In my novel "The End of Death and Taxes?" there is a brief mention of a board game the aliens play. This is a real game and I plan on marketing it soon as well. Any suggestions are welcome. Here are the rules:
Superial Chess
The classic version of Superial Chess
is played on a 6 x 6 checkers board with identical cubes as pieces.
Each cube has a black +, X, and O on three of
the sides with a white +, X, and O on the
opposite sides. The objective is to capture all cubes on the board or
immobilize all opposing cubes. Each team starts with six cubes in the
pusher aspect (dot) on their team’s color (black or white).
Captured pieces are not removed from the board, but instead change to
their equivalent aspect of the other team.
Aspects
The cubes have three aspects (pushers
[o], hoppers [+] and slashers [X]) and two colors (black or white).
The color determines the team and the aspect determines how the piece
moves and captures. To change aspect, a piece must be off its home
color (white on black squares or black on white squares). A piece
that ends its move on its opposite color can also change aspect as
part of ending its move. A piece that starts its turn on the opposite
color can change its aspect instead of moving, but if it changes its
aspect without moving it must wait for another turn to move. A piece
that is captured cannot change aspect as part of the move where it is
captured.
Pushers
Pushers (dots) move only one square
per turn horizontally or vertically. Pushers can push any other piece
on the board, including those of their own team. Pushers can move any
number of other pieces in a row or column as long as there is an
empty space at the far end. They capture by pushing a piece onto
their color (black or white). For example, a white pusher will
capture a black piece by pushing it onto a white square, and vice
versa. Pushing other pieces on your team will not change them to the
other team. If an opposing piece is pushed onto its home color (i.e.,
white pushed onto white or black onto black) it is only moved and not
captured.
Hoppers
Hoppers (+) hop. A hopper moves by
hopping onto adjacent pieces and forming a chain of jumps. It can
only move horizontally or vertically. When it jumps on a piece, it
can complete the jump in any horizontal or vertical direction
adjacent to the piece that it jumped, except for the side that it
came from, assuming that the adjacent square is unoccupied. From that
square the hopper can make additional jumps, but cannot double back
on its path while on the same turn. Hoppers can move over any piece,
their team or of an opponent. A hopper may move two spaces,
horizontally or vertically, without hopping over another piece, but
if it does so then that is the end of its turn and it cannot do so
after starting a move by hopping over a piece. If a jump is made over
a piece, successive jumps over other pieces are allowed, but the
hopper cannot jump over the same piece twice in one turn and cannot
jump over an empty square after jumping over one or more pieces.
Hoppers capture pieces they jump over only if that piece is on the
hopper’s color. Thus, a hopper on its home color can not capture
other pieces, since they will always be on the opposite color.
Slashers
Slashers (X) move much like a king in
normal checkers. Like the hopper aspect, they can make multiple jumps
over any piece but unlike hoppers, slashers can jump the same
piece twice in a single turn. They always captures the opposing
pieces they jump over, regardless of color. Unlike the hopper, they
cannot change direction as part of their jump. Most notably, slashers
can move around the edges of the board, always moving to the square
equivalent to the one that they would have landed on had there been a
square there. If you could wrap the board around into a cylinder
shape (either top to bottom or side to side, depending on which side
the slasher is crossing) then slashers would continue to move
normally across all borders of the board. Only slashers can do this.
Background
The other colors on the
pieces are not important to classic game play, but do serve purposes
in other games. In general they represent the six factions as well as
numbers when the cubes are used as dice. Yellow = 1, green = 2, blue
= 3, purple = 4, red = 5, orange = 6. The colors represent the six
Superial factions, and the game in general is meant to symbolize
point-combat with the Power, much as chess symbolizes medieval
warfare. In the Suprecium there are countless variations of this game, though the rules as presented here represent its core.
Random Moves
One common variant of the
game allows each player to have one or more random moves, usually
used to get out of draws or difficult situations. In a random move, a
player throws three cubes as dice (or one cube three times). The
first throw represents the X axis of the board, the second throw
represents the Y axis, and the third throw represents the piece that
will appear or be changed on the board. If there is no piece on the
board at the coordinates indicated by the first two throws, then a
new piece is added. If there is a piece there, then it is changed to
the aspect indicated by the third throw.
Multiple Players and
Larger Boards
Games
with more than two players can be played by using colored paper
squares to indicated which player owns which pieces. Games with more
than two players are played on larger boards of variety of sizes and
arrangements. Cubes of the same core color but on different teams may
capture each other with slashers and hoppers, as pushers cannot
capture pieces of the same core color (black or white).
Chess Variant
Shortly after the Superial
arrival on Earth, Ninzeem (Superial Chess) was combined with
traditional Earth chess. The chess pieces begin in their standard
arrangement, and the cubes are arranged opposite them, filling all
eight black or white squares of their starting side.
When the chess pieces
capture a cube it is removed from the table. When the cubes capture a
chess piece, it is exchanged for one of the opposite color. However,
the first chess piece captured by the cubes becomes the king piece
for the cubes.
This first king will be
placed on the cube that captured it, and combines the abilities of
that piece, and the cube. The cube can still change aspect and move
normally, with the new piece on top of it. The new cube king can
appear either on the square of the captured chess piece, or on the
square where the capturing cube ended its turn. Were it not so, the
cubes would never be able to capture a first piece, as it would
immediately be in check if it is at all defended. Even with this
rule, it can be very difficult for the cubes to capture their first
piece.
The game is won when the
king of either side is check-mated, or if all of the cubes are
eliminated without capturing a first piece to become their king.
* * *
I've tested the game extensively and would love to hear about your attempts to play it. I hope to soon have a link to where you can buy the pieces.
