The Ultimate GIPF Board
Kris Burm's GIPF series (http://www.gipf.com/) is a masterwork of abstract strategy design. Here you will find a board designed to play nearly all the games in the series. It works with dvonn, gipf, tzaar, yinsh, lyngk, and zertz (although zertz doesn't really need a board, so this is cheating a bit). The pieces for punct are a bit too unusual so it doesn't work with that one.
Patrons get access to jpeg and tiff files of the board so they can print their own. They also get to make suggestions for new boards and design ideas. Join here: Singularity Games Patreon
There are currently three versions of the board available for purchase:
Neoprene Rubber Mat Board
https://www.printerstudio.com/sell/designs/ultimate-gipf-board-rubber-mat.html
This mat is 18 by 18 inches with a spacing of 41.4 mm between the center of the pieces. The printed board is about 1.5 mm thick.
Cloth Board
https://www.printerstudio.com/sell/designs/ultimate-gipf-board-cloth.html
It is 22 by 22 inches wide and has the same 46.4 mm spacing between the pieces as the Yinsh board. The cloth is about 0.25 mm thick making it very compact.
Quad-Fold Board
https://www.thegamecrafter.com/make/products/QuadFoldBoard
An 18x18 inch foldable game board, which folds down to 9x9 inches. Has a spacing of 41.4 mm between the center of the pieces.To pick up this board, become a Singularity Games patron and click here for the discount code.
The rolled up mat.
The cloth board folded up.
The quad-fold board folded up.
Design Notes
The big challenge when designing this board was to make the boundaries of each board distinct enough to identify when playing a specific game, but not too distracting when playing the others. One of the beautiful things about many of Kris Burm's game designs is that the pieces themselves determine the movement possibilities such that as pieces are moved the number of possible future moves decrease. This means that the games are always moving towards a conclusion. As far as designing a board that encompasses many of his games, this means that it is only necessary to design something that helps designate the starting spaces for setup (as well as still helping to indicate the number of empty spaces between pieces as a game progresses). The pieces themselves from that point on can help differentiate one game board from another.
GIPF Board:
Highlighted GIPF Board
The GIPF pieces are placed on the large dots and then slid inward.
Playing GIPF using upside-down TZAAR pieces.
DVONN Board:
Highlighted DVONN Board
The large dotted circles indicate the placement for the DVONN pieces.
The DVONN board set up.
TZAAR Board:
Highlighted TZAAR Board
The TZAAR board is indicated by the light blue hexagon and the larger dots . As the center space is not played on during the game it is surrounded by a darker grey color to distinguish it from other spaces.
The TZAAR board set up.
YINSH Board:
Highlighted YINSH Board
Yinsh is played on all of the dots. The only locations not playable in Yinsh are the two most lateral dotted circles (used for Dvonn). There are also three circular indications on each player's side of the board to place scoring rings.
YINSH being played on the Ultimate GIPF board.
LYNGK Board:
Highlighted LYNGK Board
The LYNGK board is designated by the darker star shape in the center of the board.
LYNGK set up and ready to play.
Version changes:
Version 8 - Tweaked colors slightly
Version 7 - Added Lyngk Board