Core rules

The rules of a single game of Punched In: the board, the checkers, damage, and how a game is won or lost. For the words used here (order, pillar, refire, serve, plate…), see the glossary.

Board & checkers

• Each game is a game of classic backgammon (not Trictrac).
• The board is the pass. A checker on the board is an order; the 24 points keep their usual name, points.
• The player's whole collection of checkers is their menu. A menu is always exactly 15 checkers. See Drafting & curses.
• In a service, each minion controls 5 of the enemy's 15 checkers.
• Some enemy checkers have special abilities.
• Enemy placement: every enemy (minion or boss) has its own placement rule for its checkers, which can be fixed or a constrained random distribution. Each enemy's rule is documented on its biome page.

TBD

The special abilities of enemy checkers.

Damage & HP

• The player has HP; enemies have none.
• Enemy orders deal damage to the player when they are served.
• The run is lost if the player's HP reaches zero.

TBD

Exact damage values and the player's HP. See open questions.

Refire & the pillar

Hitting a lone enemy order refires it: it goes to the pillar (backgammon's "bar") and must re-enter the board before its side can move anything else, as in classic backgammon.

TBD

Any rule about refired orders beyond classic backgammon.

Serving

• Bearing off is serving. A served order becomes a plate on the pass shelf.
• The player wins a game by serving all of their own orders.
• Enemy orders deal damage to the player when they are served (see Damage & HP).

Win & loss conditions

What happens	In a service	Against a boss
The player serves all their orders	The player wins the game	The player wins the game
The enemy serves all 15 orders	The run continues (the player will have lost a lot of HP)	The player loses the run immediately

Current build

The Godot build has no HP and no enemies yet, so a lost game never ends the run there.

| The player's HP reaches zero | The run is lost | The run is lost |