HOUSE RULES is a strategy game where you don’t need to be lucky, but just to get used to the continually changing rules, in order to win.
Moreover, HOUSE RULES is the first product made by two online journals: GiocareA OnLine, that you are reading, and DM Magazine. They are both free online and they both deal with games, even if they have completely different points of view. The first one deals with board games, the second one with collectors’ games.
The cooperation between these journals, as for HOUSE RULES, gave birth to two separate parts of the game. Here, on GiocareA online, you can find the rules, while on DM Magazine you will find the components (cards, pawns…). This means that you have to download both journals to have the complete game, thus enjoying another important online game journal.

Object of the game
House Rules is a game for 2 players, where your object is to capture the opponent’s pawns, until he has a total value lesser than 6.

Components
A 6x7 board, 14 pawns, 14 red “upgrade” markers, 4 yellow “change” markers, 10 “House Rules” cards.
You can find the components in DM Magazine (number 16), freely downloadable at http://www.grottadimerlino.com/dm_magazine.html
[for non-Italians: we are sorry the journal is not translated into English, but the components have been translated].

Starting the game
Each player picks a colour, then, once decided who will start the game, they put their pawns on the board.

Board setting
The board will be placed with the longest side (with 7 cells) in front of the two players.
The white player shall have two black cells at the corners in front of him, and the black player two white cells.

Pawn disposal
Each player’s seven pawns will be placed in the first row of his side, as follows:

Black player
From one corner (doesn’t matter which one, as the disposal on the row is symmetrical) a first line is placed, then a triangle, then a tetrahedron, then the hypertetrahedron, then the other tetrahedron, then the other triangle and another line.

White player
From one corner (doesn’t matter which one, as the disposal on the row is symmetrical) a first line is placed, than a square, then a cube, then the tesseract, then the other cube, the other square and another line.
Now the House Rules cards related to the colour are given to each player (every card has a white or black square in its top left part) and the game begins.
The first player moves its pawn, then the opponent does, and so on until the end of the game.

Movement
All pieces move in the same way. They move one cell forward, or back, or to the right, or to the left. Diagonal movement is always forbidden.

Pawns value
Every pawn on the board has a different value:

Lines’ value is 1.

Squares’ and triangles’ value is 2.

Cubes’ and tetrahedrons’ value is 3.

The tesseract’s and the hypertetrahedron’s value is 4.

Capturing
In order to capture an opponent’s pawn you have to enter its cell with the same value or an higher one. So a triangle that moves to the cell of a square will be able to capture it, because the attacker always wins if there is a draw.
Always standing the above rules, you must also consider that the cell where the attack takes place (the cell of the attacked pawn) has a primary role. It gives 1 bonus point to the pawns of its colour (both if it is attacking and defending).

Example: A cube is on a black cell. A triangle moves to the cell of the cube. The triangle gets 1 bonus point for the colour of the cell, and now its value is 3, so it is able to capture the cube.

The captured pawns are taken away from the board.

NOTE: The attacker can never lose the attack. If after an attacker’s move you realize that the attacker was not able to capture, he won’t be captured anyway. The move is simply cancelled and another one must be made.

Upgrading
When a pawn gets to the other side of the board (it gets to the opponent’s starting row) it gets a permanent bonus.
Pawns valued 1-3 get 1 bonus point (NOTE: the upgrading doesn’t mean a change in the kind of pawn. An upgraded square does not become a cube, but it is still a square, with a value of 3). Pawns valued 4 (tesseract and hypertetrahedron) bring back to the game a captured pawn of their own colour. The pawn back to the game will have to start from one of its starting cells, if they are free, or from any cell of the starting row.
No piece can get more than one upgrade.
To mark the improvement you can use the red “upgrade” markers, that will be put on the upgraded pawn.
End of game
When the total value of the pawns of a player is 6 or less, the opponent wins the game. In the total value the upgrades must be considered, but no other modifier given by the cells or the team support (see cards).
If in any moment of the game the difference in the values of the two players is 8 or higher, the game is won by the opponent with the higher score.

House Rules
Each player can only play one “House Rules” card in his turn. The card will be played during his turn, before or after the movement, depending on the effect you want to get.
Once a card is played, the rules on it are active in the game and will be active until the end of the game. The played cards must be put next to the board, to remind both players of the “House Rules” now active.
The advantage of playing a card is mostly that you are the first one to get its benefits, considering that then the rule will be used by the opponent too.

Variants (House Rules’ house rules!)
1) For the first game, to present the game to a beginner or for an easier game, even if less exciting, you can avoid using the “House Rules” cards. Only the base rules will be applied.
2) In spite of giving the 10 “House Rules” cards to the players, they are shuffled and some are picked (two, three or also all of them). The picked cards are put next to the board, and the other ones taken away. For the whole game those rules will be active, together with the base ones.
Thus making, there will be no surprise effect, and the continual change of the rules, but it will be an easier game, that changes every time you play.