Tak: A Beautiful Game is a Defictionalized game from Patrick Rothfuss setting of the Four Corners of Civilization, better known as the backdrop for The Kingkiller Chronicle.
Designed by James Ernest, Tak is an abstract Turn-Based Strategy Tabletop Game that draws elements from Chess and Go. The game is played on a grid of varying size. On your turn, you may either place a single stone on an empty space, or move a stack of one or more stones you control. The goal is to build a road of stones joining opposite sides of the board, no matter how twisty. Stones can be placed flat, which count towards your road, or upright as a wall, which doesn't. Moving your piece on top of your opponents lets you control the entire stack, and move farther, but forces you to be careful about letting that piece back out into the open.
The game contains examples of following tropes:
- Boring, but Practical: Putting more stones on the board is almost always a wise move, even if it would be cooler to build stacks and lock up your opponent's stones.
- Calling Your Attacks: The rules suggest, in friendly games, to call out a "Tak" when you are one move from winning, much like a "Check" in Chess.
- Difficulty Levels: The board size is the common standard for how complicated you may want to get. 5x5 is the most common simple variant, with 6x6 and 8x8 considered longer and more advanced, and 4x4 or 3x3 being learning sizes that omit the capstone.
- Large and in Charge: The capstone piece is made to look like a king or queen from chess, as opposed to the flat stones. It blocks like a wall, counts as part of the road like a flat, and can stomp down walls when nothing else can.
- Tournament Play: There is already a US Tak Association
organizing tournaments and ranking players.
