Penultima ideas is the penultimate collection of penultima ideas.
♔ ♕ ♗ ♘ ♖ ♙ ♚ ♛ ♝ ♞ ♜ ♟
Ability classifications can be a starting-off point for coming up with new rules. Adapted from the superpower classifications of the Worm and Ward web serials by Wildbow.
- Mover: included for completeness, see section Movement Rules
- Shaker: change (parts of) the playing board
- example: Frozone
- Brute: higher durability, immunity to damage or negative effects
- example: Drittelkatze
- Breaker / Changer: switch between two or more states with distinct abilities
- Master: create and/or control other pieces
- example: Puffmutter
- Tinker: create pieces on the board that cannot be controlled directly, but can be interacted with.
- Blaster / Striker: capture or affect pieces at a distance (blaster) or adjacent (striker) to your piece
- Trump: manipulate other pieces' abilities, by empowering or suppressing them, or gaining other pieces' abilities
- example: Cultist/Medium
- Stranger: give one player an information advantage
- example: Medusa
- Choose an opponent's piece in 8-adjacency. Say "Wololo". Convert the piece (i.e. capture it and gain a piece of the same type replacing it).
- Cannot convert the opponent's ♔.
- recommended piece: ♔ (with standard movement)
- refercence to the unit in Age of Empires
- Can only move as if castling (German: "Rochade"):
- either:
⬜️♙⬜️⬜️♟⬜️ → ⬜️⬜️♟♙⬜️⬜️ - or:
⬜️♙⬜️⬜️⬜️♟⬜️ → ⬜️⬜️♟♙⬜️⬜️⬜️
- either:
- → cannot capture pieces
- recommended pieces: ♗ ♘ ♖ (adjust movement points for other pieces)
- the Explorer starts a turn with 3 movement points
- every square has movement costs (see below)
- the Explorer can move to a 4-adjacent square as long as it has any movement points left
- after the Explorer moved, the active player may make another move with this Explorer; until they have no more movement points or they capture a piece.
- at the beginning of the game the movement costs of all squares (except the Explorers' start sqares) are unknown (unexplored). Whenever an explorer intends to move onto an unexplored square its movement cost is determined by dice:
- d6 → cost
- (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) → (0, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2)
- when a sqare gets explored write the movement costs onto that square
- Starts with 1 Virus
- after every turn, the number of viruses doubles
- after 8 viruses, they spread to adjacent cells → all non-infected pieces get 1 virus
- after spreading the own virus the piece is immune
- after spreading the enemy virus the piece dies
- when moving, all 8-adjacent pawns move along as well
- pawn's relative position to the Puffmutter remains the same. When a pawn would land on an occupied square then it stops on the preceding square
- Can be moved by either player.
- Clarify with the other players the exact definition for "friendly fire", in order to avoid confusion.
- You may want to agree with other rule-makers, that double agents can always be captured by their own color, even by pieces without friendly fire.
- You may want to use a non-standard board setup, e.g. having the starting positions of the double agents closer to the centre of the board.
- Covers the cells it moves across with ice, ice may melt after x turns
- Pieces that would move onto an ice-covered cell instead continue moving until they move onto a not-covered cell or hit a wall or another piece.
- reference to the character from The Incredibles
- If you try to use a Medusa you must put on a blindfold until your next turn
- Moves like a pawn. Captures like a pawn. Is a pawn. Very deceptive!
- Piece: ♙
- Movement: 1 or 2 cells vertically (either direction), cannot capture.
- Passive: After every turn on a same color cell one copper gets mined, can store up to 2 copper pieces.
- Invoke: Consume one copper to shoot at another piece. Roll a d6 to decide whether the shot was a success. See diagram below for minimum roll needed for success.
- is a reference to the basic tower in Mindustry
6 6 6 6
5 5 5 6 6
4 4 4 5 6 6
3 3 3 4 5 6
2 2 3 4 5 6
♙2 3 4 5 6
- Piece: ♙
- Before the game: prepare one bowl for each player. Place the three ghosts in front of the bowl (i.e. 1x♗, 1x♘, 1x♖)
- Invoke:
- the invoked Cultist/Medium gets captured.
- narrate something like: "the cultist performs a bloodsacrifice and summons a ghost"
- the active player chooses a ghost and puts it into the bowl and removes other ghosts from the bowl (if necessary)
- then they get an extra turn
- Movement: the Cultist/Medium can move like any ghost that has been summoned for their team (i.e. the standard movement for bishop, knight and rook)
- Piece: ♗ or ♘ (must be able to determine the piece's front)
- Movement: 45° turn (optional), then move one square forward
- Invoke:
- Schlangemann's penis size increases by 1 (max. 3)
- attach some kind of penis of that size to the piece
- depending on size say: "Normaaaal" (1), "Groooß" (2) or "Gigaaantisch" (3)
- Schlangemann captures every piece on squares that are covered by his penis
- reference: NSFW
3
2
1
♘ straight
▢ ▢ 3
▢ 1 ▢
♘▢ ▢ diagonal
3 3 ▢▢
2 2 3 ▢
1 1 2 3
♘1 2 3 turning
- Piece: ♗ or ♘ or ♖ (recommended) (in genereal, every piece is possible. Maybe adjust the dice, like ♙ gets a D3 or ♕ gets to reroll on 1 and 2.)
- Invoke: roll a D6. The result is X. Place the dice near the Long(?)-range Missile.
- Movement: Can move a distance of X. Can jump over other pieces.
6
5 6
4 5 6
3 4 5 6
2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6
♖1 2 3 4 5 6
- Piece: ♔
- Starts with 3 lives (one third of the classic cat's nine lives).
- If it would be captured while having more than one life, it instead loses one life and moves one cell in any direction (defender's choice).
- Piece: ♕
- The Helicopter Parent takes the ♔ with them when moving
- Follows the ♔ when it moves. (coordinate with the rules for ♔-piece. ♔-piece's movement shouldn't be too crazy)
- recommended movement: like the queen (straight and diagonal, any distance)