The Rules of
2-Player
Kabetopo
Version: 2.0
Last revised: 7/30/24
First publication: 5/29/23
Legalese: This is an original work. This document and ruleset are protected by pertinent copyright laws. All rights reserved.
Visual Guide: A video guide to this official rulebook can be found here.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Overview
This is an overview of how to play Kabetopo for two players. The 2-player game is slightly different from the 3- or 4-player games. This overview assumes that you’re already familiar with the standard multiplayer ruleset.
GAME PLAY
OBJECTIVE
The objective is the same as in the 4-player game. The catch is, you need to complete the objective twice, i.e.
- Get a first stone. (“First Stone”)
- Dash to any corner. (“Halfway Home”)
- Get a second stone. (“Second Stone”)
- Make a final dash to any corner other than your starting square. (“Tadaima”)
SETUP
- Place the dark runner on East, the light runner on West.
- Place the mountain piece on top of the square just south of the Mountain. This square is called The Summit (aka, “The second mountain”). See Diagram 1.
- Place two stones on top of The Mountain, and two on top of The Summit. Colors don’t matter. (Note: for the 2-player game, the color of the stones don’t matter. For all intents and purposes, consider all the stones to be of the same color.)
- Place the 3 monoliths w/ holes randomized as described in the Setup section (step 3) in the original instructions.
- Place the 4 portals w/ holes randomized as described in the Setup section (step 4) in the original instructions.
- Both players’ resource pool starts with
- 3 walls
- 2 monoliths
- 2 portals
- 2 locks
- 1 speed token with the “+1” side up. (Speed tokens are explained in the 4-player instructions.)
Diagram 1 – The Summit (blue arrow) is the square just south of the Mountain. Place two stones on top of both the Mountain and the Summit.
PLAYING THE GAME (Differences from the 4-player game)
- Dark runner (East) goes first.
- All 4-player rules regarding moving and dropping apply.
- All 4-player rules that apply to the Mountain also apply to the Summit.
- Complete the objectives strictly in this order:
- Grab any stone from either the Mountain or Summit first. If you’re the first, you get to declare “First Stone.”
- Dash to any corner. If you’re the first to reach, you get to declare “Halfway Home.”
- Again, grab another stone from either the Mountain or Summit. If you’re the first, you get to declare “Second Stone.”
- Dash to any corner other than your starting square. If you’re the first to reach, you get to declare “Tadaima.”
- Once a player declares Tadaima, the round ends and scores are tallied.
SCORING
- Points are scored as follows:
- First Stone: The player who obtains their first stone first receives 1 point.
- Halfway Home: The player who reaches a corner square first after obtaining their first stone receives 2 points.
- Second Stone: The player who obtains their second stone first receives 1 point.
- Tadaima: The first to declare Tadaima receives 3 points. or if they get to their natural, opposite square, 4 points.
- The Unseen Path: The player that declares Tadaima also receives:
- 1 bonus point, if the opposing runner has 2 or 3 squares left to travel before they reach a legal home square, i.e. not their starting square.
- 2 points, if the opposing runner has 4 or 5 squares left to travel.
- 3 points, if the opposing runner has 6 or more squares left to travel [EXAMPLES], or if Tadaima is declared before the other player gets their second stone.
- Use the most efficient path to a home square to determine the number of squares remaining. Keep in mind that the opposing runner’s most efficient path may lead through portals.
- Preservation: Whichever player has the more resources remaining at the end of the round receives 1 point. If both players are tied in resource count, neither receive a bonus point.
COMPLETING THE MATCH
Because of the imbalances caused by randomizing some monoliths and portals at the start, to keep things fair, a second round is played, turning the board 180 degrees before the next round so that each player will have played with both runners.
To setup for subsequent rounds:
Remove from the board only the walls, monoliths, portals, and locks dropped by either player. Do not remove monoliths and portals that were set up during Setup steps 4 and 5 at the beginning of game 1 (i.e. the ones with the identifying holes).
Place the each runner back on their starting squares.
Place the stones back on top of the Mountain and the Summit.
Reallocate 4 walls, 3 monoliths, 2 portals, 2 locks, and 1 speed token (with the “+1” side up) to each player’s resource pool.
Turn the board 180 degrees so that the players rotate runners.
- Extend the match to 4 or 6 rounds, the number agreed upon before the start of the match. Turn the board 180 degrees before each even round (2, 4, 6), and rerandomize the monoliths and portals before each odd round (3, 5).
WINNING THE MATCH
- All points earned in each round are added together for a grand total. Whoever has the highest grand total at the end of the 4 (or 6) rounds wins the match.
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Tiebreakers: Ties are broken in the following order:
- Single round scores. (Compare highest single round scores. If tied, compare 2nd highest scores. If necessary, compare 3rd, 4th, etc.)
- Highest total Tadaima plus Halfway Home points.
- Highest total Stone points.
- Highest total Preservation points.
- Highest total Unseen Path points.
- Resource count after the final round.
- If still tied, match is drawn.
KEEPING SCORE
Keeping score in the 2-player game is similar to keeping score in the 4-player game with a few minor differences.
Use one column for each player. Each row represents a scoring event:
- Row 1 – First Stone: Write a “1” under the player who gets First Stone first. Write a dash under the other player.
- Row 2 – Halfway Home: Write a “2” under the player who gets Halfway Home first. Circle this number. Optionally, write the player’s Halfway Home square. So in this example, Player A got Halfway Home first on the North square. Write a dash under the other player as well as (optionally) their Halfway Home square.
- Row 3 – Second Stone: Write a “1” under the player who gets Second Stone first. Write a dash under the other player.
- Row 4 – Tadaima: Write a “3” under the player who declares Tadaima, or a “4” if natural Tadaima. Circle this number. Also, write a “+X” where X is any Unseen Path points. In this example, Player B declared Tadaima (not natural), and has 1 Unseen Path point. Write a dash under the other player.
- Row 5 – Preservation: Write a “1” under the player who wins the Preservation point. Write a dash under the other player. If neither player wins the Preservation point, write a dash under both players.
- Row 6 – Write the round score, slash, grand total for each player.
- Draw a line to separate rounds.
Expansion Rules
The following rules aren’t part of the main ruleset. They’re optional and are experimental for the time being. You might want to add them to your game to spice things up.
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No expansion rules exist at the moment…
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