Thief of the Sacred Fire

On the Paizo site on this German site

Game Title: Thief of the Sacred Fire
Publish Game: Soon
Summary: To add a blessing to your village, you wish to light its Sacred Fire from the most mystic of all - that kept at Stonehenge itself. However, the druids guard it fiercely and do not let any wandering villager near their flames. All that can be done is to sneak in the dead of night and smuggle out what you can, hoping not to be caught.
Game Type: Sports
Author Name: Peter Cobcroft
Author Notes: A solo game for as many elements as I could think of to use, because it hasn't been done yet. Inspired by the correlation between left/right and day/night and what I'd seen done in racing games. But mostly because I like thief type games

Number of players: 1 Object of the game: To enter the innermost circle of Stonehenge and steal the Sacred Fire without being caught by wandering Druids.

Equipment:

• Stonehenge board
• All 5 trilithon cards
• All 60 Number cards
• All 5 Druid figures
• The neutral Druid figure
• 4 bars of each colour
• All 50 coloured disks
• All 5 trilithons

Setup:

1. Place all trilithons on the appropriate board spaces. Place a disk of each colour on the capstone of each trilithon, these disks represent possible locations for the Sacred Fire to be on the night you choose to steal it from Stonehenge.
2. For each of the five coloured druid figures, place them on the night small stones at the numbers 5, 9, 16, 22 and 26. Draw a random number card for each druid and move that druid according to the rules below (see Movement in the Playing the Game section). Then reshuffle the cards back into the deck.

• The outer ring is divided into three sub rings:
  • The Light ring, representing the ring closest to the Sacred Fire but outside the inner ring. This ring contains the numbers.
  • The Shadow ring, representing the area further from the Sacred Fire that is badly lit. This ring contains the colours.
  • The Darkness ring, representing the unlit expanse outside of Stonehenge that is difficult to travel because of the lack of light. This ring is the outermost and is unnumbered and uncoloured save in alternate white patches.

1. Place the neutral druid figure, which represents you, on the Darkness ring at the number 30 or number 1 position. This is where you approach Stonehenge.Place the bars in the same positions as the purple bars shown in this diagram
   Place the druids on the red circled inner
2. Take 2 bars of the each colour and place them on the inner ring between the the night and day small stones according to which colour the disk on the closest trilithon capstone is. These bars represent the paths to each trilithon. Counting clockwise from the 12 o'clock position :-
   • Trilithon 1: between 5 day and 6 night, and between 7 day and 8 night.
   • Trilithon 2: between 9 day and 10 night, and between 11 day and 12 night.
   • Trilithon 3: between 14 day and 15 night, and between 16 day and 17 night.
   • Trilithon 4: between 19 day and 20 night, and between 21 day and 22 night.
   • Trilithon 5: between 23 day and 24 night, and between 25 day and 26 night.
3. Take 2 bars of the each colour and place them on the bluestone ring between the the bluestones according to which colour the disk on the closest trilithon capstone is. These bars represent the views of the inner patrolling druid to each trilithon. Counting clockwise from the 12 o'clock position :-
   • Trilithon 1: before the 1st bluestone, and between the 3rd and 4th bluestone.
   • Trilithon 2: between the 5th and 6th bluestone, and between the 7th and 8th bluestone.
   • Trilithon 3: between the 8th and 9th bluestone, and between the 11th and 12th bluestone.
   • Trilithon 4: between the 12th and 13th bluestone, and between the 14th and 15th bluestone.
   • Trilithon 5: between the 16th and 17th bluestone, and after the last (19th) bluestone.

With a night cloaked jar to contain your stolen part of the Sacred Fire, you prepare to enter Stonehenge, hoping that the Sacred Fire for this night's ceremony is placed on a capstone nearby so you won't have to sneak past too many druids.
Starting the game Shuffle the trilithon cards and deal one face up. This represents which of the five locations the Sacred Fire will be in for the night's rituals and which druid will be presiding at the ceremony. This druid is known as the High Druid.

1. Take that coloured druid figure from the inner ring and place it on the first bluestone.
2. Remove the coloured disks that don't match the card from the capstones of the trilithons.
3. Place five piles of disks in front of you, one for each druid - four piles having 10 disks and one pile having 9 (the pile representing the High Druid on the first bluestone). These piles of disks represent how alert a druid is. A druid becomes more alert as their disk pile dwindles, until they have no disks left. When that happens, you have been spotted and the alarm has been raised. Game over.

Each turn, draw a random numbered card for each druid and for your character. How each figure moves depends on where they are located.

• The High Druid will move towards the bluestone at the opposite end, and once there will reverse course.
• The druids on the inner ring of small stones will move either clockwise if the card for them is a day card, or anticlockwise if their card is a night card.
• Your thief may move from one ring to an adjacent ring, or from a space in a ring to an adjacent space in the same ring. It is easier to move in rings with light, than it is in the darker rings.
  • The Shadow ring costs 2 movement points per coloured space.
  • The Darkness ring costs 4 movement points per space.
  • All other movement costs 1 point from space to space, ring to ring, stone to trilithon, or stone to stone.
  • You cannot move from one trilithon to another.
• The number of movement points for the turn that you or the druids receive for their card is determined by the colour of the card. Refer to the first 5 numbered spaces on the board for quick reference:-
  • Black: No movement points
  • White: 1 movement point
  • Blue: 2 movement points
  • Green: 3 movement points
  • Yellow: 4 movement points
  • Red: 5 movement points
• If you do not have sufficient movement points to travel around a ring, you can only move from one ring to an adjacent ring.
• Capturing part of the Sacred Fire requires you to be on the correct trilithon space, and you must expend 4 movement points while there. This can be in one turn, or over several turns as long as you don't move from that spot.
  • Once you have stolen the Sacred Fire, remove the coloured disk from the capstone and place it near you as a reminder that you are now trying to escape.

Druids in the inner ring

• Count the number of spaces away you are orthogonally (vertically and horizontally) not diagonally.
• Range 0: game over, immediate detection.
• Range 1: remove 2 disks.
• Range 2: remove 1 disk.

If you are on a trilithon You're in a particularly vulnerable position for being spotted and the following rules apply instead.

• Druid is within the path to that trilathon: remove 2 disks.
• The High Druid is within the view to that trilithon: remove 3 disks.

The High Druid in the bluestone ring

• If you are not within the view and path spaces to the High Druid, and not in the bluestone ring, the High Druid cannot detect you. Otherwise count the number of spaces away you are orthogonally (vertically and horizontally) not diagonally.
• Range 0: game over, immediate detection.
• Range 1: remove 3 disks.
• Range 2: remove 3 disks.
• Range 3: remove 2 disks.
• Range 4: remove 1 disk.

1. Deal 4 face up cards, then two more below those.
2. The first 4 cards are the druid movement cards for this turn. The order you move the druids in is from the druid closest to the number 1 space, then clockwise until you reach the 30 space.
   • A druid cannot end its turn on top of another druid, move it an extra space if it would.
3. The 5th card is for the High Druid. Move the High Druid towards their target end bluestone.
4. First Detection
   • If any druid is within range to notice you, remove the appropriate disks from their alertness pile.
5. Your move
6. Second Detection
   • If any druid is within range to notice you, remove the appropriate disks from their alertness pile.
7. Discard the 6 cards you used. If you've gone through the entire deck, shuffle it and begin again.

The game ends when either one of the druids has run out of alertness disks and raised the alarm, or when you have successfully retrieved the Sacred Fire and made it back to your starting point.

[Insert facile and supercilious remarks here, rounding them off with a witty zing]