Act of Contrition Board Game

This game is free, however it is only to be used for classroom and personal use. It may not be published on any websites or other electronic media, or distributed in newsletters, bulletins, or any other form or sold for profit.

Act of Contrition Board Game is based on Puluc a game played by the Kekchi (Qeqchi) Indians of Guatemala.

Act of Contrition Board Game: For 2 Players or 2 Teams

The idea is to answer questions about the Act of Contrition so players can roll the dice and move their pieces up and down the road attempting to capture their opponent’s pieces. The form of capture is unique because the captured piece is not immediately removed but instead is placed under the capturing piece. The capturing piece is placed on top of the captured piece to form a stack (if you capture an opponent’s piece, their playing piece is placed under yours). On his next turn the capturing player starts to move the stack of pieces back along the road towards his home position the number of spaces indicated by the throw count. When the capturing player reaches the home position the captured piece is removed from the board.

Needed:

Dice
5 red and 5 black checkerboard game pieces
Question Cards
Game Board

Set Up: This game can be played individually or in teams. Shuffle the deck and place it face down in a small basket near the game board. Put an empty basket nearby for the discards. Players put their 5 playing pieces at Home (picture shown above).

Rules: The board is a track made up of 9 spaces as shown above. Each player has five pieces, usually small stones or sticks using any shape or color to distinguish between players. The players sit opposite each other across the road and the home position for each team is to their left.

The first players of both teams throw the dice to decide who starts the game. The player with the highest throw starts.

The opponents make their moves by turns. To make a possible move you must answer a question (the other player draws a card and reads you the question). If you are correct you then you roll the dice. If you do not answer the question correctly, your turn is over. The players take turns to throw the dice and move one piece along the road from space to space according to the throw count. The players enter their pieces at opposite ends of the road from the home position and move in opposite directions (shown by the arrows in the picture above). A player may either move a piece or enter another piece onto the road. A player must not move a piece onto a space occupied by one of his own pieces.

When the piece has reached the other end of the road it is moved back to its home position again. When the piece reaches its home position it is available at a subsequent turn to be moved on another lap down the road. It is not necessary to throw an exact number to enter the home position.

Capture: If a playing piece lands on a space occupied by that of an opponent, the opponent’s piece is captured. The capturing piece is placed on top of the captured piece to form a stack (if you capture an opponent’s piece, their playing piece is placed under yours). On his next turn the capturing player starts to move the stack of pieces back along the road towards his home position the number of spaces indicated by the throw count. When the capturing player reaches the home position the captured piece is removed from the board.

If a playing piece lands on a stack consisting of a capturing piece and a captured piece, the stack is itself captured and now reverses back the road towards the home position of the capturing piece with the capturing piece on top. When this stack reaches the home position the pieces belonging to the capturing player are "liberated" and may be re-entered onto the track in later turns.

There may be any number of captures and re-captures. A stack may be captured by another stack.

The game ends when the winner has captured all their adversary’s pieces.

Directions- Print out Directions.

Game Board- Print out Game Board, assemble, trim, and glue on poster board. Laminate or cover with clear contact paper to make it last.

Game Cards- (Use these cards or make your own.) Print Game Cards out on card stock. Cut out Game Cards. Laminate or cover with clear contact paper to make them last. Use only the cards that reflect your student’s abilities.

*The Game Cards are in MS Word and are editable so you can change them any way you like and use which ever Act of Contrition you choose.

Game Pieces- Use 5 red and 5 black checkerboard pieces to play game.

Copyright 2012 Laura Grace