2018-01-14 Polarity Game Rules

14 January 2018

Polarity is a game of placing magnetic discs so that they lean on the magnetic fields of others. It went out of print a while ago, so I wanted to make a scaled-down version of my own with some 3D-printed pieces. I left out some aspects of the original game.

The rules had always been a bit confusing, so I’ll try to distill a set of my own rules here.

Objective

  • Be the first to play all discs in your supply.

  • Collect the most discs in towers, stacks of discs.

Setup

  • Roll out the playing mat flat on a stable surface.

  • Give each player half the discs for their supply: 19 to each player.

  • Players take turns placing foundation discs flat on the mat, touching no others, until each player has placed 4 foundations.

Game Play

  • Take turns leaning discs from your supply on magnetic fields of your discs on the mat.

  • Play only on the mat.

  • Play only on your own discs with your color facing up, not on your opponent’s discs.

  • A turn ends by successfully placing a disc or by causing a fault.

  • Play ends immediately upon causing a fault, so pieces still in the hand are returned to the player’s supply.

  • Faults occur 4 ways:

    • A leaning disc falls flat.

    • 2 or more discs touch each other.

    • Moving a tower or foundation disc more than its diameter.

    • Knocking a disc off the mat.

  • A player can intentionally cause a fault to convert a leaning disc into a new foundation.

    • A player can only convert their own discs.

    • The fault still ends their turn.

  • Faults are resolved by:

    • If discs snap to the disc being placed while still in the hand, the player removes the touching discs and returns them to their supply.

    • If discs on the board are touching, the opponent carefully retrieves the discs allowing them to snap the rest of the way to form a tower, and places it anywhere on the mat.

    • While retrieving or placing a tower, the tower is treated like a disc being placed, so causing a fault should be resolved the same way as when placing a piece.

    • If a disc just fell, but stayed the same color (a conversion), it stays where it is, but the turn ends.

    • If a fault flips one disc from one color to the other, without otherwise touching other discs, the opponent can choose to retrieve the disc and place it anywhere on the mat.

  • A player is responsible for any faults after a move until the opponents hand approaches the mat.

End of Game

  • The game ends when one player depletes their supply.

  • A player no longer has any discs with their color showing left on the board.

Scoring

  • Each disc in a tower is worth +1 point.

  • Each disc in the supply is worth -1 point.

Filed Under: Games Make365 3D-Printing