Get Salty Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Key Concepts
  • Cracker Attributes
  • Salt Condition
  • In Play vs Reserve
  • Contiguous Play Area
• Gameplay
  • Player Turn
• Victory

Components

• 9 Cracker Tokens
• 1 Salt Container Token

Setup

1. Place the Salt Container token between both players with the salt side face-up.
2. Place all 9 Crackers off to the side with their unsalted side face-up. This will be referred to as the reserve.
3. Randomly select a starting player. They must choose a victory attribute, either shape or color. Their opponent will take on the other victory attribute.

Key Concepts

Cracker Attributes

Each Cracker has a shape as well as a color, and they all represent a unique combination of these two attributes. There are three different shapes and three different colors.

Salt Condition

Each token has two different sides, one showing salt and another that shows no salt. The salt condition of a token is either salty or unsalted, and it matches the side that is currently face-up. The Cracker tokens show a bite mark on their salted sides in order to make their condition easier to see.

In Play vs Reserve

Any token that has been placed during a player's turn is considered to be in play. All tokens that were set aside during setup are considered to be in the reserve.

Contiguous Play Area

The play area is defined as the space containing all tokens that are in play. The play area may never be larger than 4 tokens in either orthogonal direction. The Salt Container may be in any position within the play area.

(The printed rulebook shows a grid of valid and invalid play-area layouts, and a pair of examples of a move that keeps the tokens contiguous and one that does not, marked with a check and a cross.)

At the end of each player's turn, every token must be in a contiguous group. This means you must be able to trace a path of orthogonal adjacency from any token to any other token. During a player's turn this contiguous group may be split into one or more groups, as long as they are fully contiguous once their turn is complete.

Gameplay

Players will alternate performing turns where they must either place, move, or flip a token. The goal is to align the tokens so that three or more that share the player's victory attribute are in a line.

Player Turn

During each turn, a player must choose one of the following action options:

A. Flip Salt Container Flip the Salt Container over to its opposite side in order to change its salt condition.

B. Move & Flip Salt Container Pick up the Salt Container and place it orthogonally adjacent to any Cracker that is in play. Then, flip the Salt Container over to its opposite side in order to change its salt condition. Tokens may never be placed on top of other tokens or outside the play area.

The Salt Container cannot be flipped (A), or moved & flipped (B) if it was flipped, or moved & flipped during the previous turn.

C. Flip a Cracker Choose any Cracker in play that shows the opposite salt condition of the Salt Container. Flip the Cracker over to its opposite side in order to change its salt condition.

D. Move & Flip Cracker Choose any Cracker, either in play or in the reserve, that shows the opposite salt condition to the Salt Container. Pick this Cracker up and place it orthogonally adjacent to any other Cracker or the Salt Container. Then, flip the chosen Cracker to its opposite side in order to change its salt condition. Tokens may never be placed on top of other tokens or outside the play area.

Empty Salt Container = Move salty Crackers (bit Crackers). Filled Salt Container = Move unsalted Crackers.

Victory

At the end of each turn, the players must check for victory. If there is a vertical, horizontal, or diagonal line of three or more Crackers that share the same attribute (shape or color), then the player who has that as their victory attribute will immediately win the game.

In the event that both players have the winning condition, the player with the highest number of winning combinations wins. If there is still a tie, continue playing until one of the players has more winning combinations.

Once there are no Crackers in the reserve, the Salt Container is considered to have all attributes (3 shapes and 3 colors) for the purposes of checking for victory.

(The printed rulebook illustrates a "2 x Color" and a "3 x Shape" winning line.)