Papyrto - A simple paper based strategy game based on Quarto

8 months or so ago I designed a paper adaptation of the board game, Quarto. I call it Papyrto. Papyrus (Paper) + Quarto = Papyrto.

Invented by Swiss mathematician Blaise Müller in 1991, Quarto is a simple game with interesting rules. There are 16 game pieces, each with 4 distinct attributes; tall or short, light or dark, round or square, and solid or hollow.

So my design had to have a similar set of ‘pieces’ with a different set of 4 distinct attributes. but these attributes had to apply to lines on paper rather than a physical shape. I ended up with horizontal or vetical, curved or straight, dashed or solid, and with a dot or without.

For ease of drawing them, the pieces are connected, but each of the 4 arms are a separate ‘piece’.

The rules are the same as Quarto. Player 1 selects a piece for Player 2 to play by drawing a circle around that piece in the piece pool. Player 2 plays the piece by drawing a copy of the same piece into an empty square on the board, then crossing out the piece in the pool. Then Player 2 circles a piece for Player 1 to play and so forth.

The first player to place a piece which results in 4 pieces in a row that all have the same of one of the 4 attributes, wins. So 4 pieces that are all horizontal, or all have dots, or all don’t have dots, or are all dotted, etc.

Example Game

Player 1 (blue ink) selects a piece for Player 2 to place. Note: different ink colors are not necessary during play. They are used here to simplify what is happening.

Player 2 (green ink) places the piece, crosses out the piece they placed, and then selects a piece for Player 1 (blue ink) to place.

This continues until the game ends.

Winning Board

In this board, whoever placed the last piece of the highlighted 4 pieces is the winner. All 4 pieces are curved.