Quicksand is a real-time co-operative game in
which players work together to deactivate the "Quicksand", a dangerous
trap of gears and sand. You can't just race as quickly as possible,
though, because you must avoid setting off the trap.
To
set up, choose one of the 20+ scenarios, then lay out the gear tiles in
the specified path and place the appropriate sand timers — which have
different amounts of sand in them — on the first gears of the path. (The
path might have obstacles on it based on the particular scenario.)
Gears feature both a color (orange, yellow, gray) and a shape (square,
circle, crescent). Each player starts with a hand of three cards, with a
card showing one of the three colors, one of the three shapes, or a
sand timer.
Once the game starts, players play a
card in turn to try to advance the sand timers and keep them from
running out, refilling their hand after they play. When you play a color
or shape card, you flip all of the sand timers currently on this
color/shape, advancing them one space on the path if that next space is
empty. When you play a sand timer card, you flip any one timer,
advancing it, if possible. (If no timers are on gears matching the
played card, nothing happens.)
If a sand timer
runs out, flip it and place it next to the gear on which it was
previously located. If someone plays a sand timer card, they can recover
this timer by flipping and placing it back onto the gear — but only if
that tile is empty. If a set-aside timer runs out again, players lose
the game.
Once a timer reaches the last open
space on the path, played cards matching that gear's color/shape will
flip it — and if it runs out, you lose the game with no chance of
recovery. If the sand timers fill the final gear tiles on the path
without this happening, you win!