*** Topic For The Week of August 21, 2023 ***

WEFTY

The Game Designed by Helen Hynson Vettori

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The game Wefty is mentioned five times in the sci-fi political thriller Black Swan Impact and may be a favorite holiday gift in the future.

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Number and Age of Players

     Wefty may be played by 2 – 4 players or teams who are 12 years and up.  Solo Wefty is played by one individual (12 years and up) but is augmented by “cloned” avatar opponent(s).  (Avatar opponent(s) are computer derived from characteristics of the solo human individual, so he or she truly plays against himself or herself.) 

OBJECT

     The object of the game is to conquer opposing kingdom(s) while also fortifying your own kingdom. 

EQUIPMENT

• Wefty game platform (electronic gameboard)  

• Wefty computer to operate images, roll dice, and provide questions

• Playing pieces – 48 soldiers, 4 heliraptors, and 4 spies

SETUP

     Each player or team will place two soldiers, one heliraptor, and one spy on their home squares in the center of their kingdoms.

The player(s) agree upon and instruct the computer to prepare questions from a single category, questions from specific categories to be generated at random, or questions from any random categories designated by the computer.

     The player or team with a birthday closest to the day of game play goes first.  Then player or teams take their turns in clockwise order.  In Solo Wefty, the human always goes first.  The avatar opponent(s) follow in clockwise turn(s).

     The computer generates the electronic playing field on the platform (gameboard) with mountains, valleys, forests, rivers, and kingdoms.  A grid overlays the projection of the miniature world.  The grid designates squares for movement of playing pieces.  The field of play will have the appropriate number of kingdoms, surrounded by vertical electronic wall beams, appropriate number of home square(s), breach squares encircling the exterior of every wall of kingdoms, four each of hidden trap and assistance squares, and clearly designated question squares appropriately scattered throughout the board.   The computer will generate the same number of question squares within each kingdom, but those squares are not exclusive to the player or team for the given kingdom.  Any piece may take advantage of a question square in any kingdom.

     Players will only discover the locations of the hidden trap or assistance squares if they land on them.  Once a hidden square has been used, the computer will reassign a replacement square with the same function elsewhere unless a spy has disabled a trap square.  Once again, the new location of the assistance square or trap square will not be apparent to the players until a piece lands on it.  

     If two players or teams oppose one another, each of their kingdoms encompass half of the playing field.  If three players or teams oppose one another, the computer will divide the board into three equally sized kingdoms.  If four players or teams oppose one another, the board is split into quadrants.  In Solo Wefty, the individual designates the total number of avatar opponent(s) the computer will operate and the game proceeds just as it would for Wefty play.

RULES AND GAME PLAY

     To begin a turn, a player or team instructs the computer to roll the dice, designating the number of spaces a player or team may move a soldier, heliraptor, or spy.  Moving to question squares should be a high priority early in the game.  Answering questions on question squares allows a player or team to take chosen actions.

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Function of Moving Pieces

     Soldiers move one direction away from its kingdom the number of rolled spaces until the player or team answers a question correctly on a question square, is freed from a trap square, uses the power of an assistance square, or lands on a breech square of the wall to a kingdom.  Players then may change the travel of soldiers to a declared forward or sideways direction, but the soldiers must maintain the route of travel until another change can be declared as previously outlined.  If trapped on a trap square, the soldier must be freed before moving again.  If a soldier lands on a square outside of a kingdom that is occupied by an opponent’s piece, the opponent’s piece must go back to the home square of its kingdom and the newly landed soldier remains on the space, ending the turn.  If a soldier lands on the home square of an opponent’s kingdom that is occupied by an opponent’s piece or pieces, the opponent’s piece or pieces is/are lost for the remainder of the game and the invading soldier may answer the question for conquering the kingdom.  (See Conquering An Opponent’s Kingdom.)

     Heliraptors may move up, down, sideways, and diagonally the number of rolled squares but only one of the chosen directions per turn.  Heliraptors also may fly over obstacles like mountains and rivers without having to use passes or bridges.  If trapped on a trap square, the heliraptor must be freed before moving again.  If a heliraptor lands on a square occupied by an opponent’s piece, the opponent’s piece must go back to the home square of its kingdom and the player or team owning that returned piece loses their next turn.  The newly landed heliraptor remains on the space, ending the turn.  If a heliraptor lands on the home square of an opponent’s kingdom that is occupied by an opponent’s piece or pieces, the opponent’s piece or pieces is/are lost for the remainder of the game and the invading heliraptor may answer the question for conquering the kingdom.  (See Conquering An Opponent’s Kingdom.)

     Spies may move the number of rolled spaces to any adjacent square(s), changing directions at any time during the move.  Unlike the other playing pieces, they will not become trapped when landing on a trap square and the function of that trap square ends for the remainder of the game.  If a spy lands on a square occupied by an opponent’s piece, the opponent’s piece must be removed from play for the remainder of the game.  The newly landed spy remains on the space, ending the turn.   If a spy lands on the home square of an opponent’s kingdom that is occupied by an opponent’s piece or pieces, the opponent’s piece or pieces is/are lost for the remainder of the game and the invading spy may answer the question for conquering the kingdom.  (See Conquering An Opponent’s Kingdom.)

