Creepers Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal of the Game
• Contents
• Game Elements
  • Garden Board
  • Score Counter
  • Creeper Tiles
  • Stones
• Points
  • Board Fields
  • Actions on Board
• Board Elements
• Lifting (Second Level)
  • Lifting Example
• Setting Up the Game
  • Board and Tiles
  • Point Limit
  • Patches
• Starting the Game
• Gameplay
• Player's Actions
  • Bonus and Exception
• The Rest of Game Rules
  • Stones
  • Forced Forking
  • Piercing
    • Piercing Example
• End of the Game
  • Block
  • Point Level
  • End of Tiles

Goal of the Game

Players aim for reaching a certain amount of points though expansion of their own creeper and blocking their opponent. Points are earned through placing creepers on point-marked tiles or by doing certain actions on the board.

Contents

• #1 game board with score counter
• #2 sets of 70 creeper tiles; every set includes:
  • #14 straights
  • #36 turns
  • #4 lifts
  • #8 pierces
  • #4 double forks
  • #4 triple forks
• #6 stones (3 for each player)
• #this rulebook

Game Elements

Garden Board

The board is split into 144 (12x12) squares. Every square represents a different field. By taking certain fields on the board by placing creeper tiles on it, a player may gain (or lose) points (see: Points).

Score Counter

The counter is for marking the points earned by each player. Every time a player gains or loses points, that change should be marked by moving a stone. A score may not go below 0 or above 50 during any moment of the game.

Creeper Tiles

Players extend their creepers using these tiles. There are two types of tiles in the game:

• Basic tiles (a circle on the reverse): straights and turns.
• Extended tiles (a cross on the reverse): lifts, pierces, double and triple forks.

Stones

They allow the players to "reserve" tiles and are used to mark their score.

Points

There are no negative values on the score counter, so 0 is the smallest amount a player may have. All changes in the amount of points should be instantly marked on the score counter. As it was stated before the amount of points can be changed by setting a creeper tile on a proper tile of the board or by making an additional action.

Bonus given by a tile works only in the moment of setting the creeper tile on the board, not in every turn!

When a player sets an opponent's tile on the point-granting field on the board or makes with it a point-granting action, his opponent receives the points.

If a player both sets a tile on a point-granting field and makes a point-granting action, the points are summed up. For example, piercing on the edge of a bench grants the player 6 (2+4) points.

A pierced player doesn't lose the formerly gained points.

Board Fields

Setting tiles on these fields gives players points:

• pool (-1 point)
• middle of a bench (+1 point)
• red flower (+1 point)
• edge of a bench (+2 points)
• white flower (+2 points)
• roof of greenhouse (+2 points, but only on the second level!)
• blue flower (+3 points)
• ladder (+5 points)

Actions on Board

Points are given as well when a player:

• puts a creeper tile on the second level of the board (+1 point)
• forks his creeper before the forced forking (+3 points)
• pierces his opponent's creeper (+4 points)
• leads one branch of opponent's creeper to the edge of the board, wall or another creeper (+4 points)
• connects two sticks of his color on the first level of the board (+10 points)

Board Elements

The board elements are: wall, start points, sticks, pool, bench, ladder, roof of greenhouse, flowers (white, red and blue), and the score counter.

Lifting (Second Level)

Creepers in the game can extend not only on one level. As long as there is any kind of support from below, they can rise to the second level and expand there. It is possible thanks to the lift tile from the extended set, which needs to be put straight in front of the creeper the player wants to extend – as long as there is some kind of support from below (wall or another creeper). Creepers can extend in any direction from the lift tile. If a creeper has nothing underneath itself, it automatically falls to the first level – the lift tile is not necessary for this. A creeper can't lift above the second level.

To expand this creeper further, the player must place a lift tile in one of his next moves (wall is a obstacle on first level, creeper tiles can be put on it only on second one).

Lifting Example

1. One of the players reached a wall with his creeper, preventing it from extending on the first level anymore.
2. To expand this creeper further, the player must place a lift tile in one of his next moves (wall is a obstacle on first level, creeper tiles can be put on it only on second one).
3. Using the wall, the player decides to expand his creeper further on the second level, gaining points for reaching the roof of the greenhouse as well.

