Issues as of 6/7

• There should be no “twin” cards in opening hand, or normal deck
• no longer gain +1 mana for creature pieces that are not twins
• make choice of deck or Twin by choosing the cards
• need backface of cards?
• lines?
• (Note: this was not a true evaluation of issue - had nothing to do with new twins or only limited to other twins) New twin was able to “see” through opposing king and place a creature on the other side
• add the number of twins the opposing player has in hand to the player info panel, also add to history when player draws a king or a normal card
• Minor: player 1 & 2 info disappears on my draw phase (UI containers remain)
• Newly placed twins need to be placed in line of sight of the caster
• AI games always seem to crash after a while (maybe the 4th king?)

=============OLD VERSION=============

Chess the Gathering is a mix of Chess and Magic the Gathering with a touch of dungeon crawling. Boards are currently made up of “rooms” which are chess boards (8x8). Simple boards are just one room, others are multiple and can be connected by corridors of tiles (*we’ll update the editor to be more flexible soon).

Players start with 2 “twins” which are essentially kings. If either twin dies the players lose. Each player has a hand of cards which they use to spawn creatures on the board, and cast spells on them to change their behavior. There’s also a wall & swamp spell.

The game currently supports 2-4 players.

Rules 6.0

Turns Phases

• Accumulate Mana (= # of creatures on board, carries over across turns, cap at 10)
• Move 1 piece
• Cast Spells or Creatures
• Draw card

Rules

• Either of your twins dies, you lose
• Players initially place their twins on the board, one at a time
• Players start with 5 cards in their hand, and a hand limit of 7
• You can redraw your initial hand if you don’t like it, each redraw after that you get 1 less card in your hand
• Creatures can be cast anywhere a twin can “see”. Line of sight is determined by straight lines from the twin casting (think queen’s movement) not including the 8 squares adjacent to the casting twin (aka: if the other twin can see those spaces they’re legal). Line of sight is blocked by creatures, walls, etc.
• Spells can cancel each other (casting ricochet on an opposing piece that has ricochet will remove it’s ricochet effect)
• Unused Manna carries over from turn to turn (currently capped at 10)
• You can only move 1 piece per turn, and you have to move 1 piece per turn
• You can cast as many creatures or spells as you have mana to do so (each has a mana cost shown on the card)
• No spells can be cast on a Twin

Creatures

• Fish: Moves diagonally (Bishop)
• Snake: Moves horizontally/vertically (Rook)
• Eagle: Moves both diagonally and horizontally/vertically (Queen)

Spells

• Ricochet (creature modifier): Stays on a piece permanently (unless cancelled), only works on diagonally moving pieces. Causes diagonal movement to ‘ricochet’’ once of the edge of the board
• Wrap Around (creature modifier): Stays on a piece permanently (unless cancelled), only works on horizontally/vertically moving pieces. Causes the piece to go off the far edge of the board and ‘wrap around’ to the opposite far edge of the board (think pacman tunnel)
• Swamp (piece): causes pieces traveling across it to stop on that tile. They can move off of it on their next movement. Also blocks twins line of sight.
• Wall (piece): 2x1 tiles long, can be placed either horizontally or vertically across 2 tiles (‘r’ key rotates during placement). Pieces cannot travel through walls. A creature may sacrifice itself to break the wall (works like taking a normal piece). Also blocks twins line of sight.

Possible new Rules

• If a player runs out of cards they can reshuffle all the spells (no creatures) back into their draw pile. When they reach the end of that there is no more reshuffling.

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Design Concerns

• Attack twin, leaving piece exposed, can’t assume they’ll use their move to defend
• too much thinking with many cards/mana per turn?

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Reducing Phases

Pros

• Reduces # of real phases from 3 to 2
• eliminates oddness of dividing casting creatures & spells

Cons

• Untested

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Pros Move then Cast

• eliminates need for summoning sickness

Cons Move then Cast

• ?Can’t immediately move a piece after casting

• Forced to move twin on first turn after you just placed it

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Pros Cast then Move

Cons Cast then Move

• Need to add summoning sickness to any creatures that have been modified