Portals : A board game

Instruction

Number of players: 2-6, game time: 1-2 hours.

Objective

The players' goal is to get at least one pawn to the center of the board and to get rid of all their other pawns. The first player who reaches the goal is a winner.

Elements

Preparation

Before starting the game, assemble the board into a hexagonal shape, placing the field marked with a star in its center. Then each of the players chooses their starting platform and corresponding pawns. The starting platforms are placed in the peripheral fields of the board, equidistant from the CENTER.

The game is started by the player with the highest dice roll score.

Game play

Each turn consists of one of the following moves:

road building,
pawn movement (portal launch),
introducing a new pawn on the START,
removing the pawn from the CENTER.

If in a given turn the player has the possibility of making a move, the move must be made. If there is no possibility to make a move, the turn ends.

After the current player’s turn ends, the next player’s turn follows (in clockwise order).

Building a road

A road consists of portals (square-shaped fields) and platforms (circle-shaped fields) located in front of and/or behind the portal. A platform is a field where a single pawn is waiting to pass through or has exited a portal.

Portals are unidirectional. Platforms and portals are joined by connectors (arrows) that indicate the direction a pawn passes through the portal. Pawns can only move from platform to platform through a portal, therefore it is not allowed to connect a portal directly to a portal or a platform to a platform.

Figure 1. Example of elements layout on the board

A portal can be connected to at least 1 and at most 6 platforms, directly adjacent to it. Each platform on the board (except the start and CENTER platforms) must be connected to at least one portal. A platform can be connected to a portal with at most one arrow (entry/exit platforms are not allowed).

Figure 2. Examples of connections between portals and sites

A single road building move consists of placing a platform or portal on the board and connecting it with arrows to selected adjacent portals or platforms, respectively. It is up to the current player to decide which element to place and where to build the next section of the road (subject to the rules above).

In general, there is no distinction between platforms, portals and connectors of individual players. In particular, it is permissible to connect a newly created platform with a portal placed previously by the opponent. The only exception is the start platform, to which only its owner can connect a portal.

Pawn movement

Outside of a player’s turn, pawns may only reside on platforms. At most one pawn may be on a platform at any time during the game.

A single move consists of launching an active portal chosen by the player. When the portal is launched, it consumes one pawn from all the entry platforms and places one pawn on the portal’s exit platforms.

Figure 3. Launching the portal

Portal activation

A portal must be active for the move to take place. Activation happens when:

all entry platforms are occupied by the current player’s pawns, and
all exit platforms are free (no pawns standing on them).

A portal that has no exit platforms is active as long as all of its entry platforms are occupied by the current player’s pawns. Activating it removes pawns from the board and returns them to the player’s pawn pool.

Figure 4. Examples of inactive portals

If a player has the opportunity to move more than one portal in a given turn, he chooses one of them.

Figure 5. Choosing between active portals

Decreasing and increasing the number of pawns

If the number of exit platforms is less than the number of entry platforms, the excess pawns are taken off the board and put back into the player’s pawn pool.

Figure 6. Reducing the number of pawns

If the number of exit platforms is greater than the number of entry platforms, new pawns appear on the remaining platforms.

If the player does not have enough pawns in the pool to complete the portal passage, the move cannot be made.

Figure 7. Increasing the number of pawns

Launching a portal which has no exit platforms causes the pawns to be removed from the board and returned to the player’s pool.

Figure 8. Removing pawns

Launching a portal which has no entry platforms introduces new pawns from the player’s pool.

Figure 9. Introducing new pawns

Introducing a pawn to START

A pawn can also be introduced through the current player’s START platform. This platform is the only platform assigned to a particular player. Due to that, the player can only place a pawn on his starting platform and only if it is free.

Removing a pawn from CENTER

The player who in the previous turn brought a pawn of his color to the CENTER field, in the next turn removes it from the board, thus fulfilling the first victory criterion. If this pawn was the player’s last pawn on the board, the player ends the game. Otherwise the game ends when the player removes the last of his/her pawns from the board (in any way according to the rules).

The winner is the player who finishes the game first.

Removing a pawn from the CENTER is mandatory and takes precedence over other types of movement.

It is not necessary for victory that all of the player’s pawns have left the board through the CENTER. The player’s remaining pawns may do so through the portal.

Alternative rules

In order to make the gameplay more varied or dynamic, some rules may be replaced by the following alternatives. These modifications are independent of each other and can be freely combined. It is important, however, that the decision to make changes is made before the game begins.

Demons

Launching a portal that has no entry platforms causes demons (black colored pawns) to appear on its exits.

Figure 10. Appearance of demons

Demons impersonate players' pawns, thus bypassing the portal’s protections and allowing the portal to be activated. This means that each player can treat demons as their own pawns within their turn.

The difference comes when crossing the portal. Then the demons take their place on the exit platforms first, while the player’s pawns are placed on the remaining exits (if any). It is up to the player to decide which pawn is placed on which platform.

Figure 11. Demons act as player’s pawns

The player’s pawns for which there are not enough empty spaces on the starting platforms go back into the pool.

Unlike player pawns, black pawns cannot be removed from the CENTER as a result of a roll of 8. A demon can only leave the board through a portal with no exits.

More than one pawn on the board

The limitation on the number of pawns per player on a platform may be reduced (increased to 2, 3 etc.) or dropped altogether. As a result, a player’s movement will not be blocked if:

there are pawns of that player on the starting platforms and
the set restriction allows one more pawn to be placed.

Still, the following rules apply:

pawns of different players block each other’s access to the platform,
activating the portal takes away one pawn from the platform.

Game driven by dice roll

The gameplay can be enriched by a D8 die roll, which decides for a player about the kind of move to be made in the given turn:

1-3 - building a road,
4-6 - pawn movement (portal launch),
7-8 - introducing a pawn to START,
8 - removing the pawn from CENTER.

Still, the following rules apply:

one turn - one action,
making an action is mandatory,
removing a pawn from CENTER takes priority over introducing a pawn to START,
no possible action - end of turn.

Cheatsheet