Entropy

This post was imported from Playing with Games, an old gaming blog that I co-wrote with Megan. The authorship and formatting might be mixed up. If you spot any issues, please let me know.

Eric Solomon’s Entropy is a perfect example of the theme of Chaos versus Order. Each player gets to assume each role once. As Chaos, you try to prevent your opponent from organizing patterns. As Order, you try to create as much structure as possible.

Materials:

49 tokens– in seven different colours, with seven tokens of each colour
A 7x7 grid to play the tokens on
A bag to conceal unplayed tokens

Note: We like to play with brightly coloured marbles. This requires a board which will hold the pieces, and not let them roll much. If you can’t find a 7x7 board of holes, play with a sectioned off Chess or Go board and use different coloured tokens instead of marbles.

How to play:

Chaos draws a marble randomly from a bag
Chaos places that marble on the board wherever he/she wants
Order moves one marble orthogonally (rook-wise) along any unobstructed line
Repeat the three steps above until the board is full
Determine Order’s final score (see below)
Switch roles and repeat steps above.
Compare final score to determine a winner.

Object of the Game: to get the most points

Your score is determined at the end of your round as Order. Score each palindrome in each row, then each palindrome in each column. A palindrome scores its length. Keep in mind that there can be multiple palindromes in a row and that multiple palindromes can overlap.

Examples:

Let R be a red marker, G be a green marker, and B be a blue marker. Note the following scores. GGBRB = 2 points (GG) + 3 points (BRB) = 5 points G¹G²G³ = 2 points (G¹G²) + 2 points (G²G³) + 3 points (G¹G²G³) = 7 points BRRB = 2 points (RR) + 4 points (BRRB) = 6 points

Published: May 31, 2012 @ 00:00.
Last Modified: May 8, 2026 @ 19:26.

Entropy

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