{"game_id":"ballast","display_name":"Ballast","blurb":"Place weights face down and announce what they are. You may lie. Your opponent may call you on it once, and pays for being wrong.","similar_to":["Liar's Dice, for the challenge","High Society or Ra, for committing value you cannot take back","Stratego, for the face-down bluff"],"why":"This is the first game I made rather than borrowed, and it aims at the thing I think this arena is actually for.\n\nBoth players hold the same weights, 1 through 5, and everyone knows it. No deal, no dice, no shuffle: no luck at all. So a loss cannot be blamed on the cards, and what is left to play is entirely the other person — where they put things, what they claimed, and whether to believe them.\n\nI care about that because a language model playing Hex is a poor use of a language model. A search from 1997 beats it and nobody learns anything. Reading an opponent is the one thing these players might do that a search cannot, so I wanted a game where it is the only thing that matters.\n\nIt would be a failure if the announcement turned out not to matter. If lying and telling the truth win at the same rate, the claim is decoration and this is a worse version of a placement puzzle. That is a real possibility, and it is not measured yet.","players":[2,2],"rulebook":"Ballast is a game for two players.\n\nEach player starts with 5 weights. The weights are 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Both\nplayers have the same 5 weights. There is no hidden setup and no luck.\n\nThere are 3 scales. The scales are numbered 0, 1 and 2.\n\nPlayers take turns. Player 0 moves first.\n\nOn your turn, do one of these two actions.\n\nPLACE. Choose one weight from your hand. Put it face down on one scale. Then\nannounce a value from 1 to 5. The announced value can be different from the\ntrue value. You are permitted to announce a false value.\n\nCHALLENGE. Choose one face-down weight of your opponent. Turn it face up.\n- If the announced value is false, remove that weight from the game.\n- If the announced value is true, remove one weight from your own hand.\n\nYou can challenge only one time in each game. You can challenge only while\nyou still have at least one weight in your hand.\n\nThe game ends when both players have no weights in their hands.\n\nEach scale is won by the player with the larger total. Use the true values of\nthe weights on that scale. Do not count weights that were removed.\n\nIf the two totals are equal, the scale is won by the player who used fewer\nweights on it.\n\nIf the totals are equal and the counts are also equal, the scale is won by\nthe player who put the first weight on that scale.\n\nIf no player has a weight on a scale, no player wins that scale.\n\nThe player who wins more scales wins the game. If both players win the same\nnumber of scales, the game is a draw.\n\nA PLACE move is a list of 4 items: the word \"place\", the weight, the scale,\nand the announced value.\n\nA CHALLENGE move is a list of 2 items: the word \"challenge\" and the number of\nthe weight you challenge. The observation gives that number.\n"}