#game variant

[cacklebarnacle]

4-Card Chess

My brother recently showed me this chess version he and his roommates made up and it was the weirdest and most random game I played in a while. This version introduces luck as a prominent game element and relies on constantly changing short term strategies.

You need:

One chessboard and full set of chess pieces

One standard 52-card deck

2 players

Setup:

Set up the chess pieces as you would for a regular game

Determine wich player gets the white pieces

Shuffle the cards

Deal 4 cards to each player

Rules:

White begins the game

The player, who captures their opponents king, wins

On their turn a player first plays one card, then moves one of their chess pieces and finishes their turn by picking up a card from the deck

Chess pieces can be moved exclusively according to regular chess rules

Chess pieces can however only be moved if you play the according card first: 2-9 = any Pawn; 10 = Rook; Jack = Bishop; Queen = Queen; King = King; Ace = Knight

The players can choose freely wich of their cards they play, independent of any previously played cards, as long as they can make the according move on the chess board within regular chess rules

If a player no longer has a certain piece on the board, they cannot play the according cards

If a player cannot make a move with the cards in their hand, they may discard the hand and pick up four new cards instead of taking their regular turn

If the deck runs out, the discard pile will be shuffled and the game continues

[elemental-ccg]

Game variant: power sink

If you want to slow down the pace of the spells hitting you, and think again if your best choice is to risk a big hit or play safe, power sink game variant is for you!

In this game variant, players draw up to 2 cards for the magic reflux effect.

When playing basic spells this won't be a problem, but try to add power levels or characterizations, and you will end up with few cards in your hand to battle your opponents!

You only have a couple of try to score a big hit with an enhanced spell before you find yourself holding just two cards in your hand. Of course you can add custom extra elements with an effect that refills a player's hand, but other than that your choices matter a lot in this game variant.

[elemental-ccg]

Game variant: magic streak

This game variant is for the players who like to think about every move, but can be very entertaining also to those who don't like to worry about life points and just want to go full out with their attack spells.

In the magic streak game variant, players don't have life points. The winning condition is met when a player (or a team) reaches 10 victory points. One victory point is awarded to a player for each point of damage that player deals or defends.

This means that being able to reflect a spell is a highly efficient way to reach victory, because in that case a damage is defended and a damage is dealt, awarding the defending player with 2 victory points by using only one spell.

One can play with a low profile, focusing every turn to have a higher chance to reflect attacks, or can go on an attack frenzy, hoping that the non-stop assault will pay off.

Slowly gain your points to the victory, or place a huge score with a massive spell? Your choice!

[elemental-ccg]

Game variant: team

In the team game variant, players split up in two teams, and sit alternating each other with players from the opposite team. Each team's goal is to kill all the members of the opposing team.

Anytime there is a odd number of players in game, the players in the smallest team have a limit of cards in hand of 5, up from 4, and therefore they draw the number of cards needed to have 5 cards in hand for the magic reflux effect.

The team game variant is all about helping other teammates by making their attack or defense spells stronger. Whenever a teammate casts a spell (attack or defense), every teammate can add one single element to that spell, as a power level or as a characteristic. In this way spells can deal or defend much more damage, and spell effects can stack in order to harm the opponent even more.

There is a downside though: only the player who cast the spell draws the cards from the magic reflux effect. Any teammate who used a element card to empower the spell does not draw any card because he didn't cast a spell. Teammates can find themselves out of cards to defend or attack if they use too many cards to empower other teammates' spells!

Work together to build a massive spell or preserve every team mate for maximum versatility? It's up to you!