Chess sucks...

edited in Projects
...so I decided to change it.

Ok, ok. You can calm down now, I don't really think chess sucks. In fact, I want you to play even more chess than you are playing at the moment. (If you don't play chess, now is the perfect time to learn ;) )

I want to attempt a little learning exercise by using chess(a framework most of us know and understand) and see what wonderful information can be gleaned from changing it.

The idea is to play chess with slightly different rules. Every two weeks there will be a new rule. Starting from today, until the end of the year.

Then(after playing with the fortnight's rule) post any and all thoughts about how the rule changes the experience/perceptions and maybe how it could be improved or used in other ways.

I initially thought that it'd be something I'd do on my own, but then I realised that it would be more fun if more guinea pigs people participated. It would also be useful to get a lot of different perspectives.

Hopefully this exercise will bring some revelations in game design about or at the very least inspire some cool new games through the year. :)

I look forward to reading your thoughts!

Rules so far
[url = http://www.makegamessa.com/discussion/1551/chess-sucks-#Item_5](13 Jan) 01 - Broadway[/url]
[url = http://makegamessa.com/discussion/1551/chess-sucks-#Item_19](24 Feb) 02 - One for all, and...[/url]
Thanked by 1hermantulleken

Comments

  • I think this will result in the type of completeness Jon Blow is sometimes talking about. It will certainly be of benefit to me because I am striving to achieve this in Montez.
  • @Kobusvdwalt9, I've never heard of that concept. Do you have a link of him discussing it?
  • Broadway

    I thought I'd start us off with a simple one. Add two "lanes" at the side edges of the board. That's it.

    This means that the new board will be 10 squares wide, continuing the checkered pattern of the board(for what's it worth). No extra pieces get added, which means it will be an empty column at the start of the game.

    I suggest cutting strips of paper and roughly colouring in the black squares and simply sticking(or placing) them beside the board so that you remember there are extra spaces available.

    Normal Board
    image

    Broadway Board
    image

    Will you secure the lane with your rook? Or try to flank with your knights. With 16 extra squares the possibilites are 16 times more interesting. :P
  • My immediate thought is that you remove castle-ing immediately by adding the strips on the side, it is much harder to secure your king.

    Will think some more and come back with more feedback.
  • I also thought that castling is out and that has its own ramifications that goes with it. Sicilian players will be stronger than most in this position. I am trying to play a few games but this is really weird.
  • @Rigormortis - Do you know how much you have cost me in ink today. Printing all those black squares really chowed my cartridge - will revert with better feedback in due time.
  • @edg3, good. I hate it when people castle right from the start anyway. :D

    @Kobusvdwalt9, also good. The weirder it feels the better, but try to describe the weird...why does it feel weird? Is it weird because you are trying to play normal chess? Is it weird because you're used to blocking lanes with your peons. Why? Why is the word of the year. :P

    @FanieG, I want to say I'm sorry...but I'm not. :D No, I really am sorry. I'm trying to keep the rules "cheap" to implement. The solution I had in mind was more along the lines of just doing some chicken scratch on the squares. There isn't really any real reason for the checkered pattern anyway. Not after the pieces have been setup anyway.
  • Do you already have all the rules needed for the year i.e. 1 for every week? Because I have a doozy for you that could be the rule change 1 of the weeks. Give it a "Risk the boardgame" element where battles are decided by a roll of the dice.
  • @FanieG I'm going to be posting every 2nd week only. I thought that it would give more time to actually play some games. And I don't have all of them, but I do have most of them. I am planning something along the lines of what you mentioned but haven't fleshed out the idea enough.

    But I'm still open to suggestions. :) Part of this is to experiment with the rules as well. So if you feel like changing it up a bit tell us what you did and how that changed the game. So for instance if you want to make a change related to the Broadway rule you can add two rows of eight behind the back row and see what happens. Or even add 4 squares in the middle of the board on each side to make it a cross shape board(sort off).
  • Remember my chess with cards experiment? :)

    From my doing that my research revealed like a BAZILLION chess variants already, so it might be helpful (or completely not) to have a look at existing variants :)
    Thanked by 1Fengol
  • @Tuism, I do indeed remember your experiment. I've thought about it a great deal while thinking up some rules for this. I used some of the same elements you used in some of the rules.

    I also looked at some of the other variants of chess, but the fact is that most of those(that I saw anyway) are trying to improve chess in it's current form. This is not a bad thing, but it's not what I'm aiming to do with this campaign. I did use them in some cases as inspiration though. :)
  • sounds like chess the gathering:
    Thanked by 1francoisvn
  • @omegadrakk, HA! That actually looks pretty cool. Thanks for the share.
  • That's more like a wargame than anything, but that's not a bad thing :)

    Looks like the more one sticks to chess the less interesting it actually is to people who enjoy chess, and the further you deviate the more you attract "regular" gamers...
  • You're not the only one who wants to re-invigorate chess

  • Bennet Foddy's Speed Chess


  • edited
    Hi everyone,

    soooooo I'm not finding the time to post these as frequently as I wanted...but rather late than starting a zombie apocalypse amirite? Here goes the second one:

    All for one, and...

    For this one you each player secretly selects either a bishop, rook or knight before the game starts. This can be done by simple writing it on a scrap of paper and revealing the choice at the same time.

    Once this has been done the game proceeds as normal except all your bishops, rooks and knights act like the chosen piece. This means you essentially have 6 bishops, rooks or knights. Note that this does not change the behavior of the queen, king or any pawns.

    Have at it!
  • My feedback on this has been as scarce as your posts. Will try this version with some mates tomorrow and then try to revert with actual feedback this time.
  • @FanieG, cool. :)

    I really want to try this out with both players having knights...seems interesting.

    PS. Thanks for reminding me people actually do know about this :P
  • @Rigormortis - played 4 games of All for 1 over the weekend. My 2 main issues/discoveries were:

    1. Unless you have a lot of chess pieces. Keeping track of/remebering what pieces moved which way was a challenge. We are so use to the moves a piece can make due to what they looked like, that it was hard to change that mindset. If you had enough bishops, rooks or knights to actually change them all on the board it would make keeping track of strategies a lot easier. I had to constantly remind myself that my rook or bishop was actually a knight. Hope that makes sense. If the game was a digital one this would not be a problem, as it would be easy to change all the pieces to look the same. Weird how our brains work. Did not think before playing that this would be an issue.

    2. By the 3rd round we were more use to remembering that all the pieces act as 1 piece and found that the game became a lot quicker. It almost got a checkers kind of feel (this was when all of the pieces were bishops). The reverse was true when all of the pieces were rooks. That game lasted for ever and was also the hardest to keep track of. I felt like I was always on the back foot defending during that round (opponent was playing with bishops). The toughest games were when both players decided on the same pieces.

    This was really chess with a difference and should be considered more.
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