FloopRail

[Randall Bart <barticus@att.net>]

                     Help For FloopRail

Introduction

    Welcome to the network FloopRail server. The [1]rules of FloopRail
    are below. The FloopRail "[2]challenge" command is described below.
    [3]Other commands are the same for all pbmserv games.

FloopRail board and notation:

       A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H

    1           .--.
                |  |
    2        .--.--.--.
             |  |  |  |
    3     .--.--.--.--.--.
          |  |  |  |  |  |
    4  .--.--.--.--.--.--.--.
          |  |  |  |  |  |
    5     .--.--.--.--.--.
             |  |  |  |
    6        .--.--.--.
                |  |
    7           .--.

    The thirty-two "."s are the spaces which Floopers may occupy.  The "--"
    and "|" characters repesent the rails on which the Floopers move.
    Spaces are identified by letter and number.  For a Floop or simple
    Fleap the move is designated by from-space, dash, to-space (eg, E6-D6).
    Multiple Fleaps are indicated by additional dashes and to-spaces (eg,
    E6-C6-C4-C2).

    FloopRail challenge userid1 userid2 [ -reverse | -misere | -losing ]
           Start a new game of FloopRail between userid1 and userid2.

           The -reverse or -misere or -losing option turns the game into
           Reverse FloopRail: the winner is the first player to have no
           legal Floops or Fleaps available.

Rules of FloopRail

    FloopRail is played on the 32 spaces of a FloopRail board. As
    shown below, each player starts with 12 Floopers on the board.
    O moves first, and players alternate turns.

    The winner is the last player to complete a legal move. Normally a
    player loses when all of his Floopers are captured, thus leaving him
    with no legal Floops or Fleaps. But a player also loses if his
    remaining Floopers have no legal Floops or Fleaps.

       A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H

    1           O--O
                |  |
    2        O--O--O--.
             |  |  |  |
    3     O--O--O--.--.--X
          |  |  |  |  |  |
    4  O--O--O--.--.--X--X--X
          |  |  |  |  |  |
    5     O--.--.--X--X--X
             |  |  |  |
    6        .--X--X--X
                |  |
    7           X--X

         Starting Position

    A Flooper may make two kinds of moves:  A Floop or a Fleap.  A Floop
    is a move along the rail to an adjacent unoccupied space.  If an
    adjacent space is occupied by an opposing Flooper, and the next space
    beyond is unoccupied, a Flooper may Fleap over the opposing Flooper
    into the unoccupied space.  The Flooper which is Fleaped over is
    captured.  A series of Fleaps with the same Flooper may be done in a
    single turn.

    X Floopers may only move up or to the left, O Floopers may only move
    down or to the right.  Eventually a Flooper will reach one of the goal
    spaces marked here:

       A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H

    1           X--.
                |  |
    2        X--.--.--.
             |  |  |  |
    3     X--.--.--.--.--.
          |  |  |  |  |  |
    4  X--.--.--.--.--.--.--O
          |  |  |  |  |  |
    5     .--.--.--.--.--O
             |  |  |  |
    6        .--.--.--O
                |  |
    7           .--O

             Goal Spaces

    When a Flooper reaches one of these spaces it becomes a SooperFlooper.
    A SooperFlooper is the same as a Flooper, except it may Floop and
    Fleap in all four directions.

    If a player has Fleaps available, he must Fleap. If a Flooper can
    continue Fleaping, it must. However, if a player has a choice of
    Fleaps he can choose any of them, not necessarily the longest one.

    When making multiple Fleaps, all Fleaps are first completed, and then
    the captured Floopers are removed from the board. However, you may not
    Fleap over the same Flooper twice.

References

    1. http://gamerz.net/pbmserv/FloopRail.html#rules
    2. http://gamerz.net/pbmserv/FloopRail.html#challenge
    3. http://gamerz.net/pbmserv/commands.html