Martian Race

Introduction
The bad news is the scientists on your home planet of Mars have determined that the water on the planet surface is slowly drying up and soon the planet will be unable to support life. The good news is that Martian government has started a program to send search parties into space to look for other suitable planets. The even better news is that you and your family have been training for this for some time now and are likely to be chosen as the first Martians to go on such a mission, quite an honor indeed. The bad news is that there are some other families around that are similarly well-trained. The good news is that government will send on the exploration mission whichever family signs up for the contest and the gets to the rocket first. The bad news is that you haven't signed up or gathered any of the supplies you'd need for such a trip. The good news is that nobody else has either.

You better get moving!

The object of Martian Race is to be the first player to get all of the Martians from your family from your Home to the Government Center (to sign up for the program and get supply vouchers), the Supply Depot (to get, well, supplies), and then to the Launch Pad (to head off into space and down in history).

Players
2-4 players (3 or 4 is best), Backgammon age and up.

Equipment
A chess/checker board. The four squares one away from the corners on opposite sides are specially named. Using algebraic chess notation, square A7 is Home, H2 is the Government Center, A2 is the Supply Depot, and H7 is the Launch Pad.

Two 6-sided dice.

A set of Icehouse pieces from Looney Labs. The pieces represent the individual 'Martians' from the players' families. Each player will need a single stash (all the pieces of one color), but a maximum of 5 will be on the board at any one time. The number of pieces required per player is dependent on the number of players, as shown in this table:

• The smallest piece represents a Martian just starting out (on the way to the Government Center).
• The medium piece represents a Martian that has signed up for the program and gotten the voucher good for free supplies, but with no actual supplies yet (on the way to the Supply Depot).
• The largest piece represents a Martian with supplies (on the way to the Launch Pad).

Start of Game
All pieces start off the board.
Decide order of play.

Turn
Roll both dice and take two moves as indicated. Each move consists of one of your Martians performing the number of steps indicated on one of the dice. As in backgammon, the number rolled on each die can be used by different pieces or the same piece, but the move indicated by each die must be legal. (Note: 1 turn = 2 moves; 1 move = 1-6 steps)

• A Martian may step from one square to another only if it is lying down and pointing at that square.
• Each orientation change (standing up, lying down, or turning in place) also counts as a step.
• Every Martian starts his first move from Home. Putting a Martian (in any orientation) on the Home square counts as the Martian's first step.
• Only a small piece may end a move on or pass through the Government Center. Only a medium may end a move on or pass through the Supply Depot. Only a large piece may end a move on or pass through the Launch Pad. Only one piece of any one color can occupy the Home, Government Center, Supply Depot, or Launch Pad square at a time.
  

Here are two examples of a Martian using a die roll of 5 for its first move.

Blocking
To prevent being pushed (see below), multiple pieces owned by the same player can occupy the same square. The number and orientation of pieces in a square determine how vulnerable they are to enemy attacks.

• If a square is occupied by a single Martian or by two, both lying down, an enemy Martian can land there (and 'push' the current occupant(s)).
• If a square is occupied by three lying down Martians or one standing and one lying down Martian, the square is partially blocked -- an enemy Martian cannot end its move there but may pass through the square (including changing orientation).
• If a square is occupied by any stronger force, the square is totally blocked, and enemy Martians may not even pass through.
• Only opponent Martians are subject to Blocking rules. Martians from the same family (pieces of the same color) can pass through or land on partially or totally blocked squares freely.
• If there is ever a situation where the number rolled on one or both of the dice can not be used (such as when a player's last Martian is blocked into the Supply Depot) the player loses the use of that die/dice.

The easy way to calculate the vulnerability of the Martians in a square is to assign any lying down pieces a value of 1 and any standing pieces a value of 2. The total occupying value determines the vulnerability of the Martians in the square. The sizes of the pieces don't matter - just the orientation and number.

	<3 - Vulnerable Enemy may land and 'push'.
	=3 - Partially Blocked Enemy may pass through but may not end a move.
	>3 - Totally Blocked Enemy may not even pass through.

Pushing
If a Martian ends a move (not necessarily a turn) in a square occupied by one or more vulnerable enemy Martians (see Blocking rules), the Martians are 'pushed' to other squares as decided by the owner of the newly arriving Martian. The number of squares the current occupant(s) are moved is...

1
+1	if the arriving piece is bigger than the current occupant(s)
+1	if the arriving piece is more standing up than the current occupant(s) (A piece is "more standing up" than another if it is standing and the other pieces is lying down.)

Some additional 'pushing' notes:

• The push distances are determined separately for each of the current occupants in the sqare.
• Pushed pieces keep their orientation.
• Multi-square pushes do not have to be in a straight line.
• If a pushed piece ends up in an occupied square, those pieces also get pushed (the initial pushee becomes the new pusher).
• Pushed pieces follow the blocking and other movement rules. They may not be pushed onto a partially blocked square nor onto or through a totally blocked square if the current occupants are a different color. Nor may pushed pieces be pushed onto one of the goal squares if a piece of the same color is already there.
• If there are no legal squares on which to push an opponent the full distance, the push distance is reduced by just enough to make the push possible. If there are no (non-zero) pushes possible, then the attacker (the piece whose turn it is) may not move onto the square to begin with.

