Mapple
Mapple is a simple territory-control game played with a handful of coins. We have created several boards over the years, as free promotions for various events and products. You can play with quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies, or any other set of coins with four sizes and clear heads and tails.
The Basics: Each player uses ten coins: One quarter, two dimes, three nickels, and four pennies. One player is “heads” and the other is “tails.” Players take turns placing coins in empty areas. When you play a coin, it flips enemy coins in neighboring areas, but only if those coins are of lesser value. Areas that touch only on the diagonal are not considered connected. The game ends when both players are out of coins. Each area is worth one point. You will play twice, with each player starting once, and play for the highest total score.
Rules for individual baords may vary slightly from those above, as noted below.
Music City: Our first Mapple board was created for GMX, a convention in Nashville. The “Music City” board plays by the rules above, except that each player has eleven coins (one extra penny).
Austin, TX: In 2012, we sponsored the Austin Board Game Bash with a version of Mapple set in downtown Austin. Keep Austin weird, Mapple.
KublaCon: Later that same year, we created a custom Mapple board in conjunction with KublaCon. This fantasy map is a hilariously inaccurate map of the convention hotel, the Burlingame Hyatt, listing all the major events of KublaCon.
Venice: Because James Ernest was working on a board game set in Venice, he happened to have a complete map of the city and all of its neighborhoods and streets. The original file is lost, and now all that survives is this flattened version, originally used as a Mapple board for PrairieCon XXXIII. This board introduces the notion of starred regions, which are worth an extra point.
Fight City: In 2017, Cheapass Games kickstarted a new edition of Button Men, set in the fictional metropolis of Fight City. Along with the game characters, we also generated a set of maps for Fight City, and one of those was rebuilt into a Mapple board. The special rules for this board, which you honestly could try on any board, are that one of the region colors (selected before the game) is worth double points.
We’d love to make more boards! Do you have a favorite place that should be our next Mapple? Please let us know!
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