16.8 Krellstones

Krellstones is a traditional Elgan game involving dice known as the titular 'krellstones'. The traditional game features many other game components, such as marbles, figurines, a wheel, and much, much  more. In 969 A.E., Haxley's Entertainment Consortium of Krell released a new take of the game known as Modern Krellstones, distilling the rules down into something intelligible (your mileage may vary): A dice-building game of wits and pushing your luck.

Playing a game of krellstones requires three things:
1) A set of krellstones.
2) A Modern Krellstones gaming mat.
3) A group of two to four friends.

The gift shop in Haxley's Casino (v4101) sells starter kits containing everything you need to play. Friends not included.


Gameplay basics
---------------

Krellstones come in 4 varieties: Four-sided stones called Pawns, five-sided ones called Dancers, six-sided ones called Krells, and twenty-sided ones called Masters. Pawns can have any number between 1 and 10, Dancers any number between 5 and 42, Krells any number between 3 and 20, and Masters any odd number between 1 and 67. Each stone cannot have the same number repeated twice on any of its sides.

At the start of a game, each player chooses 6 of their krellstones to take into a game: 1x Pawn, 1x Dancer, 3x Krell, and 1x Master. Games consist of 5 rounds usually, but the game's creator can have set it to have fewer or more rounds.

A typical round looks like this:

1) Positions are determined randomly at the start of the first round, and then shift left each subsequent round.
2) Each player, in position order, rolls all their dice.
3) Special effects are resolved in position order (see Special Effects below).
4) Players secretly select any number of stones still in play to reroll, and then the stones are rerolled in position order. The game's host has the option to disable rerolling entirely. If rerolling is disabled, play moves straight to Step 6.
5) Special effects are resolved again.
6) The values printed on all of each player's stones are added up to form their final result. In position order, players bust if their result is less than 23 or more than 123. If all but one player has busted, the remaining player wins, even if that player would have busted had they been lower in position order.
7) The player with the highest score wins the round, unless Pawn is Queen, in which case the player with the lowest score wins the round. The round ends and the game moves on to the next round.
    * If the game is using Sideboard rules, players select their Sideboard swaps before the next round begins (see Sideboard Variant below)


Gameplay commands
-----------------

All syntax for the game can be found via the KRELLSTONES command. Basics commands include:

KRELLSTONE LIST [filter]                 List krellstones you own.
KRELLSTONE INSPECT <stone>              Inspect a krellstone.
KRELLSTONE ROLL <stone>                 Roll a krellstone outside a game.
KRELLSTONE ALIAS <stone> <alias>        Alias a krellstone to something memorable.
KRELLSTONE ALIAS <stone> REMOVE         Remove an alias from a krellstone.

When filtering KRELLSTONE LIST, you have the following filter options:
- Filter based on stone type, such as KRELLSTONE LIST DANCER, KRELLSTONE LIST MASTER, etc.
- Filter based on whether it is in an active game, KRELLSTONE LIST GAME or KRELLSTONE LIST INGAME
- Filter based on whether you have aliased it, KRELLSTONE LIST ALIAS or KRELLSTONE LIST HASALIAS
- Multiple filter options can be provided in the same query, such as KRELLSTONE LIST DANCER INGAME HASALIAS.

Inspecting a stone will show you detailed information about the values printed on its sides, which are randomly printed during mass production. Each side can also be slotted with faces to change is value and weight (see Slottable Faces below)

Aliasing a stone will allow you to name your favourite stones and make them easier to use.

Essential gameplay commands include:

KRELLSTONE JOIN <person>                Join someone's krellstone game.
KRELLSTONE VIEW [person]                View the game mat, even if you're not in the game.
KRELLSTONE SELECT <stone>               Select a stone.
KRELLSTONE UNSELECT <stone>             Unselect a stone.
KRELLSTONE READY                        Indicate you are ready for the next phase.
KRELLSTONE ABANDON                      Abandon your current game.

These are all the commands you need to play the game. The SELECT command is multipurpose. At the start of a game, SELECT is used to choose which stones you would like to bring into the game. In the reroll phase, it is used to select which stones in the play area you'd like to reroll.

KRELLSTONES READY is used to indicate that you are ready for the next phase of the game. Before the game has started, you can also use KRELLSTONES READY before you have selected all the stones you want to bring, and 6 stones in your possession will be selected from your inventory at random, provided you have at least 6 stones of the correct types.


Game host commands
------------------

The game's host is the only player who needs to bring a Modern Krellstones game mat. Before the game has started, you can adjust the following rules:

KRELLSTONE START <mat> [rounds]         Start a new krellstones game on a mat.
KRELLSTONE REROLLS <ON|OFF>             Enable or disable rerolling before a match starts.
KRELLSTONE SIDEBOARD SET <OFF|1-10>     Set sideboard size before a match starts.
KRELLSTONE PACE <NORMAL|FAST|SLOW>      Control the speed of play.

With KRELLSTONES START <mat> [rounds], you can choose which mat in your inventory you would like to play the game on, as well as the number of rounds the game should have, which should be a number between 1 and 17. If unspecified, it will default to a 5 round game.

KRELLSTONE SIDEBOARD SET <OFF|1-10> is used to include the Sideboard Variant (see below).

