DIVINE PHANTASM

   This is the last variant of CHECK 11 VERSE that I wanted to create, for people who want to play a more casual friendly chess variant. But… Eermmh, well… I found that it is not an easy task to do.    While I did not come up with something as casual as I wanted, I still came with a more accessible variant than CHECK 11 ~Original Vision~ and For CHECK 11 ~Royal Secret~: CHECK 11 ~Elemental Rage~ .    In Check 11 ~Elemental rage~, you can use 4 elemental cards to empower your pieces 4 times during the game.    There are 4 types of elemental card, all obviously related to the 4 elements of the nature air, fire, water and earth. Air Power-up    This gives you the ability to pass through pieces .     You can use this to get into offensive quickly with a piece at cover, or to retreat an exposed piece out in the offensive.     You can attack while being covered by your own pieces and ...

   A lot happened since my last post in November.    I want to create a new chess variant that use cards and I succeed. It is called CHECK 11 ~Elemental Rage~ (check here for more).     In the mean time I was fine tuning the other 2 variants I already had also: Check 11 and Royal Check.    This article is about those 2 and how they evolved. CHECK 11 ~Original Vision~ # The name    The name “Check 11” has been replaced by “CHECK 11 ~Original Vision~”. # Factions Selection    Hidden selection removed. Now players reveal their faction choice to each other from the start. # Factions Updates    - Orthodox :    I completely change its trance: It is the classic castle now but with more options.    I remove all the previous constraints of the rule; it can be done vertically as horizontally; it can be done at any position on the same line or column; and ...

# Multiples Factions    Coming from versus fighting games, this is a trivial one. One of the main reason why I started working on Check 11 is Chess 2: The Sequel by David Sirlin. I loved the 5 different armies and had so much fun playing them (with myself only but oh well…) # Hidden Selection    I included this rule when the design process was already well advanced. I already had a preliminary stage of the first 5 factions down and I needed to think about the physical part of the design. Instead of creating a bunch of new pieces with all movement powers new to my variant, I opted for the simple road: The pieces would remain the same on the material side. The players would have to find which opposite factions are in play through suspect behavior detection in the opponent play. I tested it and I like it.    Now Check 11 was not a test of calculation depth only, the uncertainty brought by the hidden selection was a new level to also take into a...

So, some interesting changes happening from my Check Verse!    First, I have created a new variant: Royal Check!    Lately I have read a lot of game design articles talking about simplicity, elegance, depth, complexity and stuff like that…And It made me remember something my playtest partner said to me in late 2015, when I decide to add trance during the design of Check 11.’Why do you add trance when you already have so much trouble to balance the game with all those 11 factions at this state? Pfft! Even only with the basic orthodox, hologram and magnetic factions, this variant is very good and fun!’    I didn’t listen to him because I wanted to get as much ideas as I could out.  Now that Check 11 is finished, I realize how much complex it can be for some people. Me? I like that complexity. But for a lot of people that are testing it? Not so much. Not 3, 4 or 5 factions, but 11 factions you must keep track of during the game since you don’t k...

There are the factions names with their aliases, a short description of what you can do with them, and a rating of their  gameplay! CYBORG alias Hack n Boom       -> Lock enemy pieces by hacking them and then take them down all at once with an explosion                   Mobility - B                 Offense - S                                                        Defense - S                 Ease of Use - C DROID alias Minion Force       -> Move your pawns like mini-queens                 Mobility - B  ...