card for a total of seven cards for each player.

PROCEDURES

A match consists of a series of acts, and each act consists of each player making a decision to do one of two things: recycle a card or play a card.

If they decide to recycle one of their cards, they put it (face up) at the bottom of the draw patch, then take a new card from the top of the draw patch.

If they decide to play, they put a card on the board according to the rules and limitations, then take a new card from the top of the draw patch.

INTERACTIONS

  • During solitary play, enjoy and actively appreciate the serenity and focus of not needing to interact with other players.

  • With multiple players, before play begins, derive consensus about an order of acts that will be sensible and consistent throughout the match, a break structure and alert mechanism if needed, and the method by which word accountability will be determined during scoring.

  • Each player must complete one decision per act without any perfomative delays.

  • While waiting to act, the other players should either talk about other things or actively support the acting player.

  • Which words are allowed shall be agreed upon by consensus before play begins.

  • The acting player can ask the other players their opinion of whether or not they believe a word is allowed or not before they make their decision, but no one in the room may consult directly or by proxy any official word list until after the acting player's decision is complete.

  • All players have until the end of the current decision to challenge a word resulting from the previous decision.

  • Assessment can happen by consensus of the non-acting & non-challenging players OR by consulting an official word list if one was agreed to at the beginning of play.

  • If the challenge is successful, the played card is removed from the board; the challenging player may take it or add it, face up, to the middle of the draw patch and draw the top card.

LIMITATIONS

  • The acting player can only place cards on empty cells above occupied cells, called chaining, or on top of occupied cells, called stacking.

  • Every card added to a chain must be the same polarity as any adjacent cards, UNLESS it is a Green or Purple card, in which case it can be the opposite polarity.

  • Every card added to a stack (Green and Purple included) must be the opposite polarity of the stack's top card, UNLESS it is the same color.

  • Each stack or chain must form an allowed word, called a stackword or chainword respectively; the letters do not need to be in the correct order on the board.

  • The maximum word length is six letters.

  • Only one letter per card may be used per word.

  • The upper left letter is the primary letter of each card; if there is another letter available on the card, either via literal substitution or in its upper middle, either/any may be used.

  • Literal substitutions are only allowed with the ? (any letter), D & O (D or O), and U & V (U or V) cards.

  • Only one card per stack may be used per stackword/chainword in calculating final scores, but if a card has multiple letters available, different letters may be used in each stackword/chainword.

  • Partial, incorrect, or misspelled words are not allowed.

  • Players should not take any cards out of the playing space while a match is in progress.

ENDGAME

The game ends when there are no more cards or allowed decisions — including when every cell has 3 cards on it, which is called a Peasick Sea. To calculate scores, you need to:

  1. catalog and attribute credit for all words on the board when the game ends

  2. measure all word polarities

  3. add up the correct score numbers for each word

For professional purposes, it is best to write out physical lists or use lightweight productivity software.

First, determine which player gets credit attribution for each word based on the decisions made during play, and make a list of each player's words. If the initial six cards placed on the game board form an allowable word, all players get credit for it.

Second, determine and document the final polarity of each word by counting the number of + and - cards in each word. If there are more + cards, it's a +word. If there are more - cards, it's a -word. If there are the same number of + and - cards, it's an =word.

Third, determine the final score for each word. For +words, use the lower right (TP) number. For -words, use the bottom left (RP) number. For =words, use either the TP or RP number as you see fit — competitively, it's generally best to use the higher number.

Finally, decide which player wins, based on their total words and scores.

If there is only one player, compare your Match Literacy Ratio ([cards played] / [total number of cards in game]), Final Total Score ([total of all your played words' scores]), and Ultimate Index Number ([MLR] × [FTS]) to those of others in your regional or virtual communities.