Procession

Procession by Daniel Solis. A casual strategy game for couples.
Each player has a bridal party trying to get their bride to the chapel. The bridal party clears a safe path for the bride to travel. The first bride to make it to her chapel wins! This is a casual strategy game for couples. It's inspired by flower girls spreading petals for a bride to walk on as she approaches the altar. I hope you enjoy it with your special someone.

Stuff You need
• 2 or 4 players.
• A chess board.
• Each player needs five pawns. These are called Maids.
• Each player needs a queen. This is called the Bride.


Setup
For a two-player game, arrange the pieces as shown above. In a four-player game, place the extra couple's pieces in the remaining corners.

How to Play
Each player takes turns moving one of their pieces. Each piece has special types of movement, but there are some common restrictions. A piece may not pass through any other pieces or land on an occupied space. There are no "captures."


Maids move like chess rooks. That is, horizontally or vertically any distance.

In the example above, you see White moving one of his Maids (left), Black then moving one of his Maids (center), and White moving another of his Maids (right). When you move a Maid her first time, she must leave the boundaries of the starting corner. Once leaving the starting corner, you may not move that Maid back into your starting corner.


Brides also move like chess rooks, horizontally or vertically in any direction. However, they may only move towards or away from one of their own Maids.

In the example (top left), neither Bride can move. White's Bride is blocked in by her own Maids. Black's Bride has a clear opening, but cannot move because she doesn't have a Maid to move towards. In the example (top center), Black moves a Maid down one square, creating a path for the bride to travel on (noted with a magenta line). In a later turn (top right), Black's bride takes that opportunity to move. Still later (bottom left), the White player moves a Maid to make a path for the Bride. In a later turn (bottom right), the Bride moves down that path.


Winning
The first player to move a Bride to the opposite corner wins.

In the example above, White moves his queen to the opposite corner, so he wins. Black was very close, but couldn't move to the left because there wasn't a Maid to open a path in that direction.

Notes
This is an update of an old game from the Luchacabra project. I post it here now because a team of programmers in Poland is presently creating a playable AI opponent for the game.

With Valentine's Day approaching, it also seemed a reasonable time to re-visit this old chestnut. Hope you enjoy the game with someone you love!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5 Graphic Design and Typography Tips for your Card Game

Image
Chris Farrell of Illuminating Games just wrote a thorough critique of card games setting their body text to be so small that they cannot be read at arm's length, let alone across the table. Here's an excerpt, but the whole thing is worth a read for any would-be card game designers out there. (Myself included.) Break out your copy of the base set of Dominion, and look at the Chapel. This has a text box roughly 3.5cm by 4.5cm. It's got a single line of text. That line of text is 1 (one) millimeter high. 1mm! For me, it's only clearly readable at half an arm's length even in the bright light of day. (...) Compare this to a more sane game like Glory to Rome, where the font size is 2-3 times as large (text is 2mm high, keywords 3mm and usually highlighted). I can generally read Glory to Rome cards across the table, and can certainly see the important keywords. To heap insult upon injury, not only does Glory to Rome have far more legible text than Dominion it also has
Read more

Low-High Dice Game

Image
A dice game inspired by the stock market (and playing lots of Martian Dice). Roll a bunch of dice and choose which sets to keep. Choose your strategy wisely! Stuff You Need Two-to-Six PLAYERS A PENCIL and PAPER to keep score Thirteen standard six-sided DICE How to Play The shortest player takes the first turn. On your turn, first roll all thirteen dice. Several dice will have matching results. These are called SETS. (A single die result is a set, too.) You must choose a set to keep. For example, your first roll results are 111124445555 . The sets are four 1 s, one 2 , three 4 s, and four 5 s. After keeping a set of dice, lock them up in a row. This is called the GOOD TRACK. For example,  you could keep the set of four 1 s, one 2 , three 4 s, or four 5 s . You decide to keep the four 1 s and line them up in your good track. After keeping a set, you may end your turn or re-roll the remaining unlocked dice. When you re-roll, immediately set aside any results that ar
Read more

The Thousand-Year Game Design Challenge

Image
UPDATE: The submission period has closed and here are the entries. If you're an entrant, continue sending pics or vids of people playing your game. The first step to a game lasting a thousand years is for people to play it today. UPDATE 2: And here's the winner! To support games designed for longevity – that can be learned, played and shared for hundreds of years – we offer this challenge to any game designers, artists and imaginative people who also share this desire. Challenge Create a game. The game can be of any theme or genre you desire, but there is one restriction: You're creating a "new classic," like Chess, Tag or card games. So, create a game to be enjoyed by generations of players for a thousand years. Prize $1,000 to the winning entrant, to be announced and awarded January 1, 2012. Entry Deadline Entries must be submitted before midnight July August 31st, 2011. ( Update ) Entry Guidelines Enter by posting a comment below with a link
Read more