Description

"Samas" is a simple abstract 2-player racing game that incorporates a "Paper-Scissors-Stone " mechanic to determine which player is allowed to move on the track towards the finishing space.

The board consists of a single track with 9 hollows. Each player places their Sama-stone on the second hole from their baseline. Both players also get 13 stones in their color, and 2 joker-stones. All these stones are kept hidden behind the player's screens.

Every turn each player secretly selects 0 to 3 regular stones, or a joker-stone. These are then simultaneously revealed, the Sama-stone of the player with the winning selection moves one place towards the opponent's side, and the stone-selection of both players are removed from play.

If both players reveal the same stone-selection, then these stones are still removed from play, but neither Sama-stone gets moved forwards. If a player runs out of stones then the opponent's Sama-stone moves 1 space forwards for each regular stone still in this player's reserve.

So what makes a winning selection? A selection of regular stones gets beaten by a higher amount of regular stones. A joker-stone beats any amount of regular stones. However, if a joker-stone is played when the opponent decided to play no stones at all, than it in turn is beaten.

Play continues until one player reaches the opposite side of the board, or until a player runs out of stones to play. The winner is predictably the player who reaches, or gets closest to, the other side of the board.

Publishing history: Together with "Trio Trio", "Samas" was the first of Frank's designs to get published (in 2004) in the deluxe wooden format that typifies the Clemens Gerhards range. Up until then Frank Stark had been making mainly card games, "Zoom" being the only boardgame that had found a (different) publisher. However, since then Frank Stark's boardgame designs have become regular additions to the Clemens Gerhards stable, all in the same high-quality make-up that they do so well.