*New* 4 Player Variant Crokinole Rules

We play crokinole quite a bit at my work. We've recently worked out a four-player variant that we enjoy even more than a standard two player game or a four-player two-team game. Thanks Artem!

Each player has their own set of twelve discs. You need four different colors or at least fourdistinguishable sets of discs. Select a starting player and play proceeds clockwise from them until all discs have been shot.

For the sake of clarity in the rules, the player directly across the table from you is your "essential opponent." The people seated on either side of you are your "non-essential opponents."

[Edit: We have since changed the rules so that the essential opponent is now the person who shoots immediately before you rather than the person opposite you. This allows for easier 3-person play and also doesn't give the first-player advantage to the second-player as well. It also makes things more devious with more player interaction.]

A couple extra rules to observe:

1) We have found it's best to play to fifty points, as the rounds take more than twice as much time as a typical two-player crokinole round, and the scores per round tend to be lower.

2) If your essential opponent has a disc on the table, you must hit it for your piece to stay on the board, just as in two player crokinole. If your non-essential opponents have discs on the table, but your essential opponent does not, you may take a free shot at the center as though there were no discs but your own on the board.

I should mention that we play that if you do not have an opposing disc on the board that you need to contact, then your shot must end within the fifteen zone or at least touching the 10/15 line. This is per the rules used at the World Crokinole championship:

http://www.worldcrokinole.com/rules.html

3) You MAY do a relay (combination) shot using one or more of your non-essential opponents' discs in order to contact a disc of your essential opponent. However, only your disc(s) is/are removed in the event that you fail to contact your essential opponent's discs. Any of your non-essential opponents' discs that you have contacted in your shot remain where they land regardless of whether the relay (combination) shot was successful or not. If they go off the board, they remain off the board. If they go off the board and bounce back on, they are removed as normal

4) This is not a rule per se, but a clarification. In the same way that it is perfectly legal in standard crokinole to throw away your own piece by not trying for your opponent's piece and instead merely shooting yours off the board, so in the same way, in this four-player variant, you can "throw away" your piece. However, in this game, as per rule #3 above, you may take one or more of your non-essential opponents' discs out with you. That is, any of your non-essential opponents' discs that you move or even remove from the board, remain where they land. You will find yourself doing this more often than you would think. In particular toward the end of the game in order to block a win. But also near the end of a round when you want to reduce the score of the leading opponent, even if they are non-essential.

5) Only one player scores per round and the score is the highest score minus the second highest score. Basically throw the two lowest scores away and then score the game as you would score a two-player round.

This four-player variant is quite a bit more cutthroat than playing with two teams of two. Making twenty point shots becomes even more critical in this game than in a two-player game. The likelihood that a piece of yours is going to remain on the board is significantly lowered. You definitely need to take a little more time to calculate what shot is going to be most advantageous to you score-wise. Oftentimes, a player who is losing a particular round can engineer a zero-score by helping two players to tie. It can get downright devious when three-players team up to block a win for the point leader! 

We are enjoying this variant more right now than standard two-player crokinole. I hope others enjoy this variant as much as we have been!

4 Player Crokinole Variant Rules Credit: Artem

Download the PDF of the 4 Player Crokinole Variant Rules

Submitted to Crokinole Canada via mail by Mick Garvey

More 4 player crokinole resources:

Get 4 player crokinole disc sets here:

https://crokinole.ca/collections/tournament-size-crokinole-discs

Get 4 player point tracker here:

https://crokinole.ca/products/4-player-crokinole-point-tracker

Get tournament round or traditional octagon crokinole boards here:

https://crokinole.ca/collections/crokinole-boards