Passo
Passo Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Base Game Rules
Passo is a 2-player game.
Components
- 25 board tiles
- 10 wooden discs (5 of each colour)
- 12 power tokens (6 of each colour)
Goal of the Game
Be the first to move past your opponent's disc that's furthest away from you OR be the last player able to move.
Setup
Put the board tiles together to create a 5x5 grid in the middle of the table. Each player chooses a colour. Take the 5 discs of your colour and place them in a line on the first row on your side of the board. Then choose the first player.
How to Play
- On your turn, you must move 1 of your discs to an adjacent tile.
You can move your disc orthogonally and diagonally in any direction, including backwards. You can even move your disc onto a tile that is already occupied by 1 or 2 other discs. If the tile is occupied, simply place your disc on top of the others.
If there is a disc on top of yours, your disc is blocked and cannot be moved. Only the disc at the top of the stack may be moved.
Note: each stack can only contain a maximum of 3 discs.
- Take note of the tile your disc is on before moving; this is called its 'start tile'. After you have moved your disc, remove its start tile from the game, if there are no other discs on it. If there is still a disc on the start tile, do not remove the tile.
If a tile becomes completely isolated orthogonally and diagonally from the other tiles, remove it from the game. This applies even if there are discs on the tile. Remove these discs from the game too.
Example: the tile at the top left is completely isolated orthogonally and diagonally. It is therefore removed from the game. The disc on the tile is also removed, since it is not able to move anywhere.
Note: any tiles that form an 'island', with discs that are still able to move, remain in play. Only remove the island when it has been reduced to 1 tile.
Example: the island of 2 tiles at the top left remains in play, because the red player is still able to move their disc.
End of the Game
There are 2 ways to win the game:
- The player who manages to move past their opponent's disc closest to their opponent wins. Moving past this final disc is possible even if there's no available square behind it. In that case, you move 'off the board'.
- Be the last player able to move a disc. If your opponent cannot move, you win.
Where is my opponent's back row?
Example 1 (diagram): Row that Black needs to move past; row that Red needs to move past.
Example 2 (diagram): Black was trying to move past a row and was blocked by Red. Black now needs to move past the new row indicated. Row that Red needs to move past.
Example 3 (diagram): Winning move: it's Black's turn, they win by moving past the two last red discs.
Advanced Rules
Once you are used to the base game, give these advanced rules a try! Most of the base game rules stay the same, except for the following changes:
During setup, you also receive 6 power tokens of your colour. Secretly choose 3 of these and place them face down in front of you. You can also choose to play with the power tokens visible for even more strategy. Return the other 3 tokens to the box.
On your turn, you may use one of your power tokens. This power applies to one of your discs until the end of your turn. You can only use a power token once. After you have used it, remove the token from the game.
Power Tokens
The tokens are identified by icon in the rulebook (icons not reproduced in text); the six powers are:
- You can move this disc onto a tile where there is already a stack of 3 discs.
- You can move this disc twice.
- If you move a disc that's on top of a stack, it carries along all the discs below it.
- This disc can jump over a gap of 1 missing tile to land on the next tile in that direction.
- After you move this disc, do not remove its start tile.
- Place a tile that was previously removed from the game back onto an empty space of the original 5x5 grid, then move one of your discs onto it. Note: the disc must be moved to this new tile according to the normal movement rules; i.e. it must be moved from an orthogonally or diagonally adjacent tile.