KRELLSTONE PACE <NORMAL|FAST|SLOW> can be set at any time, not just before the game starts, and will speed up or slow down how quickly the game's timers proceed.


Slottable Faces
---------------

Between matches, players can modify their krellstones by slotting sides of them with Faces. Faces are small slabs compatible with a particular krellstone type which change the numeric result that a side of the stone shows. Side 1 of your Dancer may show a '3', but you can slot it with a face to change this value to '10'!

Commands related to faces include:

KRELLSTONE FACE LIST [filter]            View faces you own.
KRELLSTONE FACE <face#>                 Inspect a krellstone face.
KRELLSTONE TRASH <face#>                Discard a krellstone face, forever.
KRELLSTONE TRADEIN <face#>              Tradein promo krellstone face for credits.
KRELLSTONE SLOT <stone> <side#> <face#> Slot a krellstone face into a side.
KRELLSTONE UNSLOT <stone> <side#>       Unslot a slotted face from a krellstone.
KRELLSTONE UNSLOT <stone> ALL           Unslot all slotted faces from a krellstone.

KRELLSTONE FACE LIST allows you to filter the list according to:
- The Krellstone type it is compatible with, KRELLSTONE FACE LIST MASTER. 
- Whether it is slotted or unslotted with KRELLSTONE FACE LIST SLOTTED or KRELLSTONE FACE LIST UNSLOTTED.
- Whether it is a promotional face, KRELLSTONE FACE LIST PROMO.
- Whether its printed value is above or below a certain number, such as KRELLSTONE FACE LIST >30 for a list of all faces with a result of 30 or greater, or KRELLSTONE FACE LIST <10 for a list of all faces with a result of 10 or less.
- These filter options can be combined, such as KRELLSTONE FACE LIST MASTER UNSLOTTED PROMO >20 <40

Use KRELLSTONE SLOT <stone> <side#> <face#> to slot a face into a krellstone or KRELLSTONE UNSLOT <stone> <side#|ALL> to remove slotted faces. KRELLSTONE INSPECT <stone> will show a summary of slotted faces. Even after slotting, a particular stone must still show unique numbers on each of its sides.

Faces can also be lighter or heavier, indicated by their Weight when you KRELLSTONE FACE <face#> [SHOW] it. The heavier a face, the more likely it is that you'll roll that result when a stone is rolled. Normally, each side of a stone has a weight of 1. On a four-sided Pawn, each side would thus have a 25% of being rolled. By slotting a face with a weight of 1 onto a side of this Pawn, this would distribute the weights at a 2:1:1:1 ratio, meaning the slotted side would have a 40% chance to be rolled, and the other sides a 20% chance. The Weight of a face is randomly determined during manufacturing, and it can add 0 weight, 1 weight, or, rarely, 2 weight to a side.


Special Effects
--------------

The traditional Krellstones game looks like pure unadulterated chaos to all but the most connoisseur of Elgans, and Modern Krellstones is, to some extent, no different. Depending on the results of rolls, the following effects can occur (in this order):

1) '<#> SPINS OUT!': If two Krells from the same player show the same number, all stones showing that result owned by any player spin out and are discarded this round.
2) '<#> IN THE SWAMP!': If the highest result for each player is uniform for all players, all stones showing that result are discarded.
3) 'HAZE THE MASTER!': If a player's Master result is lower than the sum of the Krell to the player on the left, the player's Master is discarded.
4) 'PAWNS UP!': Triggers if all players have pawn results which form a strait or are the same number. All pawns on the board flip to their maximum value. If a pawn is already showing its maximum value, it flips to its lowest value.
5) 'BURY THE GHOST DANCER!': Triggers when a Dancer rolls its lowest value. It is removed from the round, but returns the next round without rolling with its highest number facing up. If it is the final round, it is simply removed.
6) 'PAWN IS QUEEN!': Triggers when a player’s pawn is the highest result a player has. The rule for winning the round changes: now the player with the LOWEST score wins the round. All pawns are removed from play next round.

An additional event occurs earlier in the first rolling phase:

- 'PUP IN THE HANGAR' occurs when a player's Master rolls their lowest value. That player has 8 seconds or until the end of the rolling phase (which can be quick if you are in final position!) to YELL KRELLSTONES! (case sensitive, with the exclamation mark). If they do, it triggers 'CAPTAIN ON DECK' and their Master gets flipped to its highest result. Just be careful not to bust! Note that this only occurs during the initial roll phase, not during the reroll phase.

Sideboard Variant
-----------------

Before the game starts, the host enable an optional Sideboard, which allows players to have a pool of 1-10 stones which they can swap in and out of play between rounds. KRELLSTONE SIDEBOARD SET <OFF|1-10> is used by the game host to enable it. The number indicates the maximum size of each player's sideboard.

Other sideboard commands are:

KRELLSTONE SIDEBOARD ADD <stone>        Add a stone to your sideboard before a match starts.
KRELLSTONE SIDEBOARD VIEW [MINE|person] View a sideboard.

You cannot view an opponent's sideboard until after the game has started.

After a round ends, you can KRELLSTONE SELECT a krellstone on your sideboard to replace your active stone of that type. In the case of replacing Krell-type krellstones, simply follow the prompts to select which Krell in particular you would like to swap. Any stone in play, even stones which were discarded this round, and even Ghost Dancers, can be swapped.