Burbuja
Burbuja Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
A standard Piecepack.
Goal
The game will be won if an almost full square of 5x5 tiles can be blown up to a hollow 7x7 square, as if it was a bubble (Spanish: burbuja), in a maximum of 24 moves.
Setup
- The tiles are shuffled, and then arranged grid-side up in a 5x5 square with a gap in its centre. Afterwards, all tiles are flipped to reveal their suit and value.
- The coins are shuffled suit-side up and piled up onto four stacks according to their suit. The top coin of each stack will be then placed in front of the stack and flipped to reveal its value.
- The pawns are placed beside the stacks of their respective colours.
Play
Choose a coin: In each turn, the player will choose one of the up to eight visible coins (i.e. the up to four number-side up coins and the up to four top coins in the stacks). This coin will determine the tile that will be moved in the turn. If the player chooses a number-side up coin and there are still coins in the stack behind it, the top coin of the stack will be flipped and placed in front of the stack. If the player chooses a coin on top of any stack, all other coins remain the same.
Move a tile: The player must move the tile that shares the coin's suit and value, placing it exactly side by side to another tile on the display. Before and after every move in the game, every single tile must touch at least one other tile side by side. After the move, the used coin will be discarded.
Pawns grant second chances: If the player can't (or does not want to) move the tile determined by the chosen coin, he/she can choose to repeat the move if they still have the pawn in the chosen suit. In that case, he/she will first place the rejected coin suit-side up at the bottom of the stack of its suit, and then remove the pawn in that suit; if the rejected coin was the one in front of the stack with its suit, the top coin of the stack will be placed there instead and turned number-side up. After this action, the player will pick one of the two visible coins in the chosen suit, move the corresponding tile and finally discard the used coin.
End of the game: If the player manages to complete a hollow 7x7 square before running out of coins, he/she wins the game. The player loses the game if he/she runs out of coins before successfully blowing up the square from 5x5 to 7x7, or if he/she can only move a tile that leaves one or more other tiles stranded (in this case the game ends abruptly).
Adjusting the difficulty of the game
The difficulty of the game can be modified increasing or reducing the amount of available second chances:
- For a more flexible game, players can substitute the pawns for one single die, which can count the amount of second chances for any suit from 4 to 0.
- For an easier game, players can substitute each pawn for the corresponding die, which can then be used to count a fixed amount of second chances for that suit.
- For a more difficult game, reduce the amount of available second chances by removing the corresponding pawns from the game.