IceHouse- A Boardless Abstract Strategy Game
Created | Updated Aug 28, 2002
IceHouse is a game by Looney Labs. It is more a game system than a game; the box contains lots of little translucent square pyraminds and a rulebook1. However, the rules are largely ignored as people make their own games.
The Origin
Icehouse Pieces were never meant to be at all. They were developed by Andrew Looney- in a book he wrote.According to his website at www.looneylabs.com, the main characters in the book were originally card-players. Later, to add interest, he exchanged the cards for small pyramids used to play a weird turnless game.
They were nothing more than a plot device, sort of like Harry Potter's "Quidditch" or several of the games played in "Star Trek."
Well, that was the plan, anyway.
Now, several years later, Looney Labs makes several card games- and these boxes of fifteen little plastic pyramids...
The Pyramids
Included in each comlete set is four sets of Icehouse pieces. Each piece looks like a small pyramid with a hollow base2. One's immediate inclination is to build something with them; this is encouraged. One's second inclination is to fall asleep after hours of building; this is not encouraged, as if you fall face forward you will have several little plastic pyramids painfully stuck in your face3 when you wake up.
The hollow pyramids come in three sizes: Large, Medium, and Small. Small pyramids fit perfectly within the Medium ones, and the Medium pyramids fit exactly within the Large. The resulting flat base comes in quite useful for several variants involving a checkerboard.
The Games
There are many games that can be played with Icehouse pieces; this Entry will not try to describe all of them, as there are hundereds. Complete rules to all known Icehouse games can be found at S.L.I.C.K.- the Sortable List of Icehouse's Cool Kindered. This entry will describe a few of the games.
The Original Game
Usually just called "IceHouse," this is a very unusual game compared to the other games availible in the world at large. However, a lot of its concepts- most notably, "no board" and "no turns," are very common to Icehouse games in general.
In this game of chaos and diplomacy, you must place your pieces so that you are ahead on points and have a better tactical position when all pieces are played or time is called. Points are scored from successful attacks- pieces laying down ("attackers") pointing at standing pieces ("defenders") of opposing color, such that there are more "points4" of pyramids attacking than on the defender they are attacking.
So why would you want defenders- cannon fodder- at all?
Because your first two pieces have to be defenders, and if you've used more than half of your pieces and all of your defenders are attacked5, then you immediately lose the game. Ouch.
Strategies are varied, and shift. Frequently. Within 30-second periods. Sometimes the game is almost a contact sport with people trying to get a pyramid in a location- before anyone else can; at other times, the players just sit, glaring at each other, daring their opponents to make a move...
This is probably one of the most complicated games, but it used to be all there was. But soon, more games were made...
IceTowers
This game is sometimes called, in jest, the "Duh" game, as it is the simplest of the basic Icehouse games6. This, too, is a turnless, boardless game. All the pieces are placed standing up on a table, in a relatively random position. Then players, whenever they feel like, grab a single piece that's not on or under anything and stack it on any other piece of the same size or smaller, making that tower theirs.
Of course, it's not that simple. When two or more or your pieces are in the middle of a tower, you can remove one of them. If two pieces of the same color are together in a pile, you can split the pile in half at that point. When no more moves can be made, points are tallied.
Zendo
On the other end of the spectrum, Zendo is the Icehouse game that takes the most thought. One player is chosen to be the "master," and creates a well defined rule that states what constructions are said to "have the buddha-nature." By creating "koans7," constructions of pieces, and finding out whether or not they have the "buddha-nature," players must try to discover the secret rule. The rule can be as simple as "A koan has the buddha-nature if it has at least two red pieces" or as complex as "A koan has the buddha-nature if the total pip-count of its weird blue pyramids is greater than the pip-count of all red pyramids that are pointing straight up, and there must be one such pyramid in a koan." Problems occasionally crop up with imperfectly designed rules, however. Ambiguities are easy to create if you are not careful.
And save the rules like "A koan has the buddha-nature if and only if the pip-count of the red pieces is divisible by the number of pieces placed weird" for when you get good at the game.
Martian Chess
This game is turn based, and played on a chess board. Unlike "real" chess, piece color doesn't matter; all pieces on your quadrant of the board belong to you. The idea is to gain points by capturing opponents' pieces, but whenever you make a capture, you have to cross the boundary to your opponent- thereby giving him/her/it the piece...
RGB
In RGB, a barbaric game played on a chessboard, you're trying to kill your opponent's children8. You control an army of RGBs- alien creatures with three distinct layers of thought, and they lose one layer (and an ability) if they are attacked. For example, children must remain next to a piece which still has the green "sustenance" layer, or the child starves. Children can be created if the spare pieces exist, but only by one male and one female- both with the blue "reproduction" layer. And attacks can only be carried out by pieces with the red "destruction" layer. RGB bears a few similarities to chess, but not as many as you might think.
Epicycle
Epicycle is an unusual game- even for an Icehouse set. It uses only one stash of pieces. In this two player game, you are attempting to stick your opponent with no legal play, or with three pieces of the same size. The playing board is nine pieces arranged in most of a circle: ten pieces with their points all facing each other make a circle, as the top angle of an Icehouse piece is approximately 36 degrees. Therefore, with nine pieces, there is one gap.
The entire game revolves around this gap. You place a piece in the gap, and take away a nearby piece into your personal stash9, following rather strict rules to do so. If you have no legal play, you lose. You also lose if you have all three pieces the same size.
The game seems simple on the surface, but the strategies are approximately as complex as those in a game of checkers.
Rotationary
This game is one of very few "solitaire" games. Compared favorably to a rubix cube, Rotationary is played with one stash arranged in most of
a 4x4 square. All pieces are laying down, and your move consists of turning one of them- but every turn causes a "chain reaction," where the piece you end up pointing to is also turned, and this may continue for several steps, depending upon the size of the original piece.
The object is to make all the pieces face one direction- a difficult task when playing the Basic game, and impossible half the time in the Advanced game!
Everything Else
There are many more games than this, however, I lack space to describe them all. A small sampling:
- IceTraders
- HomeWorlds
- Volcano
- RAMbots
- Martian Backgammon
- Battle Zone
- Pikemen
- etc...
Obtaining
Icehouse pieces can be bought, according to color, by the stash at the Looney Labs website. Gaming and hobby shops might also have the pieces; you are unlikely to find them at a department store, however.
Conclusion
For those who like abstract strategy, those who like games, or those who like thinking at all, Icehouse is a truly facinating way to pass time, because of its large number of options and variants. It may or may not be superior to other forms of entertainment, but it is extremely portable. Overall, Icehouse is a complete innovation in game design- seeing the pieces in a different way.
1Or it used to. Now that the Internet is as big as it is, you buy pyramids by the "stash"- a one-player set of pieces, rules not included. The rules are online.2In the newer sets. Older sets are folded cardboard or wood, with a solid base. Without stackability, play options are more limited with these.3There is actually one game where you try to do this while drunk; however, nobody has been stupid/masochistic enough to try it.4Not the tips of the pyramids- a score given to a pyramid based on its size.5For some reason, this is known of as "icing," even in the directions. A successfully attacked defender is said to be "iced."6A game is considered "basic" if it is included in the book "Playing with Pyramids," availible for $12.95 US from Looney Labs.7In real zen, a koan is a meaningless question, such as "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"8I told you it was barbaric.9Stash is the general Icehouse term for stored pieces. In this case, you will have exactly three pieces after any given turn.
