Treehouse Rainbow Colours

Treehouse has won awards from numerous gaming industry sources for its simple yet challenging game play. It comes from Looney Labs, maker of several unusual games on the market.

COMPONENTS:

A clear plastic tube with an outline of instructions on the outside comes filled with five sets of colorful plastic pyramids, each set consisting of three stackable pieces. Also included are a six-sided die and a more complete set of instructions.

GAMEPLAY:

Up to four players can play, each receiving a colored set of three stackable pyramids. The pieces are arranged with the largest of the three on the bottom, and smallest on top--resembling a futuristic pine tree when assembled. The fifth set, called the "house," is arranged with its three pieces separated and oriented (both horizontally and vertically) along an imaginary line.

The goal of the game is players to orient their pieces to match the house.

Each player rolls the die. The die contains one printed action per side. The actions are Tip, Hop, Aim, Dig, Swap, and Wild.

- Tip a vertical piece or an entire stack onto its side.

- Hop a vertical piece over or onto other pieces.

- Aim a prone piece by reorienting it along the line.

- Dig a prone piece "through" the playing surface and into an upright position, either in place or on the other side of another playing piece.

- Swap a piece with another one.

- Wild lets the player choose one of the other five actions.

If a die roll yields a condition a player cannot meet, the player can instead modify the house's pieces to match the die roll.

The first player whose pieces match the house orientation wins.

PROS:

* Compact size means the game can fit into a pocket or purse.

* Colorful geometric pieces make for a futuristic look.

* Simple rules.

* A game plays in just a few minutes.

* Kids as young as six can play.

* Inexpensive.

CONS:

* While simple, what constitutes a legal move may not be readily apparent. (Thankfully, the expanded paper instructions list all possible piece orientation scenarios and their corresponding moves, a must for new players.)

* For players who understand the nuances of game play, winning becomes less about strategy and more about the luck of the die roll.

* The pyramid pieces are pointy--and sturdy. Not something you want to leave on the floor to step on accidentally, especially in bare feet!

CONCLUSIONS:

Treehouse is a quick, simple, inexpensive strategy game that can go anywhere. Waiting to be served at a restuarant? Break out a game of Treehouse to pass the time. Others will definitely want to know what you're doing. Next thing you know, you're evangelists for the game. The fine people at Looney Labs will thank you!

Icehouse peices, to be described as a deck of cards, as in playing cards are not a game unto themselves but a way to play hundreds of games with them, is a great cool looking system that is as yet not terribly well known.

In a normal set of Icehouse peices you get 5 stashes of Pyramids. They are like those little russian nesting dolls, with a bigger over a larger over a larger, they all fit inside. Small medium and Large pyramid, so with 5 stashes with 3 pieces to a stash, that's 15 playing peices. They are each a different color (to have a full set you evidentally need 5 of each color, which is to say buy 5 tubes of Icehouse peices, but i'll be sticking to the two I got) and each size has a number of dots corrisponding to it's value, which is intrinsically obvious anyway, small is 1 medium is 2 and large is 3.

The set comes with the rules to play a simple but engaging game called Treehouse, wich is fun and utilizes the included 6 sided custom die. But there are tons of games to play, all of wich rules can be found online. Of course there are booklets or pamphlets for various games utilizing anywhere from 1 to 5 full tubes of Icehouse, which can be purchased from looney labs. However an enterprizing individual doesnt have to look very hard to find them online.

The pieces are clear plastic, strong, and stack nicely, and make for a very unique kind of game play that just looks cool on your table top. I printed a custom "Martian Chess" board, for which I bought this set in particular, and have played on a normal chess board some other very similar games to what you know but unique and utilizing the stacking system they pyramids allow.

Basically, if you like games, and want to have a new "deck of cards" and dont mind looking up some rules or buying the preprinted pamphlets, this is a wonderful thing to buy. I'd suggest getting at least 2 sets though, in my case the Rainbow set of colors and the Xeno set of colors, so I have a total of 10 unique color stashes of pyramids.

This game might seem pretty hard when you read the directions, but once you start playing it gets really easy. Another piece of advice is to check out the website for an actual video demo of the game and see for yourself. I have the XENO edition and these pieces are quite beautiful. The compact size of the game is a big hit with me and so are these beautiful pieces, well worth the price and time.