Neighborhoods (card game)

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This article is about the card game called Neighborhoods. For other meanings, see Neighborhoods (disambiguation).

Neighborhoods is a card game for 2 players played on a 5 by 5 layout of cards where the goal is to either try to construct neighborhoods, by taking ownership of three cards in a row, or to take ownership of five cards in a row. It is played with small stone or glass markers, and, while being largely strategic, puts the player at the mercy of the draw, or roll of a die to determine whether your strategy can even be implemented.

Contents 1 Equipment 2 The Deal 3 Play 3.1 Placement and Capturing Conditions 3.2 Playing a Card 3.3 Rolling the Die 3.4 Turn Order 4 How to Win 5 Glossary 6 History

[edit] Equipment

To play Neighborhoods, you need

• 2 standard decks of cards, with the jokers included.
• a 6-sided die
• 15 small stone or glass markers in each of 2 colors, traditionally, white and black.

[edit] The Deal

The player with the white stones deals. Before each game, stones should be swapped between players to change who deals.

1. Deal 4 cards to each player.
2. Deal the layout. It consists of 5 rows of 5 cards each, placed between the two players. If a joker is dealt into the layout, remove it and replace it with another card. Shuffle any jokers removed this way back into the deck after the layout is complete.

[edit] Play

The player with the black stones plays first. Before each game, stones should be swapped between players to change who goes first.

[edit] Placement and Capturing Conditions

Placement is when you place one of your stones on a card in the layout.

Capturing is removing an enemy's stone and returning it to them.

Dominance is when one player has more stones than the other player in a given row or column.

• You may only Place a stone on a card when either
  1. you have dominance in either the row or the column that the card belongs to, or,
  2. no one has dominance in either one.

Note: There is one exception to this rule. See Rolling the Die below for more information.

• You may Capture an opponents stone only when either
  1. you have a neighborhood in either the row or column that the stone to be removed is in, or,
  2. your opponent has 4 stones in the row or column containing that stone, and you have none.

[edit] Playing a Card

If you play a card from your hand, you may do one of two things:

1. Place one of your stones on any unowned card in the layout, provided the rank of that card matches the rank of the card played from your hand.
2. Remove one of your opponent's stones, provided the rank of the card it is on matches the rank of the card played from your hand.

The jokers are wildcards, and thus, match any rank.

Don't Forget the Placement and Capturing Conditions Shown Above!

[edit] Rolling the Die

If a player does not wish to play a card from their hand, they may roll the die. The numbers 1 through 5 correspond to the rows in front of the player; row 1 is the row closest to the player rolling, row 5 is farthest. The player may then Place or Capture a stone anywhere in that row. In the event that the player rolls a six, they may not Place a stone, but may Capture a stone from anywhere on the board.

Again,

Don't Forget the Placement and Capturing Conditions Shown Above!

Important Exception:  
The Dominance in the row indicated by the die does not matter.  
You may not place a stone if your oponent has dominanace in the column it is part of.

If, after rolling the die, the player finds that a move cannot be made, the player's turn ends.

[edit] Turn Order

At the start of the turn, the player should draw until their hand contains 5 cards.

The player then has several options for their turn:

• Play a card from their hand.
• Roll the die.
• Discard their entire hand and redraw 4 cards.
• Pass.

Only one of these actions may be taken per turn.

[edit] How to Win

A player wins when either

1. They have 5 neighborhoods in the layout,
2. They own 5 cards in any row or column, or
3. They have more neighborhoods than their opponent after both players have passed, or been forced to make no move (i.e., failed die rolls) 3 turns in a row.

[edit] Glossary

• Dominance - One player has dominance if they have more pieces than the other player in a given row or column.
• Neighborhood - A set of 3 adjacent cards that all fall in either the same row or the same column. Two neighborhoods may share one card, but no row or column can completely contain more than one neighborhood.
• Ownership - A player is said to have ownership of a card if they currently have a marker placed upon that card.

[edit] History

This game was developed by Dave S. Thomas on or before September 3, 2006.

His brother wrote a Wikipedia article about it on September 4-5, 2006 after having been shown the game.