Gamehelpflamingpyramids

Overview

People in your neighbourhood have gathered together to build a pyramid out of straw, wood, and stones!
You join in happily, but soon you notice there are collapses, fires, and even explosions happening.
Turns out, this may not be a friendly cooperative community project after all...

Goal

Be the first to get rid of all your tiles, no matter how much mayhem you may cause!

Components

There are 40 regular tiles, each showing straw, wood, or stone.
Each tile has a unique colour/symbol/number combination. The number represents the tile’s weight.
There are also five special tiles: two Coals, two Blowtorches, and one Millstone.

At the beginning of the game, all tiles are distributed equally among the players. Each player keeps 5 tiles in the hand, and the rest in their personal draw pile.

Taking a Turn

Choose one of the five tiles in your hand, and place it on the board.

Placement Rules:

• Tiles are placed in order to form a pyramid.
  
• If there are no tiles or only one on the table, you can play any tile you want.
  
• As soon as there are two tiles next to each other with no tile on top of them, that is the place where you must put your tile.
  
• If all the tiles already form a pyramid shape, you must extend the pyramid's base on either side.
  
• Sometimes (after mayhem) there will be multiple free spaces on top of two tiles or between tiles in the bottom row, in which case you can choose which space to use.

The black square shows you where this tile is going to be placed in the pyramid.
If you have multiple places to choose from, they are marked as black squares and you must choose one by clicking on it.

Each turn, you must play exactly one tile. If your chosen tile does not fit with the ones below it, according to the placement rules, then you will cause mayhem.

You can never skip a turn. If you have to cause mayhem, try to keep it small.

At the end of your turn, you draw back up to five tiles (unless your draw pile is empty).

Triggering Mayhem

Collapses

Numbers on the tiles reflect their weight.
Tiles placed on the pyramid’s base level can be any colour and weight (number).
Otherwise, when placing a tile on top of two others, it must match at least one of them in colour and/or weight.
Also, the tile’s weight must be equal to or less than that of the sum of the 2 tiles below.

If you do not follow these rules, a collapse will happen.
The two tiles below the one you just placed are removed from the pyramid and put at the bottom of your draw pile.
The tile you just placed falls down to the right or the left, your choice.
Two green boxes will display your two fall options. Click on one of them.

This can be the end of the mayhem, but it might also not.
The game will check each row of the pyramid carefully from top to bottom and left to right, to see if any other tiles don’t match or are overweight now.
If so, another collapse is triggered. This process continues until all of the tiles fit.

Remember that collapses occur when a tile:
Is overweight (its number is greater than the sum of the two tiles below it)
OR
doesn’t match the colour or number of either tile below it

The Millstone

The 200 tile has every colour. Like stone tiles, it cannot burn. Due to its extra heavy weight, it easily causes collapses if it cannot be placed low in the pyramid.

Coal causes Straw Fires

The two Coal tiles of weight 1 can start a fire as soon as one is adjacent to a flammable straw tile.
This can happen if:
a) Coal is already incorporated into the pyramid (e.g. if Coal is resting on non-flammable stone or wood tiles, and a straw tile is placed adjacent to it) or
b) A Coal tile is placed adjacent to a straw tile.
The fire can spread quite far because every straw tile that catches on fire spreads the fire to any and every other adjacent straw tile. All burnt tiles go under the fire-starting player’s pile.
The Coal tile that started the fire is removed from the game.

Please note: the game first checks for collapses before checking for fire.

Blowtorch causes Wood and Straw Fires

The two Blowtorch tiles of weight 7 act in the same way as the Coal tiles, but they are more dangerous because they can ignite both wood and straw tiles.
Every straw or wood tile that catches on fire spreads the fire to any and every other adjacent straw or wood tile. All burnt tiles go under the fire-starting player’s pile.
The Blowtorch tile that started the fire is removed from the game.

Please note: the game first checks for collapses before checking for fire.

Explosions

An explosion occurs whenever two or more Incendiary tiles (Coals and/or Blowtorches) come into direct contact with each other, assuming there has been a legal placement. Every tile, no matter its material, that directly touches one of the Incendiary tiles goes under the active player’s draw pile and the Incendiary tiles are removed from (that round of) the game.

Please note: the game first checks for collapses, then for explosions and then for fire.

A Tile on One Tile?

After mayhem, players may find they’re left with a pyramid where a tile sits on one single tile and a gap.
This tile is still legally placed as long as it is the same colour as, and not heavier than, the one beneath.

Such an overhanging tile can never be actively placed by a player, but can result from mayhem.

A Tile in Free Air?

After mayhem, players may find they’re left with a pyramid where multiple tiles sit on literally nothing.
Those tiles have to be resolved first. The game will check for such tiles from top to bottom and in each row left to right. If it finds such a tile, it will ask the active player to move it down to the right or down the left.

Checking Order

The game will check for mayhem in the follwing order:

1. Tiles in Free Air
2. Collapses
3. Explosions
4. Fire
5. Curse

Each of these checks is performed from top to bottom, left to right.

The Curse

An Optional Variant

If three tiles of the same number form a mini-pyramid (two of the tiles next to each other, one on top of them), either via placement or after resolving mayhem, the Curse is activated. The three tiles are removed and go under the draw pile of the previous player. Any tiles coming off the pyramid from follow-on collapses and other mayhem also go under the draw pile of the previous player. That player decides the direction any tiles fall after follow-on collapses.

Please note: the game checks for the curse after checking for collapses, explosions, and fires.

The Fire Die

An Online-Only, Optional Variant

During game set-up, you may choose to activate the Fire Die option. In this case, the behaviour of Fire changes.

With the Fire Die Variant activated, a collapse will never cause a fire. A fire can only be sparked by placing a Fire tile from your hand next to a flammable tile, or by placing a flammable tile from your hand next to a Fire tile (as described in the rules about Fire, above). When you do this, the fire does not start directly, but instead the Fire Die is rolled.

The Fire Die is a six-sided die (d6). Depending on your die roll, you will cause none to a lot of mayhem.

The Fire Die will produce the following outcomes:

• In 3 out of 6 cases: FIRE! You will cause a Straw Fire or a Wood Fire (depending on the Fire tile involved). The Fire Tile stays in the pyramid.
• In 1 out of 6 cases: FIRE! You will cause a Straw Fire or a Wood Fire (depending on the Fire tile involved). The Fire Tile is removed from the game.
• In 1 out of 6 cases: EXPLOSION! The Fire tile(s) which caused the dice roll explode, i.e. are taken out of the game. All cards touching the exploding tile(s) are removed from the pyramid, and put in the active player's draw pile.
• In 1 out of 6 cases: SMOKE. Nothing happens. The game continues without triggering any mayhem (for now).