Custodian Dice Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Objective
• Components
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • End of the Game
• Variants
  • No Jumping Variant
  • Chaos Reigns Supreme

Objective

The object of Custodian Dice is to capture enough of your opponent's pieces to render them unable to capture any of yours.

Components

• A 5x5 game board.
• 10 regular dice. 5 in each of two different colours.

Setup

1. Both players grab five dice of their own colour and roll them out onto the table.
2. The dice are then placed such that each player has a starting line of five dice on the row of the board closest to them.

Gameplay

A player's turn is broken into four simple steps:

1. Select
2. Move or Jump
3. Rotate or Flip
4. Capture

Selection. Choose one of your available pieces.

Move or Jump. Move that piece exactly as many spaces as is shown on its top face. You are not allowed to move back to a space you just left, over other pieces, or diagonally.

If however, your die is sitting next to any other die -- and there's an empty space behind it -- you can opt to jump over that die.

Note: You cannot both move and jump. It's one or the other.

Rotate or Flip. Depending on if the selected piece was moved or jumped, it must now change faces.

• If it Moved: Rotate the selected piece 90 degrees to one of its other faces, but never the opposite face. If the die showed a 6, it must be rotated to a 2, 3, 4, or 5.
• If it Jumped: Flip the selected die to its opposite face. 6 becomes 1, 2 becomes 5, 3 becomes 4 and vice versa.

Capture. Lastly, check if you can capture. Pieces in Custodian Dice capture via Custodial Capture, which means the piece you want to capture needs to be sandwiched between two of yours. If you have ever played Hnefatafl, Fidchell, or Hasami Shogi, you know exactly how this works.

Example: White moves two spaces, capturing the Black die showing 3.

Example: This is a safe move. The White die showing 2 is not captured.

Note: Moving into a position where your own piece is sandwiched does not capture it. Your opponent must make the sandwiching move.

Example of a double capture: White moves two spaces, capturing both the Black die showing 4 and the Black die showing 1.

Note: Multiple simultaneous captures are possible with a single move, if this were to create a multi-layered "sandwich".

End of the Game

The game ends as soon as one player is down to less than two dice, at which point that player loses.

Variants

Here are a few twists to the regular game for a new and interesting experience.

No Jumping Variant

If you wish for a game that involves more restrictive movement, you can try removing jumping from the repertoire of available movement options. This will make moving more cramped, and make it harder to get out of certain situations, while at the same time reducing the mental overhead of having to consider such a move.

Chaos Reigns Supreme

Instead of rotating the die to a new face after moving or jumping, roll the die. Whichever face it lands on is the face it assumes until it moves next.