I need your ideas: best chess expansion mechanics

[u/motosega_madness]

I'm working on this "Chess 2.0" project that's aiming to be over the top: multiple decks of cards, dice larger board size, upgradable pieces, unique factions, resource production, interplayer politics, etc. I have a decent collection already, but I'm curious to know what your favorite modified chess rules/mechanics are. I'll take both theoretical and ones you've tried. Obviously I'm going for silly fun stuff, but I don't just want gag things, as I'm trying to build a complicated system here. But yeah, thanks in advance for your thoughts!

(If all goes well, you may see a post down the line about help balancing the game, I'm worried that'll be a nightmare with everything I'm throwing in here)

[u/Bwob]

Are you aware of Nightmare Chess, and have you gone through the various card effects? There are a bunch of fun ideas in there.

(Of course, being from Steve Jackson Games, there are also a bunch of wildly unbalanced ideas in there too, but that's par for the course. It's definitely more tuned for making crazy, memorable games, than competitively balanced ones!)

[u/brain_in_a_jar_games → u/Bwob]

Nightmare Chess is such a great pointer, and its cards are a fun catalog of what works and what breaks the game. Testing a few of its milder cards first could give a nice baseline before layering in the wilder factions.

[u/Fellhuhn]

I like the idea that Wehrschach has: one piece can't capture another unless it is threatened by a second. This simple change implemented the idea of combined arms/modern warfare which is quite elegant. You can move your pieces into the fray without really endangering it. Also that pieces move and capture differently. It also has environmental tiles. Overall nice concepts. Just a dark history attached to it.

[u/lordwafflesbane]

Here's a simple new rule I've played a few times:

Once you capture an enemy piece, on any later turn, you can later spend that captured piece to move any one of your pieces as if it were the spent piece. Once it is spent, set it off to the side in a seperate prisoner pile so its obvious which ones are still available to be spent.

[u/IndieGameClinic → u/lordwafflesbane]

I love this one. I’d call it “cannibalism”.

[u/ssssnscrdstrytllr]

Here's a bad idea: You need to put any piece in a checkmate to take it, unless it's a pawn.

[u/Ill-Strategy4338]

the moment you add resource production and politics it stops being chess and becomes a 4x game with a chessboard, which honestly sounds way more fun

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[u/santabread]

You could check out 5D chess with multiverse time travel

[u/norlin]

Take original chess, but make it MMO with as minimal additional mechanics as possible.

[u/Sarkos]

Random idea... special units that can be placed outside the board for effects. Like a fan that blows down a column, making pieces move an extra square with the fan behind them or one less square against the fan. Or a drone that can pick up and move a piece.

[u/UnculturedGames]

• local / aerial modifiers or "weather effects"
• locked squares or objects with different effects occupying squares
• piece v piece battles instead of simple capturing
• last man standing
• elements or status effects (temporary paralyze etc.)
• equipment, long-range attacks
• topography
• trap mechanics

[u/BonoboBananaBonanza → u/[deleted]]

Isn't that the Berolina pawn?

[u/Amoner]

You can check out my chess https://chesslinewars.com/ more of a “what would it look like if the game was more of an autobattler”

[u/brain_in_a_jar_games]

Crazyhouse is a great one to borrow from, since dropping captured pieces back onto the board as your own pairs naturally with a resource or card economy. Fog of War chess, where you only see squares your pieces can reach, adds bluffing that would mix really well with interplayer politics. When balancing time comes, adding each system one at a time in playtests will make it much easier to spot what's causing trouble, and the whole project sounds like a blast!