*Star

Lore & Background

*Star was derived from Ea Ea's earlier game Star and first published in 2005 by Kadon Enterprises. According to the official rulebook, edited by Irene Schensted from Ea Ea's draft, Mark Thompson, Mariah Williams, and R. Wayne Schmittberger provided constructive input. The game can be played on graphs of different sizes, with small, medium, and full boards having 91, 169, and 271 nodes respectively, of which 30, 40, and 50 are on the perimeter.

Reader's Guide

*Star is closely related to the games Hex and Y, where the goal is to connect certain sides of the board, and also to Go, in which the goal is to gather more territory. The scoring system is distinctive: each perimeter node (peri) is worth 1 point, with an additional point for owning three or more quarks (corner nodes), plus an adjustment reward based on the difference in the number of stars each player has. This adjustment penalizes players with more stars and rewards efficient grouping. A simplified scoring system values each star as the number of peries it contains minus four. An alternative scoring system was suggested by R. Wayne Schmittberger. Because UCT search was used previously to provide a play-out method for Go, researchers in Finland successfully used a similar algorithm to create a strong computer-based player for *Star in 2008. John McCallion reviewed the game for Games in March 2005, calling it 'intriguing' due to 'the continuing dilemma that players face' of balancing scoring by occupying perimeter cells with the need to connect as many scoring groups as possible.

Did You Know?

• The board uses a polar coordinate system with five radial arms labeled *, S, T, A, or R.
• Perimeter cells are called pericells and each contains one peri; corner pericells each have one quark.
• The five-pointed star in the center acts as a bridge linking the five centermost nodes.