Title : Cold Spell 

No. of Players : 2 - 4

Required Components : One Icehouse Stash, an Alpha
Deck (available at http://www.tjgames.com/) or any
other scorable letters from another game, such as
Scrabble or Quiddler.  For the purposes of explaining
the game, an Alpha Deck will be assumed.

Object : To form the most valuable words with cards
gathered from the playing field using the Icehouse
pieces.

Setup : Shuffle the Alpha Deck and deal a 6 x 6 grid
of cards face-up. Set the rest of the deck aside, out
of play. Separate out the Icehouse pieces and set them
next to the playing area, for use by all players.

Play : Determine a player to go first by whatever
method you prefer. On your turn, you may take any two
actions described below (with one exception -- see
description). Both of these actions may not be the
same. (For example, if you move a piece as your first
action, you may not move any pieces as your second
action.)


Place a New Piece : Take a new piece from the stash
and place it on any unoccupied card. This action ends
your turn, so it is usually best to do it as your
second action if possible.

Move a Piece : Move any upright Icehouse piece (but
not those from the stash, obviously) orthagonally up
to its number of pips (small may only move 1 space,
medium up to 2, and large up to 3). A piece may move
through a claimed card (see below), but may not land
on it. Also, if a card has been taken from the playing
field, the empty space may not be moved through or
landed on.

Claim a Card : Choose any upright piece on the playing
field and point it toward yourself. That card is now
reserved for you, unless your claim is hijacked (see
below).

Take a Card : Choose any card that you have claimed,
and remove it from the field to place in front of you,
along with the pyramid which claimed it (this is
important for scoring). This card is out of play until
the game is scored.

Hijack / Give up a Claim : Choose a pyramid that is
claiming a card for an opponent (or yourself) and
return it to an upright position. You must immediately
move this piece up to its number of pips away. Thus,
this action can only be taken as your first action,
since you must use the second action for movement.

Force a Claim : Choose any upright piece on the
playing field and point it toward an opponent. That
card now belongs to them and must be taken by the end
of the game, unless they use up a turn giving up the
claim. 


Game Over : The game ends when all the Icehouse pieces
have been used to claim cards. Once no more Icehouse
pieces are upright, players must take the remaining
cards claimed by them, whether they want them or not
(which is why forcing a claim is important near the
end of the game). Only 15 cards will be taken during
the course of a game. Also, if a stalemate occurs
(e.g. the same few pieces being moved back and forth
with nobody claiming any for 2 full rounds), the game
is over.

Scoring : Use the cards you have gathered from the
playing field to form words of 2 or more letters.
Remember, the vowel cards can be used as either vowel.
The blank wild cards are of course worth zero. Each
card may only be used once. The number of pips on the
pyramid multiplies the score of the card it captured
(for example, if a 3 point pyramid captured the letter
Z, which is worth 10 points, that card is worth 30
points). The player with the longest word receives a
20-point bonus. In the event of a tie for length, no
one gets the bonus. Any cards captured which were not
used in a word are multiplied in the same way, and
subtracted from that player's score.

Comments would be welcomed, of course.