Rules of the game 1. The two players takes turn either creating or shooting one star of their own color. 2. Playing pieces are placed in the hexes on the board, only one piece may occupy each hex. 3. A star can be created (placed) anywhere on the board, except in the center or next to another piece. 4. A star can be shot (moved) in all 6 directions for as many hexes as the player wants, but only in straight lines. 5. A star cannot be shot through other playing pieces, but may be shot next to other pieces. 6. Stardust of the player's color is placed in the hex where a star was shot from. 7. The game continues until both players pass. 8. The winner is the player who have the most stardust on the board. 9. In case of a tie the second player wins. Components To play the game you need a small board with 61 hexes laid out in a hexagonal shaped pattern, officially black with white details. You can download a printable version below (the small white dots are for navigation). You need 70-80 playing pieces in two colors, officially red and blue. You need either double sided tokens, such as discs, where one side represents a star and the other stardust. Or you can use about 10 star tokens and 30 stardust tokens for each player. You can play with fewer pieces as not the entire board must be covered in order to count final scores. Download the board here. The small version fits on a single page. The larger version must be printed out twice and taped together. To make a 4-way folded board use the large version, fold each page in half and tape the back. The cut marks helps you cut out a board with a white frame if you like. Small single page board - Large two page board Strategy To understand Shooting Stars you must think of the game in terms of areas. As pieces are placed on the board it gets divided into areas. An area can be defined as any number of connected empty hexes completely or roughly surrounded by playing pieces. As you create and shoot your stars, you should try to form areas that only your stars have access to. These empty hexes will become your points at the end of the game. You need to consider where new stars can be created and all 6 angles they can be shot in. In the beginning of the game you should keep areas in mind as you create a handful of stars. During the middle game you should block your opponent from your areas while finding holes in his defences. In the end game you need to count hexes gained and lost for both players in order to determine your best moves. The hexes where stars can be created vanishes quickly, as you cannot create them next to any other pieces. Spotting these is vital to both defending yourself and attacking your opponent. Tournament rules In tournaments red player should always make the first move. You should randomly select the starting player, for example through nigiri. Using nigiri the blue player randomly takes some pieces into his hand, red player then guesses wether the amount is odd or even by placing 1 or 2 pieces on the board. If red is incorrect the players switches colors. You should also play with komi for the blue player. I do not know the point advantage for red making the first move. But you should consider at least a 1.5 point komi for blue, that means blue adds 1.5 points to his final score. The addition of 0.5 points prevents ties, but also indicates that the score is from playing blue. Availability Creating your own playing set of Shooting Stars is quite easy. I am also currently working on a digital version so you can play the game on a computer or mobile device. My goal is to have this version available by the end of the year. Shooting Stars' simplicity makes it very playable even on a small device, such as an iPhone. The short playing time makes the game suitable for small breaks. Place a phone or tablet on the table and you can easily play a game over a cup of coffee. My wish is to have the game playable online with player rankings so you can easily find others of your skill level to play against.  |
