Ticcitories
Difficulty: Medium
Players: 2–6
Age: 9+
Time: About 15–25 minutes
Scoring: Yes
Style: Drafting / pattern-building
Before playing, make sure everyone understands TIC card “Commonness”: a Tic means two cards have two properties in common, a Single means they have one property in common, and a Nic means they have nothing in common.
Objective
Build your own 4 × 4 grid while trying to create as many Tics as possible and as few Nics as possible.
Singles are neutral.
When all grids are complete, the player with the highest score wins.
What You Need
Each player needs a unique token, such as:
- a coin, a paper clip, a small figurine etc.
Setup
First determine the player play order by any agreed method for the start. This will change during the game.
Place the deck near the centre of the table.
Next, lay out a row of face-up cards equal to the number of players. For example, with 4 players, lay out 4 cards.
Number these positions according to their location: Position 1 is closest to the deck, then Position 2, Position 3, and so on. These positions determine the order in which players will place cards.
Finally, deal one face-up card to each player. This becomes the first card in that player’s personal grid.
The Draft-and-Place Cycle
Each round has two parts:
- Choose a card
- Place the card you previously chose
Step 1: Choose
Beginning with the first player, each player places their token on one available card in the centre row. Only one token may be placed on each card. When everyone has chosen a card, reveal a new row of face-up cards beside the first row.
Step 2: Place
Players now take and place the cards from the first row. Placement order is determined by the card positions:
- the player who chose Position 1 places first,
- Position 2 places second,
- and so on.
When it is your turn:
- Take the card you previously claimed.
- Place it into your own grid.
- Move your token onto one available card in the new centre row.
Once everyone has placed their card and chosen a new one, discard the empty old row. The new row now becomes the row that will be played next. Continue repeating this cycle.
Building Your Grid
Every card you add must touch at least one card already in your grid edge-to-edge. Corner-to-corner contact does not count. Your grid must eventually fit inside a 4-card by 4-card boundary.
You may build an irregular shape while the game is in progress, but:
- no row may become wider than 4 cards,
- no column may become taller than 4 cards.
Empty spaces or “holes” inside your developing grid are allowed. Be careful, however: leaving a hole may make the grid harder to complete later.
The game continues until every player has completed a 4 × 4 grid of 16 cards.
Scoring
Only edge-to-edge card interactions count.
Do not count diagonal / corner-to-corner contact.
For every adjacent pair:
Tic = +2 points (“A Tic for two”)
Single = 0 points
Nic = −1 point
Count each shared edge only once.
Tic Groups
After scoring all individual card-to-card interactions, look for larger groups of cards that all Tic in the same way.
For example:
- all cards share yellow + square,
- all cards share 4 + triangle,
- or all cards share circle + red.
A matching Tic group must contain at least 3 connected cards.
The cards may form a straight line or a connected cluster, as long as every card in the group shares the same two properties.
Add these bonus points:
- 3-card group = +3 points
- 4-card group = +4 points
- 5-card group = +10 points (called a Tickle)
These bonus points are added after the normal Tic, Single, and Nic scoring.
A card may be part of more than one Tic group. For example, a card could belong to one connected group sharing yellow + square and also belong to a different connected group sharing 4 + square. Add bonus points for each distinct qualifying Tic group.
Extreme Card Bonus
When scoring your completed grid, qualifying Tic groups containing an Extreme TIC card earn an additional bonus:
- 1-circle-violet: +1 point
- 5-star-red: +2 points
Add this bonus to the normal Tic-group bonus.
An Extreme Card bonus is awarded once for each qualifying Tic group containing that card.
Winning
When everyone has completed their 4 × 4 grid, tally all scores.
The player with the highest score wins.
More Choice for Two Players
For a 2-player game, reveal 3 or 4 centre cards instead of only 2.
Each player chooses one card.
After both players have chosen, discard any unclaimed cards.
This gives both players more strategic choice.
Different Grid Sizes
For a shorter game, build a 3 × 3 grid.
For a longer game, build a 5 × 5 grid.
All other rules remain the same.
