Tue 1 Apr 2008
WARNING: What follows is a game only a Geek can truly appreciate.
A while ago, I posted a design for a chess variant, that eventually became known as Eigen Chess, aka Schrödinger’s Pawn. It turns out to have been a very popular idea, that has generated much comment.
The success of Eigen Chess has prompted my to ponder more mashups of common games and exotic physics concepts. It is from this proud line that springs forth today’s design: Einstein-Rosen Bridge. For those who need a refresher, the Einstein-Rosen Bridge is a theoretical construct predicted by the general theory of relativity. Einstein you know, Nathan Rosen was collaborator with the Big E, and they published a paper in 1935, outlining the eponymous Bridge.
Those without a strong grounding in general relativity, or worse, without access to Wikipedia, will probably be familiar with the more common popular conception of the ERB, a science fiction trope called the wormhole.
A wormhole is a twist in the shorts of space-time that allows instantaneous travel between two points in our universe, or more likely, two points in parallel universes.
Bridge is a card game for four players, played with one or two standard decks, and it’s rules are more difficult to comprehend than the 1935 Einstein-Rosen paper that spawned this post.
Let’s get on with it, after the jump.
What You Will Need
- Two decks of standard playing card, of different colors
- Eight Players
- Two notepads and pencils (for scoring)
Playing the Game
We will assume the standard rules of Contract Bridge are in play, and focus primarily on the changes and additional rules.
Players are arranged into two Universes, each of which is a standard Bridge layout of players:
Universe One
(Declarer)
North
(Declarer) West East (Dummy)
South
(Dummy)
Universe Two
(Dummy)
North
(Declarer) West East (Dummy)
South
(Declarer)
Each Universe plays their own game, Bidding and Contracting as normal, and let’s assume the above layout of Declarer’s and Dummies.
After the bidding, the North/South Declarers from Universes One and Two look at each other hand (our first wormhole), as do the East/West Declarers.
The game now proceeds as normal. The winner of the bid in each universe starts off play. The games are played separately, but the turns must be synchronized, I.e., no turn can begin until a trick has been won in each universe.
The Next Wormhole
The next special rule: When, during a turn, a matching East/West or North/South pair from each universe are playing from the Dummy hand, they are bridge, and can play a card from either hand. In Bridge, the dummy hands are placed face-up after the bidding.
To prevent in-fighting over cards, and mixing of decks, we will assume that only information passes through the wormhole, so no card is exchanged between universes, but any face-up card in the dummy hand can be "played" by either universe.
Tricks and trumps are scored as usual, however, in the case of a tie (two of the same card from separate universes), the local or native card trumps the card from the parallel universe.
On to scoring!
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