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Building A Cadre of Playing Pieces

     To increase playing piece cadres during the game, players or teams may 1.) Answer questions correctly on Question Squares and chose to add one soldier to its army, 2.) Use the Assistance Square power to add one soldier to its army, 3.) Trade three soldiers to add a heliraptor, 4.) Trade six soldiers to add a spy, or 5.) Trade three soldiers and one heliraptor to add a spy.

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Question Squares

     When a player or team lands a playing piece on a question square, the player or team asks the computer to generate a question.  Having been established at the beginning, the computer will ask a question from a single category, a question from one of the categories designated by the players or teams, or a question from any category determined by the computer.  None of the player’s or team’s pieces can revisit the same square in consecutive turns.

     Correctly answering a question allows players or teams to take an additional turn and the choice to either 1.) Change direction of travel for a given piece, 2.) Build a horizontal electric beam in their defensive wall, 3.) Remove a horizontal electric beam from an opponent’s wall, 4.) Save a trapped player, or 5.) Add a soldier to its army.  The newly added soldier starts in the home square of its kingdom. 

     Incorrectly answering a question requires the players or teams to remove one horizonal electronic beam from their kingdom’s walls.  If the wall for the kingdom belonging to the player or team that missed a question does not have any horizontal beams, the turn simply ends.  If the missed question occurs when the player’s or team’s piece is in the center of an opponent’s kingdom, not only is one of its own horizontal electronic beams forfeited, but the breeching piece lost for the remainder of the game, as well.

Assistance Squares

     An assistance square is discovered only when a piece lands on it.  The player or team chooses how the power of the assistance square will be used by either 1.) Freeing a designated trapped piece, 2.) Adding a new soldier to its cadre (the new soldier starts in the center of its kingdom), or 3.) Leaps the piece to the closest question square to answer a question.

Trap Squares

     A trap square is discovered only when a piece lands on it.  The piece is stuck and lost from play unless a 1.) A piece from the same team (or allied team) lands on the square as a rescue, 2.) The player or team uses the power of an assistance square to remove the confinement, or 3.) The piece is a spy and the trap square becomes disabled for the remainder of the game.  The player or team that owns the then freed piece may move it from that space on the next turn.

Building A Kingdom Wall

     Completing the defensive wall is one of two objectives to win the game.  Opponent pieces cannot penetrate a completed electronic curtain.

     To complete the wall, players or teams must add five horizontal electronic beams by correctly answering questions and opting to do so.  A player or team must command the computer to construct the horizontal beam.  If the player(s) do(es) not make the verbal command, the opportunity to build is lost when the next dice roll occurs.

     Note: Opposing pieces may penetrate the wall when it is unfinished.  At the beginning of play, each kingdom is encircled by an uncompleted defensive electronic curtain because only the vertical electronic wall beams are in place initially. 

Conquering An Opponent’s Kingdom

     Conquering an opponent’s kingdom is one of two objectives to win the game.  When an opponent reaches the wall of an enemy kingdom by landing on a breech gateway square directly next to the wall, it may penetrate only if the electronic wall is not completed.  Further, the player or team must roll the exact number of spaces to the kingdom’s center before answering the question.  Until the player can reach the kingdom center with the exact number rolled, the playing piece may skirt the kingdom in the circling breech squares. 

     If the player or team answers the question correctly, the player or team has conquered the kingdom.  The falling kingdom game pieces become game pieces for the conquering kingdom.  If the attacking player or team answers incorrectly, the computer will automatically take that playing piece out of play for the remainder of the game and remove one horizontal electronic beam of the kingdom wall belonging to the unsuccessful conqueror unless that kingdom has none to take.

WINNING THE GAME

     Once a player or team successfully fortifies their own kingdom with a completed electronic wall and conquers the opposing kingdom(s), that player or team wins!

ADDITIONAL NOTES FOR STRATEGIC PLAY

     Players may forge and break alliances throughout the game when there are three or four players or teams.  However, the discussions for forming or breaking alliances must occur only at the beginning of the turn of one of the parties before rolling the dice, and the agreements must be made aloud.  If an alliance is struck, each ally will add one soldier to its cadre of playing pieces.  The newly added soldiers must start in the center of each of the newly allied kingdoms.  Only one player or team can win the game, so alliances must be broken before breeching the wall of an opponent’s kingdom.  The player or team breaking alliances lose(s) his/her/their soldier that was added when the alliance was struck.  However, the added soldier for the player or team removed from the alliance keep(s) the added soldier.

     Having a soldier or heliraptor successfully land on a breech gateway square directly next to the wall must occur only with an exact roll.  If the approaching soldier or heliraptor has a roll that is too great, the player or team may move a different piece elsewhere on the board or move the approaching piece to the breech gateway square and back out the number of squares left in the roll.  Spies may skirt the wall with remaining square moves, enabling it to breech on the next turn.

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