Basil Vendryes

Futility

Objective:

It doesn’t really matter what you do, in the end you’ll die anyway. But feel free to bide your time with an insignificant score accumulation.

Materials:

Player tokens (relative to the number of participants)

Grid paper

Marker

Rules:

1.       Players start in the 4 corners of the grid.

2.       Players may move up to 5 spaces in a turn. This includes diagonals and backwards

3.       There is no real objective in this game, but players may attack each other to earn points. Points may be earned in any of the following ways:

     a.       Snipe: If an opponent is within the same row/column as you and is no more than 4 spaces away, you may snipe them for 1 point. Diagonals are not valid.

     b.      Melee: If an opponent is directly next to you, you may melee them for 3 points. After a melee, an opponent is blown back 5 spaces in the opposite direction. If they hit the ends of the grid, then they stop there.

     c.       Shockwave: This can be used when multiple opponents are nearby. Shockwaves radiate out to each surrounding square around the player using it. For every opponent it hits, 1 point is earned. Opponents are blown back 1 space when hit with a shockwave.

4.       After 5 turns have transpired, lava begins to seep in from around the edges. After every player has had a turn thereafter, the outermost perimeter of squares fills with lava. This continues until the entire field has been filled.

5.       If a player lands in the lava, they lose a point every turn they are on it. If they have no points and are on the lava, they die.

6.       Contrary to the point system and survival aspect, there is no winner of this game. If there is only 1 player left on the field, they simply wait until their points reach zero to be destroyed. There is no escaping the eventual death in the game, so is there a reason to even participate in it? Why even bother playing?

7.       Yes, this is very depressing to write.