FRIDGE (Christmas 2005)


Fridge is a game that takes place on a refrigerator. You do not need to be present when another player takes his or her turn. If you walk by the refrigerator and the triangular turn marker is next to your base then you can make a move. Because of the casual turn structure a game will take about a week or two.



SETUP
Place the four large circular bases in a square pattern on the refrigerator door. Place all the bars on the freezer door. Randomly determine who will go first. Your first move must be to place a 1-inch bar so that one end touches your base.

On your turn you do the following in order:
  • MOVE your marker. Pick up your marker (the round "puck") and move it so that it is touching the end of at least one of your bars. You cannot choose to leave it in the same place.
  • PLACE a bar. Take a bar off the freezer and attach it to your marker at any angle. You only have a limited number of bars, so choose wisely. (You have 27 bars total, divided equally into 1-inch, 2-inch and 4-inch lengths). Your bar cannot touch any other bar or marker. A 1-inch bar cannot be touching the same marker as a 4-inch bar. (This gives the paths an "acceleration" since it prevents a player from jumping from a 1-inch directly up to a 4-inch and vice-versa. To "speed up" you must first play a 1-inch bar, then a 2-inch and then a 4-inch. This works in reverse, too, if you are trying to "slow down".)
  • SCORE a point. If you crossed between 2 bars of an opponent then take one of their 1-inch bars from the freezer and put it in your base. You can also score by touching another player's base with one of your 1-inch bars. This is called infiltration and is scored at the end of the game.
  • END your turn. Move the turn marker (the triangle) near the next player's base. The game ends when no one can make a move.


  • WINNING
    At the end of the game add up your score. You get 1 point for each captured bar in your base. However, you can't count duplicate colors until you get a set of 3 different colors.

    For example, if you captured one Red and one Blue then you would score 2 points. Capturing Red-Red-Blue would also score 2 points, since you can't count the duplicate Red until you completed a set of 3 different colors. Red-Red-Blue-Yellow would count as 4, since once you get a set of 3 you can start scoring your second set.

    In addition, you score 1 point if you touched an opponent's base with one of your 1-inch bars. You score 3 points if you touched two of your opponent's bases. If you manage to touch all three of your opponent's bases (hard to do!) you score 6 points.

    Finally, there is a 1 point bonus to the player with the "longest road". This is a chain of bars that is unbroken by enemy bars. Each bar in the chain counts as 1. If there is a tie then all the tied players score the bonus point. In the picture above blue would score the bonus because he has 8 unbroken bars in a chain. (Yellow has 6, Red and Green each have 5.)

    Whoever has the most points wins!