Kal-toh (Star Trek)

Kal-Toh (kal-toe) is a game set in the fictional Star-Trek universe. Created by the Vulcans, it is a game of intense strategy set about to "find the seeds of balance amidst profound chaos". It was first featured in the Star-Trek Voyager series, often played by Tuvok and a partner.

The game itself involves a large number of grey "sticks", similar to McDonalds-sized french fries. The game involves a few dozen grey french fries, themselves being composed of photons on a miniature-holodeck type playing board, which have to be placed in specific ways to eventually lead to design an icosidodecahedron. The number of positions to place the pieces is akin to the number of possible positions capable of winning a game of chess, so great thought is needed to accomplish a seemingly simple end, as their are innumerable possibilities for placing the pieces.

Kal-Toh can be played singularly or against an opponent, each taking their turn to place a piece. Although both players are each working to the same end, so it is unknown as to how one is declared the winner, unless at all times there is a single possibility or placement position for a stick to complete the "puzzle", which would declare the first player to find the winning position a winner.

The players place the pieces on a "stack" of grey playing sticks that seem to support their own intertangled position, much like balancing a bunch of similar-sized wooden sticks on top of each other, producing a self-supported jumble of balanced sticks.

In an episode of Voyager, Tuvok was quoted as saying "Kal-Toh is to chess as chess is to Tic-Tac-Toe". (episode "Alter Ego")