SHRINE

SHRINE: Completion

SHRINE is a competitive abstract strategy game, where two players take turns placing stones on a beautiful board of tiled pentacles. The stones and the pentacles each come in three colors: crimson, cream, and cobalt. Stone placement follows this order, and players take turns placing the next color of stone on the board. There are only two rules to placement: no stone may be placed on a pentacle of its own color, and no two stones of the same color may be placed next to one another.

Stones on pentacles sharing an interface are connected. Connected stones, enclosing at least one pentacle, are a loop. A loop that encloses at least one pentacle of each color is a shrine. The player to complete the first shrine wins the game.

Shrine is distinct from classic stone-placing games in that players become decoupled from colors. A winning structure will usually include stones laid by both players, but the winner is the one who places the final stone. This leads to an interesting dilemma: how much do I cooperate with my opponent to build this shrine?