Match'n Lock! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Content
• Game Setup
• Game Rules
• Use of Wild Cards
• Stalemate Resolution
• One Player Game

Game Content

• 1 board game (made of 64 circular holes)
• 1 black bag (used for the multi-colored tokens)
• 66 multi-colored tokens
• 20 tokens blue player
• 20 tokens green player
• 20 tokens yellow player
• 20 tokens red player
• 1 scoreboard

Game Setup

1. Place the game board.
2. All multi-colored checkers must be placed in the black bag.
3. Players (2 to 4) choose single-color checkers (blue, green, yellow, red).
4. Each player is placed on one of the 4 sides of the board.
5. In turn, players draw a multi-colored checker from the black bag, who takes the checker with the highest value begins the game. The other players will follow clockwise.
6. In the event that 2 or more players score the same score, they will extract from the bag another multicolored checker each. This is repeated until there is a player who gets the highest number.
7. Once the above mentioned phase has been completed, the used multicolored pieces must be put back in the black bag.

Now the game begins!

Game Rules

1. The aim of the players is to earn as many points as possible, making combinations of their own color with the multicolored checkers on the board.
2. Each multi-colored checker can be worth 5, 10, 15 or 20 points, this value is shown on each of them.
3. A round ends when all players, in the predetermined order, have played their turn.

Each multicolored checker (fig. 1) is marked with a number in the center and shows 2 to 4 different colors. These "segments" of color will be used to build circles of only one color, through the placement or rotation of the checkers.

Each time a player, with one or more multi-colored checkers, gets a full circle of their own color, places in the center a checker of the corresponding color, blocking the movement and gaining all the points of the multicolored checkers involved.

To earn points, players can take one of these actions:

• they can place on the board (always in their own way of reading) a multicolored checker taken at random from the black bag.
• can rotate another one, already present, of 90 times clockwise or counterclockwise (fig. 2a and fig. 2b). (The printed text gives "90 times" without the degree sign; the Italian and Spanish editions of the same manual read 90°.)

Players must be very careful which moves they decide to make, because these could trigger color combinations in favor of others. When a player creates a circle of another participant color, even if its not he's turn, the other player places hes own color token blocking any movement from the multi-colored token involved and scoring all the points.

Note: even in games of 2 or 3 players, when you make one or more combinations of multicolored checkers of a color that does not belong to any player, it is still mandatory to place on the board the checkers of the corresponding color, as if that player was present.

The game ends when one of the players, during his turn, places on the board the last multicolored checker. Players count the points they have scored with combinations of multicolored checkers blocked by their own color.

The player with the most points wins.

Use of Wild Cards

The checkers with multicolored wild segments (fig. 2c) allow you to close a circle of your color, going to replace the missing color. They can be worth 0 or 5 points.

Stalemate Resolution

In the event that 2 players compete for a multicolored checker present on the board, rotating it in their turn in opposite directions for at least two laps, one of the players involved, at their turn, can declare the stall of the aforementioned checker.

At this point the player in turn, instead of one of the two conventional moves, can randomly draw another multicolored checker from the bag and place it, always in its reading sense, in place of the offending checker. The piece just removed goes back in the bag.

Note: in no other case is allowed to withdraw from the board the already played multicolored checkers.

One Player Game

The player, after choosing the color of their checkers (red, blue, green or yellow), can only draw randomly from the black bag the multicolored checkers and place them at his choice on the board one at a time, always with the numbers facing him (in his sense of reading) with the intent to create combinations of his own color.

The player, under no circumstances, can move or rotate the multicolored checkers after placing them on the board. If the player mistakenly makes combinations that form circles of other colors, he must place the pieces of the matching color on them. The game ends when the last multicolored checker is placed.

The player wins the game if his one-color combinations total more points than the sum of the other one-color combinations. The player loses the game if he totals a number of points equal to or less than the sum of the combinations belonging to the other colors.