Lotus (board game)
Lotus is a board game for two to four players developed by Dominique Teller and published by Ravensburger Spieleverlag. The object of the game is to move one's pieces off the board before the other players. The game board is hexagonal in shape; it has a large image of a Chinese dragon in the middle, and a Chinese character in each board position.
Gameplay
If you have two players, one player is given ten white game pieces while the other player gets ten black game pieces. The pieces are stacked in the middle of the board as one stack of 4 pieces, one stack of 3 pieces, one stack of 2 pieces and one stack of 1 piece. If you have 3 or 4 players then each player gets 6 pieces, stacked in the middle in stacks of 3, 2 and 1. Each player takes turns moving their pieces in an attempt to get to the exit space on the game board. A player can only move a piece that is on top of a stack or that is the only piece left in a stack. The height of the stack determines how far you can move your piece. Therefore; a piece in a stack of 1 can only move 1 space forward, a piece in a stack of 2 can move 2 spaces forward. A player may decide which of the two starting positions to move their piece to, both positions lead to one exit position and no piece can be moved backwards. During your turn, you can stack any of your colored pieces on top of any other single piece, empty position, or existing stack. After the game starts there is no limit to how many pieces can be in a stack. You can move any of your pieces forward, even if you still have pieces in the start square.
There are two types of play for when you have no possible moves. In regular gameplay if no piece of your color is on top of a stack or by itself on a square, you cannot move any of your pieces. You can however, move any other players pieces forward, or you can lose your turn.
Additionally there are professional rules in this scenario. They state that if you have no possible moves you must skip your turn and wait until one of your pieces is free to move. Usually if there are only two players in the game the regular rules apply.
The finish position is after the last square on the board. You do not have to land exactly on it. If you have moved a piece to the finish take it off the board out of play. The game is over when a player has moved all their pieces off the board.
Additionally in professional 2 player games, the person to start the game can use their initial turn to move two pieces at once. Then the next player moves one piece, according to the main rules.