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Archive-name: auto/rec.games.abstract/SUSAN-a-game

SUSAN is a game of my own design with extremely simple rules and
considerable depth of play. The rules are as follows:
 
  S U S A N (tm)
  A quick and subtle game for two players
  
  Copyright (c) 1991 by Stephen Linhart
  All Rights Reserved
  
  SUSAN includes a hexagonal playing board with 61 spaces, and two
  sets of playing pieces, called _stones_.
  
  To begin the game, players choose colors and decide who goes
  first. On each turn you may place a stone in any empty space, or
  slide a stone which you already have on the board. When sliding a
  stone, you may move it to any neighboring space which is not
  already occupied. You may not pass your turn.
  
  The object of the game is to surround any ONE of your opponent's
  stones. You surround a stone simply by filling in the spaces
  around it - _a stone may be surrounded by any combination of your
  stones, your opponent's stones and the edge of the board_. But be
  careful; if one of your stones is surrounded on your own turn
  (even if you surround one of your opponent's stones at the same
  time), you lose the game!
 
The second half of the second to last sentence confuses some
people, so I include diagrams to explain it when I print the rules
on paper. The key point is that the game ends as soon as ANY stone
has no empty spaces around it. Neighboring stones of your own are
just as much of a threat as your opponent's stones. Every stone is
both a benefit and a liability.
 
The most significant weakness that I am aware of is that it is
possible to get into a draw situation. I am thinking of adding a
new rule to cover this. A draw could be a repeated board position,
or 4 to 6 slides in a row. I'm still thinking about this.
 
The shape of the board and my notation system are:
a      1 2 3 4 5      a
b     1 2 3 4 5 6     b
c    1 2 3 4 5 6 7    c
d   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8   d
e  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9  e
f   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8   f
g    1 2 3 4 5 6 7    g
h     1 2 3 4 5 6     h
i      1 2 3 4 5      i
 
When I play by mail I prefer to write that as:
       1 2 3 4 5
a     . . . . . 6
b    . . . . . . 7
c   . . . . . . . 8
d  . . . . . . . . 9
e . . . . . . . . .
f  . . . . . . . . 9
g   . . . . . . . 8
h    . . . . . . 7
i     . . . . . 6
       1 2 3 4 5
A slide move can be written   'b2 -> c3'
 
SUSAN is currently available by modem from the Dragon's Eye BBS at
(512) 343-7727.
A Macintosh version is available by ftp from
sumex-aim.stanford.edu
The Mac version 2.0 has an opponent intelligence that uses neural-
net techniques, and learns by playing.
 
  - Stephen



-- 
Tao or Stephen at trodrigu@zonker.ecs.umass.edu