Chess is boring, XChess is not.
Cards
Concept Art
The Concept
XChess is a chess variant using cards, counters and dice to extend the game of chess.
We broke the game of chess into three concepts of game play:
- Material - material is measured in the pawn values of the pieces in play. A queen is worth 9 pawns, rook 5, bishop and knights 3-4, and a king invaluable.
- Space - the 64 squares of the board are the game space
- Tempo - which player currently has the initiative and is controlling the action.
The game of chess exists in these three abstractions and they are determinate in normal game play.
We added cards that adds stochastic noise. The cards are played against the board, pieces in play or affect tempo.
General Rules
All cards are temporary, their effects last for 1d6 turns. All cards carry a potential cost for the advantage, some may cost a move, others cost material.
To balance these advantages in game play, the cards are played according to the following rules.
1.) Cards cannot be played into or out of a check for either side. A card that gives a player an extra move cannot be played if the first move results in a check.
2.) Players can contest card effects with a dice roll, made against the piece affected or between the two players with ties going to the card player
3.) When a card is played that creates a new bishop, knight or rook, that piece is the only piece that can be played during that turn and it cannot capture another piece with the exception of other spawns in its initial move. Following its initial move, a spawned piece moves and captures like any other piece on the board the duration of its existence.
4.) All counters are decremented at the end of the card player's turn.
Game Mechanics
Cards played against the board are placed in the square they affect.
Cards that are played against pieces are placed under or against the piece they affect.
Counters (such as those used in Magic the Gathering, or any other mechanism like beads, a stack of blocks, bottle caps, etc.) are used to decrement and expire the card.
A spawned piece that expires is removed from the board at the end of its duration.
The cards are designed for bootlegging, they can be printed and pasted to the front of a regular playing card.
* See the rules in the card set for a more detailed description of gameplay rules and mechanics.
