Volcano
Volcano Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Equipment
- All pyramids in the box except the Medium & Large blacks & whites
- Volcano board
Black = White
The black and white pieces have the same functions in this game, and are called Caps.
Who Starts
The player who has traveled the closest to molten lava goes first (and the closer they've been to an active volcano, the more they get to brag).
Goal
Capture 3 monochrome Trios, or 5 mixed-color Trios.
Setup
Begin by stacking all the translucent pyramids into monochrome Nests (groups of Larges atop Mediums atop Smalls). Arrange these in a randomized way on the board, with an empty space known as the Caldera located in the center of the board. When randomizing the placement of the nests, avoid putting two nests of the same color any closer together than corner-to-corner (no direct side-by-side color matching). Place a Small black piece onto each of the red nests, and a Small white piece onto each of the orange nests.
How to Play
The primary action of the game is called Erupting. The nests become mountaintops which explode, spewing molten rock in a specific direction. All eruptions begin when a Cap is moved onto another stack. The pieces that were under the cap then 'flow' out in the same direction, each new piece jumping over and landing farther away than the piece before it, continuing until the pieces run out or there's nowhere for the next piece to land, either because it would go off the edge of the board, or because there's a Cap in the way (since nothing can EVER be placed on top of a Cap).
Sample Eruption
A row of five stacks. The rightmost stack (a large teal pyramid topped with an orange Cap) erupts: the Cap moves left, and the pieces beneath it flow outward one at a time, each jumping over the next stack and landing one space farther away, until the smallest piece comes to rest at the far left of the row.
Moving Caps
The only direct action the players take in this game is to move the caps around on top of the other colored pieces. Sometimes when you move a Cap, one or more pieces beneath it will erupt. But oftentimes you can move a Cap such that no eruption occurs, in which case you get to move a Cap again (either the same one or a different one). In this way, a player can make many Cap moves in one turn, moving them around until an eruption occurs. Your turn ends as soon as one or more pieces erupt, no matter how much you moved the Caps around.
- Although Caps cannot be stacked upon, all other types of stacking are allowed. For example, it's OK to stack larger pyramids on top of smaller ones. This can create some strange-looking towers.
- You can move any number of Caps any number of times, as long as nothing erupts.
- Your turn ends when you cause an eruption of any kind, even if you fail to capture any pieces.
Legal Moves
Pieces can be moved as follows:
- Caps can be moved in any direction, including diagonally.
- Erupting pieces are all moved in the same direction as the cap that triggered the flow.
- Caps (and erupting pieces) cannot be moved beyond the edge of the board.
- Caps (and erupting pieces) can be moved into any empty space, including the space in the center (called the Caldera) which only remains empty until a piece erupts into it.
- Moving a cap out of an empty square results in no eruption, and you can keep going.
- No piece can ever land on top of a cap.
- It's OK to move a Cap back in the same direction it came from in order to cause an eruption.
Given these rules, many moves will cause no eruption because the erupting piece would either go off the board or land on a cap.
Capturing
The object of the game is to capture pieces, which is done by causing eruptions. Whenever an erupting piece lands upon a piece of its same size, you capture the erupting piece. For example, if you move a cap such that the erupting large lands upon a large, and the medium further lands upon a medium, you would remove those two pieces from the board and set them in front of you. Only the topmost piece can be matched by the erupting piece to make a capture.
Turn Summary
Move a Cap. If this does NOT cause an eruption, move a Cap again until it does. Then, collect captured pieces.
Power Play Option
At any time before you cause an eruption, you may choose to give up one of the pieces you'd previously captured, and put it back onto the board. This is called a Power Play. Doing this allows the player to alter the landscape and thus enable captures not otherwise available.
How to Win
You must collect three monochrome Trios, or five mixed-color Trios. Extra pieces in your collection do not matter, nor does the order in which you captured them. You can freely rearrange the pyramids you've collected into different groups as you build your sets.
Other Notes
Historical Notes
Technically, this is a variant of Volcano known as Fiesta Caldera. The original game was played with a different mix of pyramids, had a different victory condition, and didn't include the Power Play Option. But even so, we decided to call this Volcano, since it's basically Volcano 3.0 and we like the original name best.