After introducing 18 Circles a few years ago, I recently found myself sitting at the kitchen table, looking for something to pass my time. My imagination started drifting around a bit, and soon I was analyzing some ideas for a new board game. Boredom is often the spark for invention, and gradually the concepts of a two-player game took shape.
In most cases a new game may take weeks or months to perfect. This one reached satisfactory status after only two days of tinkering. Sometimes a person gets lucky! So in March of 2024, the predecessor to 81 Circles came to life. (And yet a year later the tweaking of the rules continues…) 🙂
The game was originally titled 81 Squares. The gameboard consisted of 9 horizontal and vertical rows of one inch squares. However, I had no easy way to create the lines for the squares when making the gameboard out of wood, so the title of 81 Squares was changed to 81 Circles.
At first glance the game board looks like a Super Bowl or NCAA Tournament betting board. You know, that big piece of cardboard where you buy one of 100 squares for a few bucks a square. And then when 81 Circles is played, people may think it is similar to the classic game Battleship. Nope. It is distinctly different.
81 Circles is a two-player game that is played using three (3) eight-sided dice. The game board has nine horizontal and nine vertical rows, each row numbered 0-9. The game consists of ten rounds where a player will roll three dice each round and pick two of the numbers to manipulate. They will attempt to construct Chains of circles at least three-in-a-row long by positioning their game pieces in individual circle locations. Points are awarded that are dependent on the length and position of the Chain created. While trying to string together Chains a player will also be forming both Small and Large Squares. This is all explained in the Directions booklet that may be accessed below. There is a lot of graphics in the PFD. It may be slow to download.
The image above is a final design of a wooden gameboard using 40 marbles as gamepieces. (20 + 20}
Click on the image above to view and print out a PDF copy of the Directions for 81 Circles.
Click on the image to print out a copy of a Scratch Sheet to use as an aid for manipulating the dice roll.
Click on the Scoresheet image to print out a copy.
The two photos on the right show the manufacturing of the first 81 Squares game board. A piece of foam poster board was used and some game pieces were made out of screws and then painted.
