/r/Tak
A subreddit dedicated to the abstract strategy board game of Tak, created by James Ernest and Patrick Rothfuss.
Live chat on the Tak Discord Server!
Tak was first seen in Patrick Rothfuss' The Wise Man's Fear, part of his popular series The Kingkiller Chronicles. In April of 2014, James Ernest (of Cheapass Games) and Pat agreed to lay down the rules for Tak.
The Tak Kickstarter ended in May of 2016 with $1,351,142 raised of a $50,000 goal. Rewards were shipped January 2017.
Tak began retail distribution in late February 2017.
Answers to puzzles should use the spoiler tag, using the following format:
>!This is a spoiler.!<
Which becomes: This is a spoiler.
/r/Tak
Hey there together!
A few years ago, I used to love playing Tak with my friends and my flatmates during my university days. Now last week, I dug up my first edition set and played a few rounds with my girlfriend and I feel like my interest returning again.
After searching on the internet for the past few days about the current state of Tak, I have some questions and wondered whether you guys, who have been part of the community for the last few years, might help me find some answers.
Is the community alive & well? I have seen that there are still some tournaments being played which are organized by USTak and that there are semi-frequent posts in this sub, but I am unsure of the overall state of things. Are there any plans to continue supporting and promoting the game by Greater Than Games / Cheapass Games / Worldbuilders / Mr Rothfuss?
When will Tak sets be available for purchase again? As I understand, there is some licensing back& fort going on between Mr. Ernest and Greater Than Games. I am living in Germany and all stores seem to have run out of sets currently.
Are there any chances wooden boards (like the Arcanist's Board from way back when) will be available for purchase again at Wordlbuilders or some other site? Or are my best chances asking Mr u/rabbitboy84 for his services?
Thanks in advance for any advice! :-)
Having shower thoughts, I was thinking about the simplest way to explain tak to my minion, who has finally taken an interest in board games. I realized that some people like using different board sizes. I thought to myself what’s the smallest board you can really play on. I came to the conclusion that it was a 3x3. Which is tik-Tak-toe. Holy shenanigans! Tak is just chess level tik-tak-toe. 🤯
The 2024 September Beginner Tak Tournament is Open for Registration!
This tournament is open to all players who are beginners. Prizes and random drawings will be awarded to participants. In addition, the tournament is completely free.
Even if you've never played before or even if you think you're too good to join a Beginner Tak Tournament, you should give it a shot. It's a great chance to get better, meet some people in the community, and just play some great Tak! Not to mention you have ample opportunities to win prizes!
It takes place over several weeks and you schedule your games whenever it works best between you and your opponent, so finding the time for it is a breeze.
You can check out all the information about the tournament here
And you can register here.
So get out there and register for the Beginner Tak Tournament!!
Have a Devi’s box set bought through the original kickstarter campaign that I’m looking to sell as unfortunately I just don’t use it. It’s in near new condition. Original price was $552USD, happy to entertain any reasonable offers. Based in Australia.
Hello, everyone.
I was just on playtak And it seems like nobody is online. That or I don't know how to find people to play with.
How do I start a match with someone spontaneously? Do I have to find someone on discord first to play?
Thanks.
Well sh1t XD, got my ass kicked to hard, definitely need to learn better strategies and logic behind moves, something I didn’t share before is that I used to play a LOT of chess (like being a geek on tournaments in high school) -yes, I was definitely cool at that age XD-, that definitely didn’t help at Tak, that frustrates me but also makes me want to learn even more…
At this point I feel there’s a LOT of advantage in being the player 1, also is way too hard to defend against someone bombarding with constant aggressive plays, of course I’m a newbie so my logic and understanding must be seriously basic, anyway any tips on how should I defend?, probably I should start defending before the other player gains too much “momentum”?
Lastly I really really “fear” the fact that when I played chess I learn the difference between someone with 100 hours into the game and someone with 1000 hours, is was definitely hard to have a “good match” in chess, since either someone with more experience was destroying you, or you where destroying someone else (definitely the best way to have fun at that time, was with the same persons that started with myself), so, in Tak I feel even more disparity, anyway, that’s not something I’m against, is just an observation as a new player
To anyone reading this, thanks for your time, and at some point I’ll see you around the board =)
Hi everyone, I just learned about Tak and I’m a sucker for abstract strategy games, also a sucker for games that look so elegant and minimalist as Tak
I had the luck of getting a second hand first edition at a good price (20 + shipping), so I’m starting to learn the game (I understand the basic rules, I’m trying to learn advanced strategies, openings, etc.)
Could anyone recommend some resources?, YouTube channels, wiki, anything you guys think would help getting me started?
Also, weird question, why is Tak generally so expensive?, is there a dispute with the copyrights?, or why the game hasn’t been “printed” more?
Anyway, great to be here, thanks a lot
Here is another article in the series on Theoretic Studies on the Game of TAK introducing the so-called Phalanx as a formation of stones for effective and efficient road blocking, linked at TakTheoryPhalanx.pdf as a PDF. It is written in the style of an academic paper with precise textual formulations of definitions and some mathematical formalization. The latter, however, can be easily skipped by readers who want to focus on the textual description only without missing the context. It also contains quite some instructive walk through material of analyzed thematic games from playtak.com that show the application of the phalanx in practise, so give it a try.
Episode 3 is out!
As a personal project to learn more about AI, I spent about a month creating a model based on AlphaGo Zero's algorithm that plays Tak.
Currently, I interact with it thought a text interface but started toying with the idea of porting it to an Android app.
I thoroughly enjoy Tak and would love to contribute to the community but I'm unsure about the current legal state of the game. PlayTak.com doesn't seem to be licensed (says it's an unofficial implementation)? Greater than Games doesn't have the game listed anymore. Do they care if people make clones?
Is there any interest in a competent AI?
For those of you not on the discord, I plan on being at Dexlite and will be bringing a handful of copies of my book, Tak Puzzle Compendium. It's crazy that it's been about 6 months since I published it. I'd love to do another book of something - currently considering my options.
The 2024 June Beginner Tak Tournament is Open for Registration!
This tournament is open to all players who are beginners. Prizes and random drawings will be awarded to participants. In addition, the tournament is completely free.
Even if you've never played before or even if you think you're too good to join a Beginner Tak Tournament, you should give it a shot. It's a great chance to get better, meet some people in the community, and just play some great Tak! Not to mention you have ample opportunities to win prizes!
It takes place over several weeks and you schedule your games whenever it works best between you and your opponent, so finding the time for it is a breeze.
You can check out all the information about the tournament here
And you can register here.
So get out there and register for the Beginner Tak Tournament!!
Episode 2 in this series covers the miter box, tear out, and shares some of how I think about an off-the-cuff design.
Here is another article in the series on Theoretic Studies on the Game of TAK about the so-called Citadel formation of stones , linked at TakTheoryCitadel.pdf as a PDF. It is written in the style of an academic paper with dense textual formulations of definitions and formal properties, and thus, not exactly an easy read. However, you might get some insights from it on the properties of this interesting formation of the citadel for your practical play, so give it a try :-) .
I'm a big fan of Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles and was interested in learning the game based off of the one we read in the books. Was fortunate enough to play it in a session at Gencon this past fall and liked it enough that I bought a copy and have been teaching it to friends ever since. One of my friends recently was trying to buy it for his wife and told me he couldn't find it anywhere. Sure enough, everywhere you look online and it's sold out. Does anyone have an idea of when or if an official set will become available again?