Looking for a fun, quirky and interesting game to play with family and friends? Light and easy to carry, quick to set up, and simple to get your head around the rules? Then look no further than Tri-balism!
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Tri-balism is a traditional fun, family-friendly, card matching strategy puzzle game based on some very simple rules which promote strategic thinking and decision making. It is designed to be played by 2 to 4 people and also has a single player puzzle mode.
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Place or move tri-cards, form gatherings, and score crystal-points. Simple! ...or is it?
The tri-cards fit together to form hexagonal gatherings (note the 'gathering' is the inner hexagon [left - highlighted in red])...
The aim of the game is to be the player with the most crystal-points but crystal-points are not just a static score but can be spent to allow the player to perform additional plays and movements. Players therefore have to think carefully about how and when to spend them - hopefully making their expenditure an investment, returning more crystal-points than they spent.
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The points score for particular gatherings are shown below...
Click the picture to see the rules - and read about Trollings and the Isles of D'oo Lally
There are rules for what gatherings can be formed and each type scores different crystal-points. The diagram below shows a 2 player game approximately 8 mins into play.
3 pts - all different tribal symbols, no stone the same colour touching. 5 pts - all Shaman Symbols, no stone the same colour touching. 7 pts - at least one tree, all stone colours and symbols the same. 9 pts - all trees, no stone the same colour touching.
The gatherings can be formed from 11 different symbol types - the 9 tribes, the circular Shaman symbol (the 'tenth tribe') or a tree. The diagram above demonstrates all the permissible gatherings...if the placement of a tri-card would mean that a permissible gathering would not be formed then the tri-card cannot be placed. Once tri-cards are placed into the game space then they may be moved into other positions (for a cost) provided they do not contribute to a completed gathering.
REVIEWS, SOCIALS & ENDORSEMENTS
Tri-balism was launched on Kickstarter but failed to get hardly any backing whatsoever. Who cares! I decided to invest my money in getting it produced anyway as I know how good it is. The following people also think the same!
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"This is such a fantastic game...for some reason this game just clicks so well with me...I love it!...The whole set collection, the pattern matching, the rules...there are some games I just don't get but this one is just right!"
CM Lowry​
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"Getting absolutely thrashed at the excellent Tri-balism [...] picked it up at Tabletop Scotland. I'm apparently significantly less good at pattern matching that a 7 year old..."
Kerri Chappell-Haynes
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"Hey just wanted to reach out and say that we LOVE Tri-balism! Thank you for showing it to us (and sorry that your first public demo you lost - definitely beginner's luck). Nothing brings me more joy than watching my husband make an error and getting points for telling him!"