Off-Topic Game...thing?

[Novarri]

I've been trying to develop a small, relatively simple game to throw in my worlds for a while now (the sort of thing that would replace chess or checkers in a fantasy world), just so the PCs can see people playing this and can play it themselves and just get immersed in this fictional game.

Here's my idea at the moment. The board is a 3x3 grid, with two rows of one color and the third (in the middle) of the other. Each player has 8 pieces (off board to start): 3 white or black, 2 red, 1 yellow, 1 green, and 1 blue. The pieces are actually two pieces in one, a small flat disc in either black or white (to distinguish player ownership) and a small pebble of color (to distinguish the piece type).

Play is relatively simple. The first player can put any piece anywhere on the board. The second player can put any piece anywhere too, but if he* puts a piece of the same color on a square of opposite color that shares an edge with the first player's piece's square, then the first player's color is removed, leaving only the marker. Or, the second player can put a piece of any different color on a square of the same color that shares an edge, and "capture" the enemy's color again. Or, the second player can put a piece in a non-adjacent square or a diagonally-adjacent square and not make a capture.

Pieces can't be put into squares with markers in them; play continues until all the spaces have been covered. The winner is the player with the most color+marker pieces on the board.

In the event of a tie, all markers without colors are removed, and play continues with the pieces the players had remaining from the first game. If the tie results in a tie, take all the markers off and use the captured pieces from the first game. If THAT game results in a tie, then the game is declared a tie.

I'll try to post up some examples, 'cause it's hard to explain without visuals, but...does that make sense to you all? It lends itself to some odd strategy, because not only do you want to try to win, but you also want to try to win with enough pieces to left over that if you end up with a tie you have the right pieces to win in overtime.



*or she

[Gandwarf]

I find it difficult to visualise, but I am used to having the boardgame and manual in front of me.

[Steel General]

Interesting idea...

[Midgardsormr]

I like it, I think. I'd have to actually play a few times to see how well it works, but I do love the notion of a game with a built-in tiebreaker mechanism.