Oracle

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Oracle
Game data
author Tamara Jannink, Joris Wiersinga
graphic Herman Haverkort, Jacqueline Jannink
publishing company Splotter Spellen
Publishing year 2002 (1997 as Tetragons)
Art dice game
Teammates 2 to 5
Duration 15 minutes
Age from age 6

Oraklos is a dice game originally published in 1997 by the game designers Tamara Jannink and Joris Wiersinga in the Dutch game publisher Splotter Spellen under the name Tetragons . The new edition appeared in 2002 under the name Oraklos by the same publisher. In the game, a player throws a few dice and everyone tries to find the pattern of his cards in the resulting pattern. The player is suitable for children and takes about 15 minutes.

Theme and equipment

In Oraklos, the players take on the role of high priests of an oracle who want to predict the future of King Alexander the Great when he visits. To do this, they compare wish cards with patterns of four dice printed on them with dice thrown on the table and try to find the pattern in the dice roll. For correct interpretations the players get one to three points, with wrong attempts they lose one to three points accordingly, and whoever is first to have ten points wins the game. The game box contains the following:

  • 70 wish cards
  • 54 dice in red, yellow, blue and black
  • 3 audience markers with plastic feet, numbered 1, 2 and 3
  • 1 measuring cord

To play, you also need a dice cup, a table that is not too small, and paper and pen to note down the points.

construction

To begin with, a red cube is attached to both ends of the measuring cord and tied. In addition, the audience markers are placed in the plastic feet and placed on the edge of the table within reach of each player. A dice of each color is placed in the dice cup and the cards are placed face down as a stack. Then each player receives a certain number of dice, which depends on the number of players: If there are two players, each player receives 16 dice and four of each color. With three and four players, everyone gets twelve dice, which means that everyone gets three of each color. In addition, if there are five participants, each player receives eight dice - two of each color.

Style of play

Oracle is played in four phases. At the beginning each player sends out his spies to find out which oracle the king wants. To do this, each player draws three wish cards from the stack and places them face up in front of him. If there are no more cards to draw at a time, the game ends immediately.

This is followed by the second phase and each player puts a certain number of dice, depending on the number of players, into the dice cup. With two players each puts six dice in the cup, with three players each puts five dice in the cup, with four players each puts four dice in the cup and with five players each puts three dice in the cup. Which dice are in the cup remains a secret, nobody is allowed to look at the dice in the cup. When everyone has put their dice in the cup, the starting player throws the dice on the table and tries to make sure that the dice are not too close together.

In the third phase, each player searches for the prophecies of the oracle. The patterns that resulted from the die roll are compared with their own wish cards and if a player thinks he has recognized his pattern in the dice, he takes one of the audience markers and places it on his card. If all three markers have been taken or if all players agree that no more patterns can be found, a comparison is made. The player who took the 3-point marker goes first and points to the dice that he or she believes fulfill the prophecy. He must not hesitate, any hesitation invalidates his attempt. If the prophecy is correct, the player receives the number of points on the marker, i.e. one to three points, if he has made a mistake, the same number of points is deducted. The patterns always consist of four colored cubes arranged in a square. The colors must be in the correct order. Each die has a hole on one side that must not face up. The four lines that can be thought between four cubes may not be intersected by another cube, and there may also be no cubes in the square. If the players do not agree on whether a cube intersects an imaginary square or not, the measuring line can be used.

When all points have been noted, each player takes back as many dice as he threw in in phase four, starting with the one who scored the most points in this round and then clockwise. He just takes back the number of dice, the colors of the dice that he threw in does not matter. This gives players the opportunity to influence the colors of the other players' dice. The four remaining dice are put back in the cup and the players' wish cards are replenished to three.

variants

Two further variants are possible in Oraklos: On the one hand there is a variant "Oraklos Junior", which is recommended for younger children, in which 16 dice are always taken, four of each color and repeatedly placed in the cup, regardless of the number of players. Phase four is then omitted in this variant.

The variant "Antipodes" is for older players and is a separate game in which events are to be excluded. The 16 cards that show three or four dice of the same color are sorted out and the rest shuffled, six of which are dealt and placed face up. Then 16 dice, four of each color, are thrown and the players try to find one of the six cards that has a pattern that cannot be found on the table. Cubes with a hole are considered normal cubes, patterns with such a side are valid. The first player to find such a card announces this and if the other players do not discover this pattern on the table and thus cannot refute the claim of the player, he gets one point - otherwise he gets one point deducted. Whoever reaches five points first, wins the game.

Game development

Originally released under the name Tetragons, Oraklos was one of Splotter's very first games in 1997. The very first 80 copies were still produced by hand at the time. The game was released under a new name in 2002. Since the game is no longer available, the game authors offer it for download as a print and play version, for example on BoardGameGeek .

Web links