Picaria is a two-player strategy board game played by Native American Indians. In this game you will have to move pieces to create the three-in-a-row. Picaria is an alignment game.
The game resembles and seems like a cross between Tic-Tac-Toe and Checkers at the same time. Therefore, it develops tactics, strategy and memory skills.
Features of the Picaria Game
| ★ Game Name | Picaria |
| ★ Group size | small (for 2 players) |
| ★ Age | 4+ |
| ★ Type | stationary |
| ★ Skill | memory / erudition |
| ★ Place | indoor |
| ★ Time | up to 5 – 15 min |
| ★ Preparation | no |
| ★ Materials | yes (paper, pen and two sets of any markers) |
Aim of the Game
This is an abstract strategy game in which the aim is tocreate a three-in-a-row of one’s pieces either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
Group Size and Ages
Picariais a game for 2-people.
This is a great game to play with anyone aged 4 and up. However, if somebody can understand the instructions and they can hold a pen, then there is no real minimum age for this game.
Preparation and Materials
To prepare for pen and paper game Picaria, you’ll need the following materials:
- A surface to play the game.
- Game board (draw your own, or use our printable game board).
- Two sets of markers with 3 in each set (for example, 6 bottle caps in 2 different colors, checkers, or anything similar).
| Printable copy of Picaria with board Download. Patterns are Adobe PDF fileson standard letter-size paper (8.5″x11″ or A4).
When printing from Adobe Reader, you may need to select Auto-Rotate and Center or Choose paper source by PDF page size to ensure the best fit. |
Variations to Picaria
There are two variations to Picaria. The rules are the same.
- Simple. The first version has only 9 spaces or intersection points.
- Advanced. The second version uses 13 spaces or intersection points.
How to play Paper Game: Picaria
- Players decide who start first (for example, by rollinga dice, flipping a coin or playing rock-paper-scissors).
- Players also decide what colors to play.
- Dropphase.
- Each player places one piece per turn on any vacant space on the board except the center (central intersection point).
- Players alternate their turns.
- Players cannot move their piecesuntil all players have completed placing their pieces on the board.
- Movephase.
- Players take turns moving one piece along a line to an adjacentand vacant intersection on the board.
- During this phase, players can move their pieces to the center intersection.
- Jumping is not allowed.
Ending
In Picaria, the first player to move their pieces into 3-in-a-row wins (no spaces between allowed).
- A row can be diagonal, horizontal or vertical.
- If you are playing the advanced version of this game (with 13 spaces or intersection points), in this case, a row can be across the large square or one of the small squares.
If any player cannot move, the game is declared a tie.
| Picaria is an abstract strategy game.
Although it is easy to learn and simple to play, it is also a quite intellectual game because this game is not based on chance (such as dice games). Thus, it requiresusingthinking skills and develops attention and logic. |