### Background I'm making this post to share a strategy game that I designed. This section is about the origin of the game, and this forum post itself. The remaining sections will detail how to play the game, so feel free to skip the rest of this section if that's all you're interested in. Back in the early days of Minecraft, the only way to play multiplayer was to play on creative-mode servers. I hosted a creative-mode server during that time. People would often build board games or strategy games like Checkers, Connect-Four, Battleship, Go, Tic-Tac-Toe, etc. I was inspired by this to try to create my own board game, to be played in Minecraft. And I did. It wasn't very good at the time but I never gave up on it. In the past, if I wanted to play this game with someone, I would have to teach them the rules myself. I'd never written the rules down anywhere for fear that I would need to change them, since the game was still new, and needed testing. But I've been fiddling with the game for years now, and I think it's time to actually record the rules I've come up with. I'm posting this here because I'm not really part of any communities anymore but I still want someone to play my game with. I designed the game to be played on a creative-mode Minecraft server, but it's easy enough to play on pencil and paper. In fact, it can be a bit cumbersome playing this game in minecraft because of how much time it takes to build and destroy the pieces. It can also be a bit harder to get an objective view of the board. The only problem with playing on paper is that you will often have to draw and erase the same lines many times over the course of the game. I believe the ideal physical board for this game would be a dry-erase board with marked grid lines. Even more ideal than that would be a stand-alone computer game. ### The Game Board This game is played along the lines and intersections of a grid. I may refer to the intersections of the grid lines as "points". There are twelve playable lines in each direction of the grid. In Minecraft, the board is easily re-used, so there are some extra markings added to indicate which corner belongs to which player, and where the starting pieces should be placed. The starting positions are two points in from each corner. If placed correctly, each starting piece should be seven points away from each other starting piece. [The Board](http://imgur.com/M5UzEST) If playing on paper, these markings are unnecessary, and the starting pieces themselves should be used to assist in constructing (drawing) the board. [Drawing a Nodes board on paper!!](http://imgur.com/a/8SbCj) As you may have gathered, each player begins the game with two nodes; one in each of their corners. The objective of the game is as simple as it gets: Remove your opponent from the board, or otherwise convince them to concede. ### Pieces The game has only two pieces: wires, and nodes. A wire is essentially just a line, placed or drawn along the grid lines, connecting two points. At least one end of the wire will be connected to a node or to another wire. In many cases, one end of a wire piece won't be connected to anything. That open, exposed tip is considered "hot". Any wire-ends that are connected to another piece should be considered "cold". [Wires!!](http://imgur.com/MmWMDzK) You might notice there are gaps between the wire pieces. This is not necessary or required, but I've found it makes the board state a bit clearer. If you prefer to fill in those gaps, feel free. It does look nicer that way. A node can be drawn or constructed in a number of different ways. In Minecraft, I prefer to depict them as pegs, with little tabs to indicate which terminals are still intact. On paper, I think the best way of representing them is as small circles, with one player's being empty and the other's being filled (black vs white). In Minecraft, you can use whatever material you want to build the nodes and wires, as long as each player uses distinct, non-falling blocks. Each side of the node can be considered a "terminal". When placing pieces on the board, they must either be placed at the hot end of a wire, or the terminal of a node. It should be noted that you cannot build a node directly from a node; you can only build a node at the hot end of a wire. More details regarding the interactions between pieces will be provided in the following sections. ### Turn Structure On each player's turn, that player can do one of two things: they can place a single node on the board, or they can place exactly three wire pieces on the board. Also mentioned in the previous section, wires can be built from other hot wires, or from the terminals of nodes, but nodes can be built built only from hot wires. This means that you can build continuous chains of wire pieces, and that you cannot build nodes directly from other nodes. Players may not end their turns prematurely. If placing wire pieces, they must place exactly three. Not one, not two, but three. In this game, there may often be situations where a player feels that there is no good action for them to take. Regardless, you may not "pass" your turn. Unless it is literally impossible to make a move, you must make one, no matter how self-destructive. Of course, while you may not pass your turn you may concede at any time. ### Piece Interactions This is the real meat of the game rules. Where things get more complicated. There are two general things to keep in mind here: 1) The game state is checked every time a piece is added to the board. That means when a player adds wire pieces to the board, the game state is checked after each individual wire piece, and not after all three have been placed. 2) If a hot wire connects to an opposing piece, something is going to happen. Hot-Hot Connections "Trading" If a player draws a wire so that it meets with an opposing wire end-to-end, both wires will be destroyed. [Demonstration](http://imgur.com/a/e1AXR) Hot-Cold Connections "Cutting" If a player draws a wire so that it meets with an opposing wire end-to-side, only the opposing wire is destroyed. [Demonstration](http://imgur.com/a/OVQn0) Hot-Terminal Connections "Capture" If a player draws a wire so that it connects directly to an enemy node, it will be captured: 1) The node, and any friendly wires attached to it are destroyed. 2) A new , enemy node is added to the board in its place. 3) The player who captured the node may then continue their turn if they have any wires left to place. Note that by capturing a node, any damage on that node will be removed as the node is replaced entirely . Also consider that in most cases, nodes can be quickly re-captured. Be careful where you build your nodes. [Capture demonstration](http://imgur.com/a/OVVLR) Damage and Destruction 1) When a wire piece is destroyed, any friendly wire pieces attached to it are also destroyed. This produces a chain-destruction affect if there are many wire pieces connected in a row. 2a) When a wire attached to a node is destroyed, that terminal is damaged. [A before & after](http://imgur.com/a/Y8aiG) 2b) Players cannot build pieces from damaged node terminals. 3a) When a node has three ore more damaged terminals, it is destroyed. [This poor node is about to blow up!](http://imgur.com/Eadd0UU) 3b) If there are any friendly wire pieces still attached to a node when it is destroyed, those wire pieces will also be destroyed. ### Conclusion I've created a command-block command that will allow you to generate a Nodes board with just a button press. [You can get it here.](https://pastebin.com/CzXW7cFU) Obviously, you'll need to be a on a server where you're allowed and able to use command blocks. Provided you are this should work without issue. I am somewhat interested in hosting a creative-mode Minecraft server again. Not just to facilitate this board game, but if anyone wanted to use one for any reason. I'm not exactly a professional when it comes to that sort of thing so it would probably take me a couple of days to get it all set up and organized. I'd be willing to keep the server up as long as people did use it once in a while. I'm also not sure how ya'll would feel about my advertising/mentioning my own server here when it would be totally unofficial (as far as SCG goes). In the mean time, feel free to message me on discord (@ yirktos) if you urgently want to play via Minecraft (with me or one of your friends). As long as I'm around to do so, I can easily get a temporary listen server up and running. If you have alternative ideas of ways to play the game (i.e. a free & easy-to-use collaborative drawing program) I'd love to know about that as well. I'd also be happy to answer any questions about this game, and listen to suggestions or modifications to the game.