Carol from Cheapass Games writes, "About a year ago, James Ernest started working with Patrick Rothfuss to make the game Tak a reality. Tak features in Patrick's novel, The Wise Man's Fear."
"James' challenge was to bring to the real world a game with compelling play, elegant strategy and a sense of history. Patrick was skeptical, but James brought him a design that truly delighted him! The Tak Kickstarter launched today, April 19th, and runs until Friday May 20th."
Cheapass is one of the great tabletop game publishers, and they are very reliable about delivering on their Kickstarters.
Tak uses a square board, which can be any size from 3×3 up to 8×8, but the most common sizes are 5×5 and 6×6 (the "Tavern" and "Classic" games).
Each player has several matching pieces, or "stones," and one special piece called the "Capstone." The Capstone can be any shape, and the other pieces should be simple, stackable pieces in a matching style.
The board starts empty, and the goal is to build a road (a connected string of your pieces) connecting opposite sides of the board.
On each turn, you will either place a piece in an empty space, or move a stack that you control. Stacks must move in a straight line, dropping pieces as they go, and possibly covering other pieces along the way.You can play a piece upright. This piece is called a "standing stone," or "wall." It can't be part of a road, but other pieces can't stack on top of it.
The Capstone is your power piece. It can be part of a road, it can't be stacked on, and it can also flatten standing stones.
Tak: A Beautiful Game [Cheapass Games/Kickstarter]
