User blog:SensibleCenobite/War of the Pines: White Wolf Chess Mod.

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War of the Pines is an ancient game played by elderly Kuei-Jin, a game where they assign real people to chess pieces, who's "moves" in the real world are supposed to be modeled after the game world, all without the "pieces" awareness.

Game Components:

Chessboard, tokens to represent wounds [checkers would be perfect], tokens to represent ownership of Assets, Jade tokens to represent surplus wealth, 1 token for Yang [Deer totem], 1 token for Yin [Mikaboshi's nuke], 1 token for Yang/Yin [The August Personage of Jade's coin purse].

How to win:

Yang [Deer totem]: Move the deer token into one of the opponent's Forts [Queen square or king square].

Yin [Mikaboshi's Nuke]: Detonate the nuke token while the opponent's Forts are in the blast radius.

Yang/Yin [The August Personage of Jade]: Acquire a surplus of 28 Jade tokens and own 14 Assets [Squares worth Jade].

You own both the opponents Forts [Queen square and king square].

Board Overview:

Jade value of squares [Assets]; the deer and nuke tokens start behind the queen; F is for Fort; The pieces are Scarlet Screens.

2, 2, 2, F, F, 2, 2, 2

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0

0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0

0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0

0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

2, 2, 2, F, F, 2, 2, 2

Modifications:

Cost/Upkeep: Both players start with 0 Jade in their reserve and each piece is paid for by it's starting square at game start, so no one has a surplus or deficit of Jade until they lose Scarlet Screens, occupy a neutral Asset, or occupy an enemy Asset. If you noticed from the diagram above, the four middle squares are worth 1 Jade, so right off the bat, players may acquire Jade to win the game. Each time a player occupies an Asset [Square with a number on it], they mark it with an ownership token, collecting the extra Jade it brings each upkeep, the target of the take over losing the Jade each upkeep. Once per turn, a player may recruit a new Scarlet Screen, and place it on an owned unoccupied square [Pawns start in the pawn row, knights on one of the two knight squares, and so on]. A player may only field 14 Scarlet Screens at once, but may have a interesting combination of troops by the end of the game.

Pawns cost 2 Jade, knights cost 6 Jade, bishops cost 7 Jade, rooks cost 10 Jade, queens cost 14 Jade, and kings cost 10 Jade.

Wounds: Every piece [Scarlet Screen] has 3 wounds which may be either be Lethal or Aggravated. If they have 3 of any combination of Lethal or Aggravated wounds, then they go into Torpor, unable to move. If they have 3 Aggravated wounds, then they see their Final Death. Any damage dealt to a unit in Torpor is Aggravated damage.

Pawns deal 1 Lethal damage, knight deal 2 Lethal damage, bishops deal 2 Lethal damage, rooks deal 2 Aggravated damage, and the queen and king both deal 3 Aggravated damage.

The knight may not be able to kill someone out right, but If it can move into an occupied square and give an enemy unit the Final Death, then they may move and attack at the same time.

The deer starts behind the queen and moves like the king, but may move 2 squares at a time, with the ability to change direction as it goes. The deer doesn't have an attack however, so use it's mobility wisely to get into one of your opponents Forts. As soon as you get your Deer into the enemy's Fort, you WIN the game.

The nuke starts behind the Queen and moves like the King. On their turn, the owner of a nuke may "detonate" it, with the target square and the surrounding 8 squares all permanently radioactive. Any unit that moves trough a radioactive square takes 1 Lethal wound. No Jade may be collected from Assets that are under the effects of radiation. The one draw back to the nuke is that it only has 1 Lethal wound, so any Scarlet Screen is able to give it the Final Death in one attack.

Sequence of Play:

Upkeep: If you recieve more Jade from Assets than you need to pay for you Scarlet Screens, then you collect the difference in Jade tokens. The reverse applies, if you don't have enough Assets to pay for your Scarlet Screens, you must use your reserve of Jade tokens, or take an equivalent point amount of Scarlet Screens off the game board. If you don't have an exact amount to sacrifice, you must overspend with a more valuable piece(s). If you are the neutral Yang/Yin player, you have 28 Jade in reserve, and own 14 Assets, you win the game.

Move: Move one of your Scarlet Screens. Only the knight may "jump" over other pieces. Pawns that make it to the opponents last row are upgraded to any piece as usual. If you move into an unoccupied Asset square, than mark it with an ownership token. Each time a piece moves through a radioactive square, it takes 1 Lethal damage. If a deer token is moved into a Fort square, you win the game.

Attack: Choose one of your pieces to attack an adjacent opponent's piece, dealing the appropriate wounds to the target, with the chance of Torpor or Final Death. If you detonate the nuke and the opponents Forts are in the blast radius, you win the game.

Heal: Choose one of your Scarlet Screens and remove 1 of it's Lethal wound token(s) or turn 1 Aggravated wound into a Lethal wound. For each piece of surplus Jade you spend, you may continue to convert Aggravated wounds to Lethal wounds and remove Lethal wounds, until the target is fully healed.

Recruit: If you have a surplus of Jade tokens and you have less than 14 Scarlet Screens active on the board, you may purchase one unit and place it on an owned unoccupied square that matches it's type [Pawns in the pawn row, rooks on one of the two rook squares, etc]. This means that you may have more than the standard 8 pawns, 2 knights,  2 bishops, 2 rooks, 1 queen, and 1 king on the board at once, but no more than 14 pieces total.

Circles are complete; Triangles are immutable. Hallelujah, Hail Cthulhu, Praise Evolution,

TheBeardedDragon