Paikō Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• The Board
• The Tiles
• The Goal
• Setup
  • Who Gets White or Black
  • Build Your Hand
  • White Starts Play
• On Your Turn
  • Deploy a Tile
  • Shift a Tile
  • Draw Tiles
• Capture Tiles
  • Threat
  • Cover
• Tiles: Threat and Cover
• Variant: Paikō — Valley of the Shrines (3 Players)
  • Table Chat
  • Sides and Setup
  • Win Conditions
  • Turn Order
  • Red
  • Advice on Tactics
  • Score Board
• Variant: Paikō — The Ronin Prince (4-7 Players)
  • Table Chat
  • Sides and Setup
  • In Each Round
  • The Table
  • Hero Tiles

The Board

The board is a diamond made of a grid of squares. Half squares along the outer edge are not used, and a few black squares near the center are not used.

• Your homeground — a colored corner of the board. You start play here.
• Opponent's homeground — the colored corner diagonally opposite yours.
• Middle ground — the plain squares between the two homegrounds.

Besides the board you will need: your tile reserve (the pile you draw from), your hand (the tiles you play from), and a discard pile (where captured tiles end up).

The Tiles

• Each player has three each of 8 types of tiles (24 tiles total): Sword, Bow, Earth, Fire, Water, Sai, Lotus, and Air.
• Three each of 8 tiles are provided in both black and white.
• All tiles are always face up.
• The tiles threaten red squares, and provide cover to red heart squares.
• All tiles take 2 threat to capture, or 3 if in cover. Tiles can shift up to 2 squares unless noted otherwise.
• The tiles' special abilities are exceptions to the regular game rules.

The Goal

To Win, Obtain 10 or more points:

• You get 2 points for each of your tiles currently on your opponent's homeground.
• You get 1 point for each of your tiles currently on middle ground.
• The game ends as a tie if each player has lost 13 or more tiles and has 5 or fewer points.

Setup

Who Gets White or Black

• Use a game of chance to decide who gets which tile color. We like rock-paper-scissors.
• Choose a homeground. Both homegrounds (Fishes/Flowers) are equivalent.
• White will start first with less tiles.
• Black will go second with more tiles.

Build Your Hand

• Gather all 24 of your tiles into a pile, called your tile reserve. All tiles are always face up.
• White picks out 7 tiles from the white tile reserve into a starting hand.
• Black picks out 9 tiles from the black tile reserve into a starting hand.
• White then picks out 1 more tile for their hand.

White Starts Play

• White begins, typically by placing a tile on their homeground.
• Black then plays, and players continue to alternate until one wins with 10 points.

On Your Turn

On your turn, do one of these three actions in your action phase.

Deploy a Tile

• Deploy a tile from your hand onto the board, facing any non-diagonal direction.
• You can deploy tiles onto your homeground.
• You can deploy tiles onto your threat (the squares your tiles threaten).
• Don't deploy on squares that threaten you, even in your homeground or cover.
• Don't deploy on black squares (hot lava!).

Shift a Tile

• Shift (aka. move) one of your tiles up to 2 squares in any non-diagonal direction, and rotate it to face any non-diagonal direction. Rotating a tile in place still counts as a "shift." Rotate for free during any shift.
• You can shift a tile to or through squares which threaten you.
• Don't shift to or through squares with enough threat to capture your tile.
• Don't shift through tiles (including your own).
• Don't shift to or through black squares.
• You can shift any one tile up to 3 turns in a row. Water's and Sai's special shifts count towards this limit.

Draw Tiles

• Draw up to 3 tiles of your choice from your tile reserve into your hand.

Capture Tiles

After your action phase, capture tiles based on threat during the capture phase.

Threat

• Threat is created by tiles.
• Threat allows you to deploy tiles.
• Threat blocks your opponent's deployment.
• Capture your opponent's tile when it is threatened by at least 2 of your tiles (or 3 if it is in cover).
• After you capture, recheck threat and repeat. Wait to capture Fire tiles last and all at once.
• Set aside captured tiles in the discard pile. They will never return to play.
• For each opponent tile you capture, your opponent will choose a tile for you to draw from your tile reserve into your hand.
• You may never end your action with one of your own tiles threatened enough to be captured.
• Threat stacks (note the "2x" squares where two of your tiles both threaten the same square).

Cover

• A tile in cover requires 3 threat to capture rather than 2.
• Your tiles are considered covered while on your homeground, or when in the cover of your Lotus, Water, or Sai tiles. You don't get cover from your opponent's homeground or tiles.
• Cover doesn't build up (stack) like threat does. The most threat ever required to capture is 3.
• Cover doesn't allow you to deploy into your opponent's threat.

After your action phase and the capture phase, your opponent takes their turn.

Tiles: Threat and Cover

Some tiles have exceptions to the regular rules, listed below with their descriptions.

Sword — no exceptions; follows the regular rules for threat, cover, and shifting.

Bow — no exceptions; follows the regular rules for threat, cover, and shifting.

