Ascension Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Description
  • Number of Players
  • Components
  • Setup
• Goal of the Game
• Playing the Game
  • The First Pawn to the Top
• Restrictions on Moving Pieces
  • Symbols

Description

Number of Players

For two, three or four players (or more, in teams). Each player is represented by a geometric shape: a star, a triangle, a square or a circle.

Components

• A square box whose lid is a screen-printed 9x9 grid. The hollow central square allows the central pillar to be inserted. The four corner squares each represent one of the four geometric shapes.
• A central pillar 4 and a half cubes high.
• 76 cubes:
  • 36 neutral cubes (no symbol)
  • 8 cubes with one shape (2 x 4 shapes)
  • 12 cubes with two shapes (2 x 6 pairs of shapes)
  • 8 cubes with three shapes (2 x 4 trios of shapes)
  • 12 special cubes: 3 cable cars, 2 ladders, 2 mattresses, 2 springs, 2 chasms, 1 bivouac
• 17 half-cubes:
  • 8 neutral half-cubes (no symbol)
  • 8 half-cubes with one shape (2 x 4 shapes)
  • 1 half-cube with a dragon (the joker)
• 4 cylindrical pawns marked with geometric shapes.

Setup

• The central pillar is placed in the centre of the game board.
• All cubes are placed at random, flat on the board, but the faces bearing drawings must be underneath each cube, not visible. They occupy all the squares of the grid except the corner squares.
• Each player has two half-cubes marked with the same shape as his pawn and two neutral half-cubes. These pieces will be used during the game. In a two- or three-player game, the undistributed pieces are not used.
• The corner squares of the board receive the pawns bearing the matching shapes.
• The joker will be used later.

Goal of the Game

Reach the top of the central pillar with your pawn, then return to your starting square, despite the opposition of the other players.

To do this, you must build, using cubes and half-cubes, a staircase-type structure that will allow your pawn to progress.

Playing the Game

Players take turns, for example clockwise.

Warning! In a single turn you must make two moves, one after the other:

• first, you must move one cube or half-cube;
• second, you must move your pawn.

Once both moves are made, you pass your turn to the next player.

Moving a cube or half-cube: the player chooses any cube or half-cube on the board, provided it is not covered by another piece, and places it wherever he wishes.

He may also place a half-cube taken from his reserve. From then on, the half-cube that has been introduced may not be removed from the game, and neither may any other piece.

Moving a pawn: the player moves his pawn from one square to an adjacent square, either by a side or by a corner. He may also go up or down, but only by half the height of a cube (see diagram).

[Diagram: example of the beginning of a game, captioned "And the ascent begins..."]

Warning! If at any moment the pawn can no longer move (an impassable height difference, opposing shapes, an occupied square, a chasm), it is immediately returned to its starting square.

A pawn is blocked only when the player has moved a cube or half-cube that did not get it out of trouble. Whatever happens, a cube must be moved.

[Diagram: blocked situation]

A pawn can be blocked only once; on the second blocking it is eliminated (two starts in all).

The First Pawn to the Top

The player who first reaches the top of the central pillar, whether the pillar has been raised or not, must return to his starting square. He then enjoys two advantages:

• he plays again after each other player: three times in a four-player game, twice in a three-player game (in a two-player game nothing changes);
• he has the joker, a half-cube that only he has the right to place. It cannot be covered, cannot be moved, and may be used only once. This is unlike the other cubes and half-cubes.

At this point in the game, the other players try to counter his descent while trying to reach the top themselves, in the hope that the first player will be blocked before returning to "camp". If he is indeed stuck during his descent, he loses all the benefits of his position and returns to his starting square without having won. The joker is then removed from the game. The advantages (turn order and joker) then pass to the second player to reach the summit.

Any pawn that reaches the top after the first one prevents the first one from playing again after it, unless it is that pawn's normal turn. (If all the pawns have reached the summit, the first player plays only once per turn.)

To win, the pawn must return to its starting square, but not necessarily to its starting level, since several cubes or half-cubes bearing its geometric shape may have been stacked there.

Any pawn may win once it is back at its camp, whatever the order in which the pawns reached the summit.

Restrictions on Moving Pieces

When you draw a cube, look at whether its hidden face shows a drawing: a geometric shape (triangle, circle, square, star) or a symbol (ladder, mattress, cable car, bivouac, spring, chasm). This information is personal to you.

If the cube shows a drawing, you may place it either revealing the drawing or hiding it again. (In that case it is useful to memorise the drawing and the position of the cube.) A cube whose drawn face is hidden is treated as an ordinary cube.

Warning! If the drawn face of a cube is visible, it must be hidden again at the next move of that piece.

• Half-cubes do not follow this rule; they must always be placed with their printed face visible (if they have one).
• During the game, printed faces gradually appear on the board. A player may move onto, or place a piece onto, a piece bearing geometric shape(s) only if his own shape is shown on it.

For example: a player with the triangle cannot use a piece on which the face showing a star, a circle and a square is visible.

Symbols

• Ladder: the pawn standing on its drawing may climb the height of one whole cube with its next move, if the opportunity arises.
• Mattress: the reverse of the ladder; the pawn may descend onto it by the height of one whole cube.
• Spring: the pawn that lands on it may play again by one square.
• Cable car: the pawn that lands on its drawing may pass directly, on its next move, to another cable-car square that has been made visible.
• Bivouac: any pawn on it must stay there for one turn only.
• Chasm: no pawn may go onto it, but the cube may be moved by all players (after the player who placed it has played again).

Warning:

• You move a piece; that piece may not be moved by your opponents until you have played again.
• Two pawns may not occupy the same square.
• The central pillar: its height may be increased only by the height of a single piece, a cube or half-cube, which must bear neither a symbol nor a visible geometric shape. (A pawn is considered to have reached the summit if it is on the pillar or on this piece.)
• Only pieces bearing the geometric shape of that corner square may be stacked on the corner squares.
• A pawn may not be blocked on its corner square at the start.
• Any cube or half-cube may be covered, even if it shows visible symbols, except the joker.