Example: On Red's turn he rolls a 2 on one of the dice and decides to go after Blue's medium piece. He moves as shown. At the end of the move he is in Blue's square. Red gets to push the blue piece 1 square in any direction. He decides to move it one square east. Since one of Blue's piece lands on a square occupied by two of Green's pieces, now Blue gets to do some pushing. She gets to push Green's medium piece two squares (1 + 1 because the blue piece is standing while the green is lying down) and decides to push it two squares north. Blue also gets to push the lying down small piece three squares (1 + 1 because blue piece is bigger + 1 because the blue piece is "more standing up"). It gets moved north-north-west.
Before	After
Example: Red sure would like to move into the Government Center, currently occupied by one of Blue's (bigger, standing) pieces by using his lying down piece and a roll of 2 as shown. If he did, he would push Blue's piece only one square. Because it would be illegal for the blue piece to end a move on any of the squares a distance of one away from the Government Center (see 'blocking' rules above), it is illegal for Red to move his northernmost piece into the Government Center in the first place. Sure, Red could turn hit other lying down piece and move into the Government Center. But then the only legal place to push the blue piece would be onto the now vulnerable upright red piece. Blue would then push that upright red further from its destination at the Govm't Ctr.

Picking up Stuff
As mentioned earlier, the different sized pieces represent achievement of various goals. All small pieces are trying to reach the Government Center to sign up for the exploration program. All medium pieces are trying to get to the Supply Depot to get supplies. All large pieces are Martians that have finished their preparations and are on the way to the Launch Pad to head off into space. In order to change from small to medium, a piece must end a move standing up on the Government Center. In order to change from medium to large, a piece must end a move standing up on the Supply Depot.

• Only one piece of any one color can occupy the Government Center, Supply Depot, or Launch Pad at a time.
• If an enemy piece is already occupying the Government Center, Supply Depot, or Launch Pad, it may be pushed to another square. (Push first; then change size.)

Example:Here is an example of a piece getting to the Government Center on a 4, picking up the program forms and supply vouchers (growing), and leaving with a 5.

Winning the Game
A Martian that has completed all the requirements (a large piece) that stands up on the Launch Pad has finished the course and is removed from the board. As with the Government Center and Supply Depot, if there is already an opposing Martian there, it may be pushed to another square.

The first player to have all of his/her Martians finish the course wins the game.

There, that's all there is to it. Have fun.

P.S.: The Mad Dog
As you can see from the top of this page, this game was previously known as Mad Dog. The biggest difference between that game and what you see here is the removal of the "Mad Dog Phase". In that original game, the first player to have all his/her pieces finish the course would get to control the single "Mad Dog" piece. This piece could roam about the board attacking any opponent pieces that haven't finished the course yet. The effect of an "attack", in addition to normal pushing, was to replace the opponent's piece with one the next size down. This meant that the attacked/shrunk piece would have to revisit one or more of the goal squares.

As an option to Martian Race you can try adding the Mad Dog phase back in. You can find the details on this page. Read the Releasing the Mad Dog and End of Move Timing sections. The Mad Dog phase works for working out finer grades than just one winner and N-1 losers. It could increase the magnitude of a win (based on the number of killed opponent pieces) for a series of games or provide a ranking of non-winners (based on the number of pieces each player had that completed the course). While you're on the Mad Dog page, read the History/Design Philosophy section.

Revision History

Version	Date	Description
1	Oct 3, 2001	Initial Version Created from Mad Dog v3. Changes from that game: Removed the Mad Dog Phase. Different Pushing Calculation. Remove the Triple-Block Rule. This was changed to a "if you can't use it, you lose it" rule. The Martian Backstory For an in-depth discussion of the design history and other subjects related to these two games, see the Mad Dog page.
1.1	Dec. 29, 2004	Increased the number of martians per player for 3 and 4 player games. Ray traced pictures. Allow the wasting of steps.
1.2	Feb 18, 2006	Adjusted the pieces-per-player table again, including adding a row for five players.

Credits
Initial Concept: Ryan McGuire
Rules Development: Ryan McGuire and Dan Isaac with help from Jacob Davenport
Name/Backstory/Theme: For Mad Dog, Ryan. For Martian Race, Dan Isaac and Elliot 'Eeyore' Evans
Playtesting (so far): Ryan McGuire, Dan Isaac, Clayton Castle, Scott McCoy, Jennifer McGuire, Joshua McGuire
Icehouse Pieces designed by:Andrew Looney
Other Icehouse Games designed by: Andrew and Kristin Looney, Jacob and John and Kory and Kristin, and many others
Comments and Suggestions are Welcome -- email Ryan