Pentaquark Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Goal
• Setup
  • Field of Play
• Key Terms
• Gameplay
  • Beam Phase
  • Collider Phase
  • Refresh Phase
  • Annihilate
• Winning the Game
  • Example of a Winning Set
• Losing the Game
• Quick Reference
• Credits

Contents

• 15 Quark Cards (5 flavors in each of 3 colors)
• 3 Annihilate Cards

Goal

Detect a Pentaquark before too many quarks are annihilated.

Setup

1. Create the Beam Deck by shuffling the 15 Quark Cards together.
2. Cut the deck roughly in half, and flip one half to the reverse side. Shuffle the halves together and place to the left of the play area.
3. Place the 3 Annihilate Cards off to the side, to the left of the Beam Deck.

Field of Play

• Background — a play area for confined quarks.
• Annihilated — the pile for quarks removed from the game.
• Beam — the Beam Deck, place to the left of the Collider.
• Collider — where cards from the Beam are placed each turn.
• Discard — the discard pile, to the right of the Collider.
• Detector — the pentagonal play area where quarks are collected to assemble a Pentaquark.

Key Terms

Color Confinement: A quark is considered "confined" if it can be grouped in one of the following ways:

• Three quarks consisting of one red, green and blue.
• Three quarks consisting of one anti-red, anti-green, and anti-blue.
• Two quarks consisting of one color and its anti-color.

Free Quark: Any quark in the Detector or Background that is not confined.

Annihilate: A quark is removed from the game by placing in the Annihilated pile. This can occur for one of the following reasons:

• An Annihilate Card is drawn from the Beam Deck.
• A quark & its anti-quark are both present and free at the same location (Detector or Background).

Flavor: The type of quark.

• Up
• Down
• Charm
• Bottom
• Strange

Gameplay

Each turn has two phases, the Beam Phase and the Collider Phase. When the Beam deck runs out, you will also perform a Refresh Phase.

Beam Phase

Place 3 cards from the Beam Deck into the Collider.

Note: Cards are not flipped when placed in the Collider, so the top card of the Beam will be the first card placed next turn.

Collider Phase

Distribute one card to each of the different play areas in the following order:

1. Background
2. Detector
3. Discard

If there are not enough cards in the Collider to complete a step, it is skipped.

At any time during the Collider phase, you may confine free quarks by putting them in the appropriate sets. You may rearrange these quarks freely, even if they were previously confined.

Refresh Phase

Once the Beam Deck is empty, perform the following steps:

1. Discard all free quarks at the Detector. You may then optionally discard any additional quarks as you see fit. (Note: this will remove the confinement, and that's ok)
2. Discard all of the confined quarks in the Background.
3. Annihilate the remaining free quarks.
4. Check for the loss condition.
5. Add 1 Annihilate Card to the Discard pile, then shuffle and flip the deck, creating a new Beam Deck.

Annihilate

When an Annihilate Card (these are considered Event Cards) is revealed during the Beam Phase, a free quark must be Annihilated and removed from the game before continuing with the Collider Phase. The Annihilate Card is then discarded. (If there are no free quarks, ignore the Annihilate Card.)

Winning the Game

The game ends immediately if you assemble a set of 5 quarks at the Detector consisting of 2 Up quarks, 1 Down, 1 Charm, and 1 Anti-Charm with the color confinement: red, green and blue and any one color and it's anti-color.

Example of a Winning Set

Blue-Up, Red-Up, Blue-Down, Green-Charm, Anti-Blue-Anti-Charm.

Losing the Game

The game ends immediately if 2 Up quarks, 2 Charm quarks, or 3 Down quarks are Annihilated. You may also end the game if you realize the correct colors required to confine a Pentaquark are no longer in the Beam Deck.

Quick Reference

Beam Phase Place 3 cards in the Collider.

Collider Phase Move one card to each of the following, in the order below:

1. Background
2. Detector
3. Discard Repeat until the deck runs out.

Refresh Phase Discard free quarks at the Detector. Discard confined quarks in Background. Annihilate remaining free quarks. Check for loss condition. Add 1 Annihilate, then shuffle & flip the Deck.

Win Condition

• Quarks: Up, Up, Down, Charm, Anti-Charm
• Colors: Red, Green, Blue, & any color & it's anti-color.

Credits

• Design: Mike Mullins
• Art: Fabrice Weiss
• 2016 Button Shy Games
• Rules questions? Visit buttonshygames.com