game mechanic ideas/rules follow (kind of just notes to self)
pawns(7): guards
Rooks: wide receivers
Knight(1): tight end
Bishop(1): tail back
Queen: full back
King: quarterback.
white is offense (goes first), black is defense.
white “snaps” to start round, thus king has ball (picture placing a penny under the piece).
you can either move (all peices not tackled must move, and guards must tackle if ever possible) or pass.
If a tackle happens, both peices fill the space, so you can’t move through it. Players may choose to tackle an already tackled square (so as to leave gaps in the line).
At any time you can pass – using the movement patterns of the pieces. You move the penny. You can pass the ball over/through opponents. If the ball holder is ever tackled, the play is over.
? – Perhaps the king can ignore his one square throw limitation and “throw a completion” to far end of board if a piece ever makes it there (for instant pass completion). … or maybe there needs to be a chain of pieces (throw patterns) connecting them. (need to test how easy it is to get a piece across the whole board.
Offense only keeps possession if they get a ball holder to opposite end of the board.
? – Maybe you can initiate a “kick”, if you can ever get all other pieces 3 squares away from the king and queen. (making it hard to do without opponent fucking it up?)
* picture this all as a video game, where:
– the standard 8-wide chess-board represents just a square portion of a longer rectangle (8×24).
If ball carrier is ever tackled, that line becomes the center of the board for the opposing team.
– you have to remove one pawn, one knight and one bishop before each play begins. (video game formatmakes this easier to hide from opponent).
– being a video game would help you keep track of which pieces you still have to moved on your turn (really, this should back and forth between players, so that the line of pawns isn’t dominated by whoever gets there second? Or maybe it’s good that it’s very hard to avoid a long line of tackle?).
? – maybe just 4 pawns have to move? so you can stagger them out if opponent maneuvers his entire line to be one square away (so he can’t wipe you out on his turn)… need to test this. maybe it’s best to let this happen.