Tak Table

What it is

Tak is a game of roads. Two players take turns putting stones on a square board, or moving stacks of them, and the first to join two opposite edges with a connected road of their own flats wins. It comes from Patrick Rothfuss's The Wise Man's Fear; James Ernest and Rothfuss made it a real game, published by Cheapass Games in 2016. Tak Table is a fan-made place to play it, not the game's makers: see the credits, and get a real set from Crab Fragment Labs.

This version is for two people sitting across a table with one phone lying flat between them. Each player's panel faces them, the board is drawn in 3D, and you play by tapping squares.

• Your own pieces. Each player carries two kits, one light and one dark, each with its own design, stone and colour, and a board of their own. Whichever side you play, you bring the matching half of the set: a nod to the book, where travellers carry half a set and play whoever they meet.
• Billow and Shard are two of the six sets: pieces Ricky designed and 3D-printed for his own table, built here from the same models.
• Every size from 3×3 to 8×8, with the standard stone and capstone counts, and the opening swap if you want it.
• Eight short lessons, one move each: stones, roads, walls, stacks, spreading, the capstone, flattening a wall, and the opening swap. They're offered the first time you open it.
• Undo, and hints that light up where a lifted stack can go. Press and hold any stack to see what's in it.
• A running tally of every pairing, with the full history of games, kept on the phone.