Setting Up the Game

Board and Tiles

The board should be set to grant both players free access. Then, each player picks one set of tiles and removes one triple fork from it. The picked set is then split into two smaller ones (one with basic and second with extended tiles), after which they are flip them face down. The tiles should be aligned randomly. Each player should place the triple fork, removed beforehand, in front of him.

Point Limit

Players set their stones on the "0" field of the score counter. Before the game, the players should set the limit of points to which the game is played. The game should be played between 30 (shorter, less aggressive game) and 40 (longer, more aggressive game). 50 points should be reserved for people who have already played Creepers a few times and know the rules well. For the first game, the limit of 30 points would be the best.

Patches

Before the game starts, players need to prepare "patches". They are the combinations of four creeper tiles – players need to set three patches for further use:

• First patch: 3 basic tiles of the first player (2 face up, 1 face down) and 1 extended tile of the first player (face down).
• Second patch: 3 basic tiles of the second player (2 face up, 1 face down) and 1 extended tile of the second player (face down).
• Third patch: 2 basic tiles of the first player and 2 basic tiles of the second player (all face up).

Starting the Game

The player with a garden in real life begins. If both players have gardens, the one with a more untidy one begins. If neither of them has one or if they are similarly untidy, the starting player should be chosen randomly.

The player beginning the game chooses one of the patches: with their own tiles or mixed. All tiles from that patch should be set in front of that player (along with the triple fork picked at the beginning of the game player has five tiles now). The first player may start expanding his creeper beginning from their starting point, and do additional actions (see: Player's actions).

After finishing his turn the players fill the used patch with proper tiles. Then, the other player begins his turn.

Gameplay

During every turn, a player chooses a patch with his tiles or a mixed one and takes the tiles from it. Then, that player extends creepers and does additional actions. At the end of the turn the players fill the empty spaces in the patches with new tiles.

Player's Actions

The player during his turn has 3 actions. He can use them in this way:

• extend his creeper by placing a tile (1 action)
• extend opponent's creeper by placing his tile (1 action, this can be done only twice a turn) – the enemy's creeper had to be forked at least once from begging of game to do that
• place or move a stone on the board (1 action)
• remove opponent's stone from the board (2 actions)

Bonus and Exception

If a player spends all his 3 actions to place creeper tiles on the board, he can freely place a fourth tile as well for free.

The player beginning the game has only 2 actions on his first turn. If they are spent to place creeper tiles on the board, the third tile may be placed extra.

The Rest of Game Rules

Stones

When a player puts a stone on one of the tiles, that tile becomes reserved for him – no creeper tiles of the opponent can be put on it (even when the reserving player wants to place it there). The stone can't be put adjacent to front of opponent's creeper.

Forced Forking

If a player haven't forked theirs creepers when either of the score-marking stones reaches the "8!" field on the score counter, in their next turns that players will have to do it. If player do it before either of the stones reaches that field, he will receive 3 additional points (see: Points).

Piercing

If opponent's tiles are in the way and prevent your own creepers from extending, you can use a piercing tile to solve that problem. If the end of your creeper is adjacent to your opponent's creeper tile, that tile can be replaced with a piercing tile as long as both players' creepers aren't connected after such a change. The replaced tile is discarded (it won't be used in this game anymore). If all conditions are met, piercing can be done on the second level as well (see: Lifting). Opponent can't use a lift tile on a piercing tile. You also can't use a piercing tile on another piercing tile or on your own creeper.

Piercing Example

1. The "bright" player moved close to his opponent's perpendicular creeper. In his next move he intend on piercing it to gather additional points.
2. The player discards an element of his opponent's creeper (it won't be used in this game anymore). The piercing tile is inserted in that place.

End of the Game

The winner of the game may be chosen in a variety of ways.

Block

A player wins when he prevents his opponent's creeper from further expanding. It can be achieved by, for example, leading all endings of his opponent's creeper towards the edge of the board.

Point Level

If during the game a player reaches the level of points set before the game, he instantly wins.

End of Tiles

There is a slim chance of such an occurrence, though it is still possible. If one of the players is unable to pick a full patch of tiles, the game ends. The player with more points is declared a winner. If there is a tie, the player with more creeper tiles on the board wins.