Defiant Explorer
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Game in game.
🕑 Added 2023-07-29 08:38:04 +0000 UTCHave you ever wondered why, in some default fantasy worlds, characters sometimes play chess? I mean, not in the board game as such, but in the very "earthly" chess. The ancestors of chess originated in ancient India and the figures there, albeit conventionally, reflect ancient Indian military formations. Then... how? Was ancient India there? No? But exist a full replica of real chess? It's easier that way, yes, I know... Too bad I'm not one of those who follow the easy ways...
Anyway, I knew that board games are also played in the Civilized Realms. Including the local "chess"... Only it wasn't chess. For a while, that realization just lingered somewhere in the back of my mind. But there came a moment when it mattered. And I had to invent... a nonexistent board game.
So, in the game you will meet two hyperlinks. The first one is for general understanding. The second one (opened through the first one) will give a more specific description if you click on "rules". Here are the descriptions from these links:
1. Figurines is a board game where two players take turns moving their warrior figures on a wooden board divided into hexagons by specific rules [hyperlink].
2. I know how to play the figurines [hyperlink]. The board is divided into twelve by twelve hexagons. Each player places three rows of figures from his board's edge.
The first row is the militia, twelve figures. They can move only in the direction of the three front hexagon divisions and can attack other figures only there. Militias can't move or attack backward in any direction. If a militia figure reaches the opposite edge of the board, it becomes a veteran.
The second row is the veterans, six figures. They line up across one empty hexagon behind the militia. Unlike militia, they move and attack in any direction by one hexagon.
The third row is a warlord figure and two pharxes [hyperlink] figures. The warlord can move and attack in any direction as a veteran, but if this figure is killed - the game is lost. Also, the warlord may switch places with any nearby friendly figure standing on an adjacent hexagon as his turn.
Pharxes can move and attack up to three hexagons on the line in any direction and «leap» over the friendly figures. They are the strongest figures on the board and the only ones who can kill up to three foe figures on the line in one turn.
Each player may place the warlord figure anywhere on the third row except the outermost hexagons to the left and right board’s sides. But the pharxes figures are always placed to the left and right of the warlord in the game beginning.
Before the game, players determine in any way who is the defender and who is the attacker. The first turn is for the attacker. Also, player figurines are usually made of different types of wood so that they can be easily distinguished from each other. Expensive types of figurines are often painted and varnished, can be skillfully carved into the shape of warriors, or even cast in precious metals.
Note for those who have forgotten. Pharx is a large, bipedal bird that is used in warfare as a riding animal. Or rather, as a local kind of tank... A description of them is in the game since Chapter 1.
Why figurines? Well, I was leaning between "warlords" and "figurines", but I decided on the latter because it's conceptually closer to chess or checkers.
However, if you have ideas for a name - don't be greedy, share them. The main thing here is not a name's beauty but how such a game could be called in this world if it were real. So, please, no names like "Warhammer -4k"...
The same goes for the rules of figurines. Until these descriptions are in the game, they are still not canon and I can easily change them if you see some inconsistencies or something. But when they're going to be in the game, with descriptions of figures or moves in some scene - any adjustments will become much more... problematic.
Will there be a simulated figurines game mode, kind of like some games being able to play Black Jack? Mmm... no. Too complicated. Sometimes they'll just be background, like "Selene walked past two people playing figurines [hyperlink]." If Selene were to play herself, this would most likely be implemented through Mind checks, with general descriptions of what's happening on the game board, like you made a good move and beat a couple of enemy veterans, or on the contrary, an enemy pharx killed three of your militia and is now threatening the warlord, what to do?
Selene can also watch other characters play and maybe give some of them advice. A smart Selene will give good advice. A stupid... umm... Selene with a low Mind stat will probably give some... low-minded advice. But you can always distract another player in a different way...
So many potentially interesting possibilities. That's why I've bothered detailing the rules of a non-existent game.
UPD. Interesting... I've been "putting together" a sort of schematic formation in this non-existent figurine game. Where the pawns are the militia. Rooks are veterans. The king is a warlord. And the knights are the pharxes. Here's how it turns out:
Because these are hexagons and not squares, a "pretty" 12x12 division won't work. The field has to be ~13x9. And the militia figures, accordingly, should be 13, not 12.
Everything else, in theory, should work. Well, I'll make those changes to the in-game descriptions.
P.S. Yeah-yeah, I know... I need to get laid or find a hobby. Oh, wait...
UPD 2. Okay, if you want to do something, do it well or don't do it at all. I modeled the field and the figure positioning at the beginning of the game in art form:
This art will most likely be inside a hyperlink with the rules for playing the figurines. And then descriptions of how the figures move. That way, I think it will be much more visual and understandable.
Modifications:
- The field is roughly ~13x13. Fuck knows how to count hexagons... But nevertheless, the art shows the field as it is.
- The militia now has 14 figures, and the veterans have 7. All of them turn the same way as previously described.
- There is an empty space on the flanks. Intentionally. Space for maneuvers and flank attacks.
- Now I have a ready template with the possibility to make art for this game about a particular formation of figures in a described game round. But I'm still leaning towards general descriptions and Mind checks instead of simulating the game turn by turn. Arts would be useful for general visualization of the situation on the board.
P.P.S. Damn... sometimes I think I overthink things. But those little details... They matter.
Comments
Defiant Explorer
Point taken. I'll think about it. When I imagined playing this game, I was thinking about players placing their formations on their first turns and watching each other reactions and changes in formation to adapt. So I thought about hexagons since they allow you to move militias in different directions forward, with veterans building up in between. It doesn't quite work that way with squares. As for the difficulty for an artisan to make a board like this... All that is needed is the ability to make a mark before starting work. It's a little harder than cutting out the squares, but not much. And hexagons have a natural counterpart that could be a source of inspiration - honeycombs. Perfect layout.
DamnedFrog
From a realistic point of view, a square checkerboard pattern seems more easier to draw. If this game is played only by some elite/upper class people, we could suppose they get their boards from good craftsmen who take time to make hexagonal grid. But if it's a popular game and you can find players even in secluded villages, I think a squared grid make more sense. You can easily draw it on a plank, even on the ground in the sand/dirt. I believe it's why lot of old board-games use square grid: Chess, Checker, Shogi (Japanese chess), Roman Latrunculli, Greek Petteia, Scandinavian Tafl old games... Even with Go and Xiangqi (Chinese chess) where beans/pieces are placed on the intersections and not the square, it's a square pattern. So it's seem for me that a squared board is more likely than an hexagonal one. But it's your world, so do as you want :-) You could always find a explanation why an hexagonal grid is used. Perhaps the ancestor of Figurines use a square grid, and was rather popular even among the lower / poor class of society. So the upper class want to play a more elitist game, and someone (a king/emperor, a rich merchant...) invented Figurines. It's hexagonal grid made it more difficult to build, most costly, which makes it reserved to the more wealthy. And after a while, the ancestor game became abandoned, the middle class wanted to play the same game as the upper, and the lower moving to games like dices games.
