Common Blokus Variants

· Teams

Difficulty:

Tag Team, back again! You can play Blokus with 4 individual players or with 2 teams of 2 people each. When playing teams, your teammate is the person sitting directly opposite you. At the end of the game, you add up the number of remaining squares of each teammate and that is the combined total for that team (lowest score wins).

Tips:

While not required, it is strongly encouraged to make up creative team names for different combinations of people. This makes it easier to challenge rematches of opposing teams.

Sample team names from our co-worker group:

*Team Smacktalk* (Scott & Hal)	Born with a lovable condition which makes them unable to shut up, the strategy of this team is to goad the opposing team that they may become so cross as to make a mistake. Now go away or we shall taunt you a second time!
*Team No Talk* (Chris & David)	This dynamic duo has the superstitious belief that by not talking to their teammate, it makes them play better. (It doesn’t.)
*Team Hourglass* (Henry & Rajesh)	The dangerous combination of 2 people who take too long to move. One person is infamous for thinking about their moves too long, while the other person is spatially-challenged and claims he is “just practicing” during his move.
*Team iDraw* (David & Rajesh)	David, an actual artist, loves to draw pictures on his co-workers’ whiteboards. Rajesh, a not-so-much-artist, loves to take credit for David’s pictures by writing “Rajesh drew this” above each of the artworks. This has become so prevalent that 3 out of 10 countries now believe that Rajesh is responsible for Michelangelo’s “David.”
*Girls Team* (Jennifer & Chris; also, anyone who pairs with Jennifer)	The original Spice Girls. Girl Power!
*Team Run-Amok* (Jason & Chris)	One person literally runs marathons for fun; the other repeatedly breaks his leg just by running around the block.

Special Moves:

Losing Blokus Focus – A highly contagious condition which causes a teammate to lose focus and let their opponents escape through a narrow passage after almost certain doom.

Backstabbing – Especially satisfying, you can opt to backstab your own teammate midway through or near the end of the game. While this doesn’t help your overall team score, it does provide a high value of entertainment. This is often called the “Scorpion” move, after the children’s tale of a scorpion who bites a fox that’s carrying him across a river, causing them both to drown. When asked why, the scorpion replied, “It’s in my nature.” This move was popularized by Chris, the “Scorpion King.”

· Passing Pieces

Difficulty:

Normally, each player in Blokus or Blokus Trigon uses pieces of a single color. In this variation, each player passes a few pieces to other players before the beginning of the game. Each player will now have some pieces of different colors and is now responsible for playing all of the pieces assigned to him or her. You may pass any piece you want, although it’s generally a good idea to pass your largest pieces since they will count against you at the end of the game if you’re still holding onto them. You can vary the number of pieces passed and to whom they should be passed. After lots of play testing, we have found that it’s best to pass no more than 1-2 pieces to each person. You can play this with or without teams.

For example:

§ Everyone pass 2 pieces to everyone else. (This means each player will have 6 pieces of colors different than their own; 2 pieces from each of the other 3 players.)

§ Everyone pass 1 piece but only to your teammate, assuming you’re playing teams.

§ Everyone pass all pieces of your largest size to the player on your left. In Blokus, this would mean passing all pieces with 5 squares. In Trigon, you would pass all pieces with 6 triangles. This means that each player will have exactly 2 colors. This is also known as the “Behind Enemy Lines” variant, since each player is fighting for and against 2 colors.

At the end of the game, each player or team adds up the score of all of the pieces that remain in their pile, regardless of what color they are. Lowest score wins.

Strategies:

Passing pieces leads to some very interesting strategic opportunities. This is easy to learn, but hard to master. By having 1 or 2 pieces of an opponent’s color, you’ll need to “dump” those pieces before completely shutting that opponent out. You can also play an opponent’s piece in a highly disadvantageous way for them. This may prevent them from getting through to a particular area, waste valuable space, or create a path for you and other colors to invade.

Likewise, if you’re playing teams, you can help your teammate who’s getting blocked in by playing their color on your turn. This is effectively equivalent to the same color getting to play twice on the same round. Of course, your opposing team can do the same as well!

History:

Origin of super powers—It was a Tuesday. Amarillo’s day. We opened the Blokus box to find that many of the colored pieces had spilled over into the other compartments. “Hey, what if we played like that?! Let’s just pass pieces to everybody!”

· Treasure

Difficulty:

At the beginning of the game of either Blokus or Trigon, each player starts in a corner and designates a shape that they want to be their “treasure.” Typically, the treasure must be a shape that fits EXACTLY one and only one piece of the largest size. Each player plays 3 pieces at once before the game begins to carve out a space for their treasure shape. You must leave at least one possible entrance for other players to get to the treasure. Leaving 2 or 3 entrances to each treasure is recommended because it spurs competition between the other players to race for your treasure. The 3 pieces you use to form an outline of your treasure shape then becomes your starting point for the beginning of the game.

At the end of the game, add up the score for all of your leftover pieces normally. Deduct 10 points from your score for each opponent’s treasure you claimed with the correct piece. Deduct 5 points from your score if you claimed an opponent’s treasure with a smaller piece than the shape designated (ex. playing a Trigon piece with 4 triangles into a treasure space that had 6 triangles). Lowest score wins.

It is against the rules to “spoil” your own treasure shape to prevent someone from reaching it by playing a smaller piece of your own color inside it. Such behavior is bad form and your opponents will taunt you verily. The only times you’re allowed to play in your own treasure site is if it’s impossible for other players to reach it with their remaining pieces OR if you have no other legal moves left.

Tips:

It’s helpful when creating your treasures if everyone tells the other players which shape will be their treasure piece. That lets the other players set that piece aside so they won’t accidentally use it as part of the formation of their own treasure shape in the first 3 moves.

You don’t have to use all 3 pieces to form your treasure. Some treasure shapes require 2 pieces to form an outline against a corner of the board, while other treasure shapes require 3 pieces to form an outline. If you can create your treasure shape in only 2 pieces, you can use your third piece to branch off in a different direction. However, all players must play 3 pieces before the treasure hunt can begin.

You are certainly allowed to defend your own treasure site and make it difficult to reach, but in fairness try not to make it impossible for others to obtain. However, it’s legal and even encouraged to try and block opponents from reaching a treasure that you’re also seeking. You may want to leave multiple entrances to your treasure site so that you can expand while others are distracted by seeking your treasure.

History:

One day while playing the regular square Blokus game, Scott started off by using 2 pieces to form an empty square in the corner. Scott then challenged Hal, his fellow Team Smacktalk cohort, that he couldn’t get the “treasure.” Even with all of the other players forming blockades, Hal dodged poison darts and rolling boulders to get the Treasure and, thus, a variant was born.

It’s not uncommon for Chris, the “Scorpion King,” to diabolically force a situation where his only legal move is to spoil his own treasure, or for Rajesh to act like he’s going to spoil it when he’s really “just practicing.”