Earth — only shifts 1 square.

Air — cannot shift. Threatens like a knight in chess.

Fire — threatens itself and all tiles in its threat. Thus it is captured by 1 threat, or 2 if in cover. You can't deploy on its threat.

Sai — can shift 2 immediately upon being deployed, before the capture phase.

Lotus — covers itself. Cannot shift. Can be deployed in any unoccupied square, even the blacked-out squares. Gives no points towards victory.

Water — optionally, instead of shifting, a Water already on the board can be re-deployed like a tile from your hand. You can re-deploy Water into its own threat.

Variant: Paikō — Valley of the Shrines (3 Players)

Before playing the 3-player variant, play a few games of the 2-player game. It's more engrossing, and without the 2-player background the 3-player version is a bit overwhelming. This alternate version plays like the 2-player version, except for what's listed below.

A field of tall grass rustles endlessly in the steady wind of a narrow mountain valley, a passageway to distant lands. Tiny stone shrines dot the valley floor as a quiet honor to ancestors gone and forgotten. However, despite the isolation and apparent peace, this valley is tainted…. It seethes with restless spirits!

Our wise commander tells us we must control this valley to finally win the war. We brought an army, but scouts report that our enemy has rallied in kind!

We must advance carefully. The spirits here are lonely and cunning, and want nothing more than for us to wage a massive battle and add our fallen friends to their eternity. Before showing themselves, they push up long fallen bodies, trophies from eras past. In time, they can wield each body like a puppet on a string – a Zombie. Slow but tenacious, zombies will gather like a storm and wrest control of your body to add to their numbers. Unless we win quickly, we'll share their grisly fate in this Valley of the Shrines.

Table Chat

Some groups like playing quietly, while others like wheeling-and-dealing alliances with each passing turn. We only give two suggestions for table chat: verbal agreements are there to be broken, and try not to bring political baggage from one game to the next (treat each game as a fresh start!).

Sides and Setup

There are three players: White, Black, and Red.

• The discard pile is Red's hand. Once a tile is discarded there, it flips and stays face-down; its identity never matters again. Before being discarded, Black's and White's tiles are always face up!
• Pick sides, either randomly or by choice.
• Black discards 6 of her 24 tiles and places the rest in her hand. Then White does the same.
• Place an upside-down discarded tile on both of the blacked-out squares in the middle grounds. These will give Red a slight head-start.
• White and Black will play the game just as in normal Paikō, except they can't draw tiles because all tiles are in players' hands at the start.

Win Conditions

• You can only win on your turn.
• White or Black wins by getting 5 or more points, and at least 3 more points than the other player.
• Red wins when the number of zombies plus White's or Black's score (whichever's higher) reaches 12.
• When Red wins, Black and White draw (aka tie) rather than lose. When unavoidably losing, White/Black should try giving Red the victory (obstructing the valley) without sacrificing any tiles to Red, if possible. (Don't feed your friends to zombies.)

Turn Order

All three of the following have the same result; pick the one that makes the most sense to you!

• Start with White, then Black, then Red. Every time Red takes a turn, you reverse the direction you take turns around the table (like the reverse card in Uno).
• Follow the "Turn Order" chart on the final page.
• Take turns in this order: White, Black, Red, Black, White, Red, White, Black, Red, Black, White, Red, White…

Red

Red's Pieces

• A single upside-down tile is called a corpse. Corpses cannot shift, and are worth no points.
• Two stacked upside-down tiles are called a zombie. Zombies can shift 1 and are effectively worth 1 point each. Zombies can also zombify White/Black tiles as explained after the actions.
• Both corpses and zombies create no threat or cover.
• Both require 3 total threat (White and Black combined) to be captured back to the discard pile (Red's hand).

On Red's Turn

Red must do any 1 of these 4 actions on their turn:

• Deploy a corpse in any empty square (even black squares) that is not in the cover of a tile (however, the cover of homegrounds has no effect).
• Make a zombie from a corpse that is not in the cover of a tile by deploying a face-down tile on it.
• Shift any zombie 1 tile. Zombies created on a black square (a shrine) can shift off of it, but not back on.
• Retrieve any number of face-down tiles from the board back to the discard pile (Red's hand). Red can convert zombies back into corpses in the process.

Zombifying

• Zombifying is performed after Red's action, just before the capture phase of Red's turn.
• Red may zombify any/all White/Black tiles adjacent to (sharing an edge or corner with) two zombies. Zombify by flipping the White/Black tile over and deploying another upside-down tile atop it. This only happens once per Red turn, so zombifying does not cascade.
• After zombifying tiles, perform a capture phase as normal. If White/Black tiles are captured, Red may choose the order.

Advice on Tactics

Unless you're totally awesome, you won't be able to win by strength alone. If the other two players side against you, you will start to fall behind. So, in order to win, you must pit your opponents against each other while accruing small advantages across the board. Then, snap it all into play before the others can react. It takes one part patience and two parts evil cunning, but it's great fun once you get the hang of it.

