Chance Mechanics: Chess

So, Chess. A century old strategy game that has inspired many a thing, from other strategy games to actual military operations (probably, the people who ivented chess needed something to practice strategy with and they're dead now, so we can question their motives to our cynical heart's content)

How would you add chance mechanics to something so tactically pure as Chess? It'd be like having gun attachments in Frozen Synapse, and that wouldn't work at all. But guess what? It does.

Chance mechanics can be applied through a dice roll, but how it is applied can vary. For example, if when two pieces were adjacent to each other the game takes on a similar deciding mechanic to a modern strategy game such as X-COM: Enemy Unknown. The mechanic would make all the pieces have an even value, which is a problem when the Bishop, Queen and King pieces are considered. To stop this, the dice roll would have a mininum threshold that must be met in order to capture that piece, escalating as the piece's value increases.

If they were applied through a deck of standard playing cards, then the card drawn would decide which piece is moved. Of course, face cards can apply to Kings, Queens and Bishops, but it may just be easier to only use cards from Ace to eight, red suits moving the corresponding piece in another row.

FTL? FTL.

Oh man, FTL. I don't need to say any more about that game than the mere mention of its title. As a modern rouglelike-like, it destroyed Kicktarter charts, earning well above it's requirements.

Getting the opportunity to make a board game out of this was one I was never going to miss. Thing is, how do you do this? Random cards ala Carcassone? Monopoly style board and event cards? The first option works better; I tried both. Wanna see? Of course you do!

Conveniently, a despicable thief/ failed assassin took any visual evidence of the board that existed before this, but it was horribly designed and in a way that didn't quite make sense.

This kind of hexagonal card system ensures the random nature, and allows for use of the very well made game background assets.

Weapons were handled in a similar way to the digital game, but in a physical form. Power usage was made redundant by the lack of any such mechanic in the physical iteration; it allows to keep things simple and will prevent the protagonist player from being stuck without a usable weapon from the start. 

Weapons such as bombs and beams are not used in the same way because there are no longer room damage or subsystems. Instead, they cause damage the same way missiles and lasers do, respectfully.

Missiles, fuel and scrap still exist as resources, and running out of missiles or scrap are discouraged but do not end the game, unlike fuel, which is a loss condition.

Combat is conducted through D10 die rolls; when the player rolls a number under the criteria, the attack lands and the appropriate damage is dealt. For lasers, the die is rolled for as many attacks there are on the card. Some attacks can miss or hit the shield in place, invalidating that attack.

"Da bomb"

We were tasked to build a prototype game where there was some form of bomb defusal involved.

I decided to try my hand at a not-so different take on Minesweeper.

The four red squares are the bomb, they must be avoided. The grey squares are the switches that must be found. It worked well enough, but I can't say I was too into this assignment.