Reference:DRC research notebooks/Jalak

Jalak

Location	Great Library

JALAK

We still haven't figured out exactly how this place is supposed to work, and we're not sure we're ever going to. We do know that the D'ni came here for some kind of sport, and it was fairly popular. We know that audiences came and watched whatever game they played. It's the rules we don't know.

We have found no rules written down by the D'ni, which means that it was such common knowledge that no one felt the need to write it down, or the game always changed.

Either way, we've been having fun here, and we figured we might as well share a couple of games that we have come up with for this place. You can add your own rules, modify ours, or come up with something completely different. Maybe yours is the way the D'ni really did it. Who knows?

Quick Cubes

Alright, so this is one of our favorites. Make sure the arena is level. That means all the pillars are at an equal height. Then bring in two of the big cubes. Make sure the wall is in place and set one cube on each corner of the arena.

Somebody yell go.

The rules are you can only affect the pillars directly next to you. In other words, you can only lower or raise the three or four pillars that surround you. No diagonal stuff. You can move around all you want to make sure you affect other pillars, but you have to keep to the adjacent pillar rule.

The objective is to get your cube from your corner into your opponent's corner before your opponent gets his or hers into yours.

Play offense or play defense, but hurry.

Chess Cubes

This one is a little slower. Those of us who are a little more into strategy prefer this one. Same idea as before. Level the field. Two cubes. One in each corner. After they are there, hit the randomize button.

With this one, you can still only affect the pillars adjacent to you. In addition, you only get three pillar moves before it's your opponent's turn. Your opponent will hear the raises or lowers so don't cheat. You can move the cube all you want while your opponent is going but you can't change any pillars until it's your turn.

Same thing as before: get the cube to your opponent's corner before they do.

We should add that some of the ResEng's have been using this place as a construction sandbox - you should see some of the stuff they have built. Castles and stuff.

Well... wannabe castles at least.