Verona Twist
Verona Twist Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
How to Win
Verona Twist is a battle of wits between Juliet's Nurse and Father, Capulet. The Nurse wins if Romeo and Juliet's identity remains hidden for 7 rounds. Capulet wins if he finds out their secret identities before time runs out.
Components
- 4 board tiles
- 6 character tokens
- 6 character tiles
- 15 character-pair tiles
- 7 calendar tiles
Preparing the Game
One player takes the role of the Nurse and the other player plays Capulet.
Place the board between the players. The Nurse takes all 6 character tokens (hereinafter characters) and places them anywhere on the board, only one per square and on its active side.
The Nurse then takes the 6 character cards, choosing 2 of them. These 2 cards represent the disguised Romeo and Juliet, and are placed face down in front of the Nurse. The rest of the character cards are placed back in the box, without being shown to Capulet!
Take the 15 pair tiles (called "the Fifteen's list") and place them next to the board. This list represents every possible combination of pairs that Romeo and Juliet may be disguised as.
Place the calendar tiles next to the board, in number order with 7 on top, showing how many rounds are left.
Flow of a Round
Each round has two phases. First the players move all the characters (phase I), followed by the Nurse's report (phase II).
I. Moving the Characters
Each character must be moved, each only once!
All characters have an active (circled) and a passive side. At the beginning of the round, flip them over to their active side (showing the character's movement symbol). Once one of them is moved, flip it over to its passive side - showing that the character was already moved this round!
In each round Capulet moves first, then players take turns at moving an active character (one that hasn't been moved in the round) onto an empty square until all characters have moved. In the event that there are no legal moves left for active characters, the round ends immediately and these characters are not moved!
II. The Nurse's Report
After moving all the characters, the Nurse reports to Capulet where the lovers are (the two characters in whose clothes she disguised Romeo and Juliet). She only reports the two hidden characters' position relative to each other by saying whether they are in the "same area" or in "different areas".
The board represents the Piazza Dei Signori divided into two distinct areas: the central area (6 dark pavements) and the edge area (14 light pavements).
Capulet then uses this information to eliminate the relevant pairs:
- If the Nurse says "same area", Capulet can eliminate all the pairs whose members are in different areas (one character is in the centre, the other on the edge).
- If the Nurse says "different areas", he can eliminate all the pairs whose members are in the same area (both characters are in the centre or both on the edge).
Elimination of the Character Pairs
In this case, if the lovers are in the same area, Capulet can eliminate the following cards, and put them back in the box. (The Prince is in a different area than the Bishop and the Friar.)
If they are in different areas, then he eliminates these.
End of the Round or End of the Game
If at the end of the round there is only one pair tile left next to the board, Capulet has identified Romeo and Juliet and wins the game.
If there are two or more pairs next to the board, then the topmost calendar tile is returned to the box. If the last calendar tile (the 1) is also returned to the box, then the game ends with the Nurse winning the game (she successfully kept the lovers' identities hidden for seven days), else a new round begins.
Recommendation: Play two consecutive games, in the second change the roles!
Moving the Characters
Princess — Any number of free squares in any direction. Can't jump over others.
Prince — One square in any direction.
Noble — Any number of free squares horizontally or vertically. Can't jump over others.
Servant — A single square horizontally or vertically.
Bishop — Any number of free squares diagonally. Can't jump over others.
Friar — Jumps to the first free square behind a character in his path. He can't jump in a direction where there is no character.
The active side shows the character's movement.