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House of Doors - Designed by Randy Cox

An entry in the 2004 About.com Shared Pieces Game Design Competition

By Erik Arneson, About.com

Equipment

1 4x4 square grid board
2 differently colored tokens, one for each player
8 doors (dominoes on-edge, Settlers of Catan roads or the like)

Setup

Arrange the board as follows, with the two tokens (represented by the blue and yellow circles) being placed within the squares, and the doors being placed on the edges of the grid squares as indicated.

See Setup Diagram

Door Movement

Doors are located on the edges of the grid squares. They may be swung from either end, ending their movement 90 degrees away from where they started.

Example: See Example Diagram 1

Doors may swing into positions that lie on the very edges of the board.

The doors are shared pieces. They do not belong to either player, therefore either player may move any door on their turn.

Token Movement

Tokens are moved in one of two ways:

1. Simple movement of one space orthagonally (not diagonally) into an adjacent space.
2. Tokens can also be "pushed" by a door swinging into them.

Example: See Example Diagram 2

Simple movement is only possible if it is not blocked by a door and the destination square is not occupied by an opponent's token. Similarly, a swinging door can only push a single token. If the path of the token is blocked by another door or if the destination square of the token is already occupied by another token, then the door is blocked from swinging in that direction.

Gameplay

Each player must perform two actions on his turn:

1. The first action must move the active player's token, either by simple movement, or by sweeping the token into a space by swinging a door.

2. The second action may be:

- A single-space orthagonal movement of the active player's token.

OR

- A door swing that may or may not result in the movement of either player's token. If a door was moved in the first action, the same door may not be moved again in the second action.

Ending the game

A player loses if he is unable to move his token on the first action of his turn because it is blocked by doors and/or the opponent's token.

Erik Arneson
Guide since 1999

Erik Arneson
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