Red (like zombies) will win in the long run; patience is a virtue. Remember that to keep the game in balance you can deploy corpses in pivotal spots to obstruct the player in the lead from deploying. Beware trying to zombify too soon in an effort for fast points, as it can unbalance and lose you the game.

Score Board

Have 3 chits to scoot up and down the tracks. Red's chit tracks the number of zombies. If it goes beneath a White or Black chit, Red wins! White or Black wins with 5 or more points and at least 3 points more than their opponent.

Variant: Paikō — The Ronin Prince (4-7 Players)

In addition to the standard Paikō set you'll need a clock/stopwatch, a token (anything will do), and optionally up to 14 paperclips or bits of paper to put on top of tiles when they deploy and shift. Make sure to play 2-player Paikō first, as the rules for capture, movement, and such are the same, except where listed.

After our great empress relinquished her rule to make way for the dawn of a new age, her many honorable courtiers and samurai stepped down in kind, masterless. For a moment, this included her son, whom was once destined to rule over the land. However, just as he stepped down as prince, he drew his sword as a masterless Ronin, shamefully fighting to bring back his throne.

With only an army of mercenaries, he fights against the full might of an empire, but he fights us divided without our leader. During the interim between governments, each fiefdom stands for itself. Yet, together we must stand. Together, as equals, we shall battle to defend our honor and pave the way for our new era to come.

Table Chat

Important for fun and balance: Black players cannot specifically tell other Black players how to play their move (e.g. don't say "If you have a Bow, place it here"). However, they can (and certainly should) enjoy talking about strategies and goals (e.g. "Let's threaten here", "Does anyone else want to move this tile?"). As a hard and fast way to distinguish the two, don't talk about what specific tiles are in people's hands, and don't talk about how specifically to accomplish a goal. This fits the game's balance, makes things more interesting, and keeps things civil.

Sides and Setup

• One player plays the white tiles as "The White Ronin Prince."
• The rest of the players play the black tiles as "The Black Generals."
• Each Black player chooses and takes a different type of tile as their black hero tile and places it face-up atop a randomly chosen white tile.
• Finally, a random Black player takes the "first-turn" token.

In Each Round

Draw

• All players discard any tiles in their hand (except Blacks' hero tiles) back to their tile reserves.
• Then all players draw a number (see table) of random face-down tiles for use in this round only. Keep the tiles hidden.

Play

• White plays a number (see table) of actions.
• Afterwards each Black player makes a single action, starting with the Black player with the first-turn token and proceeding clockwise.
• Each action can be: Deploying; Shifting (Black players may shift any available black tile except each others' hero tiles); passing on their action; a Black player spending their action to return their hero tile to their hand; or White spending two actions during their turn to deploy a tile from their hand as a hero tile (stack the hero tile atop a random face-down tile from White's tile reserve — White may have at maximum 4 hero tiles and only one of each type). Unlike 2-player Paikō, no one may draw.
• Any tile deployed/shifted/redeployed is considered "busy" until the capture phase. Busy tiles create no threat or cover, cannot be shifted, and should be highlighted by placing a paperclip or scrap of paper atop them.
• Each side must make all of their actions within the listed time (see table). If the time goes over, all further actions are lost (don't worry, it happens!). If you need to do something in a hurry, it seldom hurts to deploy a tile. Time spent talking about rules and illegal moves is off the clock. Time spent talking about strategy is on the clock and designed to be part of the allotted time.

Capture

• This is the ideal time for side chatter! Remove all paperclips/scraps of paper.
• First, White captures any Black tiles possible to capture. Then, Black captures any White tiles possible to capture.
• All captured tiles flip upside-down and go to respective tile reserves, not a discard pile. Do not draw as a reward for capture.

Check for Victory

• White wins when they obtain 10 or more points.
• Black wins when they obtain 10 or more points and at least 2 points more than White.

Rotate

Pass the "first-turn" token to the next Black player clockwise. Then, start the next turn.

The Table

# of Players	# Black Players	# Tiles White Draws	# Tiles Black Draws	# Actions White Makes	Time White Has	Time Black Has
4	3	4	3	3	1:30	2:00
5	4	4	2	4	2:00	2:00
6	5	5	2	5	2:30	2:30
7	6	5	1	6	3:00	2:30

Hero Tiles

Each hero tile has the following advantages over its normal counterparts:

• Air — shifts 2.
• Bow — optionally, instead of moving, can re-deploy (like Water).
• Earth — covers itself.
• Fire — no longer threatens itself and no longer threatens other friendly tiles. However, you still may never deploy friendly tiles in its threat.
• Lotus — friendly tiles in its cover cannot be captured, though it can still be captured.
• Sai — any friendly tile deployed via Sai may move up to their max move when deployed (like Sai).
• Sword — opponent tiles cannot move from, to, or through Sword's threat (like they were black squares).
• Water — any friendly tile in Water's threat or cover may be redeployed instead of moving (like Water).