Perpetual-Motion Machine
Perpetual-Motion Machine Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Goal of the Game
Players try to make the most efficient machine by using the fewest turns to place all of their cubes on their player mat before their opponents do the same.
Components
52 cards, at least 80 cubes and 4 player mats.
Setup
Each player takes one player mat.
- For 2 players, each player takes 30 cubes.
- For 3 players, each player takes 25 cubes.
- For 4 players, each player takes 20 cubes.
Place any leftover cubes back in the box. Each player places 5 of his cubes near him in his Personal Supply, and places the rest of them above his player mat in his General Pile.
Choose one player at random to deal three cards to each player. Place four cards face up in the center of the board and place the rest of the deck face down next to them in a draw deck.
In reverse turn order (with the last player going first), each player places two cubes from their Personal Supply on any empty spaces along the bottom of the four columns of their player mat. No player may place in the same two spots as any other player. Players may place both cubes in the same column or in different columns.
Gameplay
The player to the left of the dealer plays first. He may do any one of the following actions on his turn:
- Take Cards
- or Play Cards and Place Cubes
- or Trade Cards for Cubes
After the player takes his one action, the player to his left takes his turn (which again consists of a single action). The following sections detail each of the possible actions.
Take Cards
The player may take cards from the four face up cards and/or from the face down cards. At the beginning of the game, each player may only take one face up card and no face down cards. As they add cubes to the Flush and Full House areas of their player mat, each player may take more face up cards as well as face down cards (see the Flush and Full House descriptions).
If the player exceeds his hand limit (initially 5 cards), he must then discard cards face down into a common discard pile until he is at his hand limit.
After discarding, a new card from the draw deck is flipped over to fill in each empty display slot. If no cards are in the draw deck, shuffle the cards in the discard pile and make it the new draw deck.
Trade Cards for Cubes
The player may trade cards for cubes, generating one cube per each card he decides to trade, up to the maximum indicated in the 3 of a Kind area. If no cubes are placed in that area, the player may trade one card for one cube. The cubes are taken from the player's General Pile and placed in the player's Personal Supply. The cards used to generate the cubes are placed face down in the discard pile.
The initial limit of cubes in a player's Personal Supply is 5, but this may be increased by playing a Straight (see the Straight description).
Play Cards and Place Cubes
The player may play cards that correspond to an area on his player mat. When he does so, he places cubes from his Personal Supply onto the appropriate section on his player mat. The cards that were played go face down into the discard pile. Only one set of cards may be played per turn.
Cubes are always placed from the bottom up for 3 of a Kind, Straight, Flush and Full House, and from the left to the right for Two Pair. Once cubes are placed on the player mat, they are never removed throughout the rest of the game.
For sections that require more than one cube, such as the top sections of 3 of a Kind, Straight, Flush and Full House, as well as all the Two Pair sections, all cubes in that section must be placed at the time when the corresponding cards are played.
Player Mat
The player mat has these areas: General Pile, Personal Supply, 3 of a Kind Area (Cards for Cubes), Straight Area (Hand & Cube Limit), Flush Area (Draw Face Down), Full House Area (Draw Face Up), and 2 Pair Area.
To place a cube in a section on his player mat, the player must play the appropriate cards and take that cube from his Personal Supply. Towards the top of the 3 of a Kind, Straight, Flush and Full House areas, there is more than a single cube spot per section. The player must place the appropriate number of cubes for each of those sections when he plays a set of cards. If the player does not have enough cubes in his Personal Supply at that time to fill in all the spots at one time, he may not play that set of cards.
3 of a Kind
Any 3 cards of the same value, such as 9-9-9. The number to the right of the section filled with cube(s) is the maximum number of cards that can be traded for cubes. The cost of each cube is one card placed in the discard pile. When this area is empty, and the player uses his turn to trade cards for cubes, only one card can be traded for one cube.
Straight
Any 5 cards in a row, such as 6-7-8-9-10. The number to the right of the section filled with cube(s) is the player's maximum hand limit (number of cards he can hold at the end of a turn) as well as his cube limit (the maximum number of cubes that can be stored in the player's Personal Supply at any time). The player is limited to 5 of each of these when this area is empty.
Flush
Any 5 cards of the same suit, such as 2-4-7-10-Q of hearts. The number to the right of the section filled with cube(s) is the maximum number of cards the player may draw from the face down draw deck before he draws from the face up piles. The player may draw less than the maximum number he is allowed. The player may not draw any face down cards when this area has no cubes placed in it.
Straight Flush
Any 5 cards in a row that are the same suit, such as A-2-3-4-5 of hearts. This allows the player to advance both the Straight and Flush tracks at the same time, placing cubes on the next available spot on each track. If the player only has enough cubes in their Personal Supply to advance one track, he may choose which track to advance and place his cubes on that track only. If one of the two tracks is full, the player places cubes on the other track only.
Royal Flush
5 cards in a row that are the same suit from 10 to Ace, such as 10-J-Q-K-A of hearts. Like a Straight Flush (place cubes on both the Straight and Flush areas), but the cubes may come from the player's General Pile instead of or in combination with their Personal Supply.
Full House
Any 5 cards consisting of a 3 of a kind and a pair, such as 5-5-5-K-K. The number to the right of the section filled with cube(s) is the maximum number of face up cards the player may draw on his turn. The player may draw less than the maximum number he is allowed. The player is limited to drawing only one card from the four face up cards when this area is empty.
Two Pair
Any 4 cards consisting of two pairs of cards, such as 4-4-J-J. The player places two cubes each time he plays Two Pair. Playing Two Pair has no effect except to move cubes to the player mat.
Four of a Kind
Any 4 cards of the same value, such as 10-10-10-10. Like Two Pair, but the cubes may come from the player's General Pile instead of or in combination with their Personal Supply.
End of the Game
The first player to place all of his cubes on his player mat wins.
In the unlikely event that all players cannot place a cube because they only have one cube left and all of their single cube areas are full, all players lose.
Don't Get Stuck
It is possible to end up with a cube that cannot be played if all of a player's single cube areas are filled up and the player has one cube left. It is the player's responsibility to avoid this scenario, as it will result in him losing the game!
Easy Things to Forget
Your Personal Supply of cubes is the same as your hand limit for cards, and can be increased by placing cubes in the Straight section.
You must always have enough cubes to fill up the next empty area in order to play cards in a section. For instance, if you have a cube on each of the first three spaces in the Three of a Kind section, you'll need two cubes to play another Three of a Kind (and you'll need to place both of them at once).
Playing a Straight Flush allows you to place cubes in both the Straight and Flush sections on a single turn.
Playing Four of a Kind or a Royal Flush allows you to take cubes from the General Pile instead of or in combination with your Personal Supply.