The Games
FreeStyle
Designer: Silvano Sorrentino
Publisher: daVinci Games
Type: Board,
Sports-themed
Status: Free
BGG entry:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/10957
Available at:
http://www.davincigames.com/page_eng.cfm?sez=03&gioco=stilelibero
FreeStyle is a game of competition in a swimming pool. Players (from 2 to 8) move their athletes on the board representing a pool: athletes must dive, swim to the other side and back, just as in a real competition. In order to play FreeStyle, you need, beside the board supplied with the file, six dice and a token for each player. FreeStyle has some basic rules, intended for children, and some advanced ones, for adults and children smarter than adults. ;-) With the basic rules, each player rolls as many dice as the number depicted in the square where his token is (3, 4, 5 or 6). Then, he moves his token forward a number of spaces equals to the number of different values rolled, and his turn his over. If a player reaches the other end of the pool, he turns his token over to show he is swimming back; from that moment on, his token will swim back towards the starting end. The first player completing the whole pool is the winner. With the advanced rules, here comes a nice twist: each player can choose to roll any number of dice. The maximum amount of dice is stated in the square he is currently in (3, 4, 5 or 6). The player throws one die at a time: after each throw, he can decide to stop or roll one more dice, until the maximum amount is reached. Once the player ends his throws he has two options to make his move: a) the athlete moves forward a number of squares equals to the number of "single" dice, i.e. the player eliminates all the groups of two or more dice showing the same value and counts the remaining dice; or b) if a player rolls four, five or six dice with the same value, the athlete can move forward 4, 5 or 6 squares respectively (this is a special move). This simple dice throwing rule hides some "dangers": the more dice you roll on your turn, the more oxygen you are likely to use up - and you could end up moving less than you imagined or planned... but how may you resist the temptation of pushing your luck?
Freestyle is a daVinci product created for advertisement for the local government of the Province of Rome. We wish to thank the Province of Rome for the permission to distribute it freely on our website.