The Crossroads

The Crossroads is a classic play of Chinese operas. Ren Tanghui was ordered to protect the banished general Jiao Zan in secret. He stayed overnight at Liu Lihua’s inn. Late at night, they confronted each other in a sudden darkness and dangerous hand-to-hand combat.

The Crossroads is a brief paper-and-pencil game for two players. In a room of 3x3 grids, players take actions concurrently each round and record them on sheets, then make an announcement required to settle their acts.

The basic acts include:

Move: Move to an adjacent grid.

Research: Get the last entry and left directions and round numbers in your position in 8 rounds from the opponent. You have to take a Move act next round.

Attack: Attack the opponent in your position, if he ends round here and doesn’t take an attack action, you win. You have to take a Move act next round.

Pursuit: Move and attack the opponent. You have to stay in the new grid without any actions next round.(3 uses only for each player)

For each Move round a player may also take a Challenge, declare his current position and earn points. In a series of consecutive challenges, it’s 1 point for the first challenge, 2 points for the second, 4 points for the third, 8 points for the fourth and later ones. After 20 rounds without a successful attack, the player has the most points win the game.