Stupid brilliant ideas for a wacky variant with some random events

This got some discussion in here, so I thought I'd break it out and give it it's own thread.  Basically, we were talking about another variant that uses the four-player version as the starting point but then adds some random events to drive everyone crazy.  Probably not worth having ratings for it, as there would be a lot of randomness, like playing MarioKart on frantic settings.

1. Play until your king is captured or otherwise killed, ignoring check and checkmate.

2. After a random number of moves (3-6), a nuclear missile explodes on a random square.  Any piece on that square is killed, and the square is irradiated for the next three turns; no pieces can move there or pass through.  If it hits your king, tough luck, you're dead.  Then the timer is reset to repeat this after another 3-6 moves.

3. At the start of the game, 4-6 random squares have hidden land mines placed on them.  If a piece stops on a land mine, it is killed, and a new land mine is placed on a new random square.

4. If you get a pawn to the eight rank, you are not required to promote it.  You can keep pushing it if you want.  If you get a pawn all the way across the board, you can promote it to a second king so that you can survive the death of your first king.

5. A computer-controlled knight is placed in the middle of the board at the start of the game.  After the fourth person's turn, it moves randomly.  This knight cannot be captured or killed, and can survive nuclear missiles.  It can jump off the board, and if it does, it is replaced back on an empty square near the middle of the board.  (Note: see #9 as an alternative to this rule)

6. There are hidden clocks placed on several random squares.  If one of your pieces stops on one of these, you get ten seconds added to your clock, and a new hidden clock is placed on another random square.  There is no guarantee that a clock and a land mine cannot be on the same square.

7. When your king is killed, you get to fire a single nuclear missile at any square you choose; you cannot target an opponent's king.

8. At random intervals, a random piece of a random colour is changed to a random piece of a random colour.  So a red bishop might turn into a green pawn.  If this takes your king, too bad, you lose.  If this gives you an extra king, you've got insurance against losing one of them.

9. (from @BabYagun, an alternative to #5) We should have a huge boss king in the middle of the board taking 4 squares (2x2). Every 10 moves the boss king jumps to some random place and crushes all the pieces below. It can be killed, but it has 5 lives.

9.a. (from @Skeftomilos) To allow you to influence the movement of the boss king, he should be attracted to queens (thus you put your queen near someone else's army to encourage him to move that direction), or repulsed by queens (you put your queen near him to chase him away), or his moves should be determined by a vote of all four members.

10. Anything else we can come up with.

9.b. The 4 players team up against a super boss king.

The objective should be to beat the boss. All 4 players play as a team and wins if they beat the boss. The boss have 100 lives and whenever a piece tries to capture the boss, that piece will stand next to the boss instead and the boss will lose 1 life. The boss will have various attacks and movements. For example it can move down and capture any pieces there in the process. Another move is an attack in a direction which will kill all pieces within a 2x2 radius in that direction. The difficulty can be set by modifying how much life the boss have and what moves he have and how common those moves will be. How smart an AI is can also be a factor.

An additional rule could be that the winner is the player that dealt the most damage to the boss or that there is a real player that controls the boss.

As a side note, I think the boss should have some really powerful moves to make it difficult.

Interesting topic. I have some stupid ideas. I do not think random events should be a thing since we are playing the strategic game. 3 players are enough randomness as it is. Especially on my current level (low).

What I found interesting and will twist a bit:

--> Landmines. It is not cool to have it hidden, but if we can sacrifice promoted queen to make mine at some point. I can see how it can be played out to pin pawn forever or make a huge pain to someone's castle.

--> I like the idea to have some piece in the center, so players can choose if they want to promote queen and fight. But I do not think it should move. This way computer will just randomly decide who to weaken. But to put some +5 points kind of prize in the middle might be interesting.

 I'm loving the ideas I think they would be great.

I'm not convinced by the boss king idea, especially if the goal is to beat it, rather than it being an obstacle to attacking each other.  I think it would be easy to take down; just sac a few pieces on it, and if everyone does that, it dies.

@dmitrymorozov, this would have to be a separate variant from the current 4-player game.  We'd have the four-player game as it is now, and this as another, crazier variant.

BTW, I thought of another idea: every turn, a random one of your pieces temporarily has a bow and arrow to shoot another piece; it can only shoot at pieces that are on squares it can move to.  This archery ability can either be used after or in place of a move - thus, it could kill two pieces in a single turn.  However, if you move a different piece, you can't use the archery ability; thus, if a knight that is threatening a pawn has the bow and arrow that turn, but another piece is threatening a queen, you probably take the queen and don't use the archery that turn.

Archery would be of limited value for a pawn.  For a knight, it would double its range that turn, since it could move and then shoot.  For a long-range piece like a queen, it could be deadly and might let you ambush somebody's king.

It would be interesting if dead pieces were still worth points.

My idea for a variant is The Assassin Variant" in witch there is two new pieces that start in your Left corner(witch are places that only the Assassin and The bodyguard of the player whose assassin starts there can move into, through, and out) The assassin moves like a knight but from that players king. The assassins can be captured like another piece but if it checks a king then that player is killed instantly.(if they do not have a Bodyguard) As your first move of the game, you must place your bodyguard anywhere on the chessboard besides a place where there is a piece and in a corner(it can never return there). You can move it like a king but it is not. Your bodyguard can only be captured by an assassin. And your king can not be "Assassinated" if the bodyguard is still alive.

My idea for a variant would be if a pawn promotes to a queen the one point queen will not get any more than one point for taking a piece. This way it might pay for rooks, etc. to attack it. The extra queens become more tactical.

lol mad insane OP

maybe fun lmao

@MarshmallowQueen2 here it is: Suggestion: Capturing dead (grey) pieces earns +0.5 points

@dubbler your idea offers a balance to the current overpowered state of the promoted queens, that makes them so darn good. I would suggest it as a candidate improvement of the standard game, not as a variant. Of course my personal preference is that a queen should be always valued 9 points, either promoted or not.

My original wacky idea, inspired by @MGleason's archery ability, is the Knight Archer. A piece that moves like a knight, and shoots arrows like a knight, but can't do both. Either moves or shoots. Shooting an arrow is equally lethal to a normal capture, and earns the same points. The enemy piece that receives the shot becomes dead (remains on the board as a gray piece). Knight archers can only be obtained by promotion. When promoting a pawn you can either promote it to a queen or a knight archer. Knight archers worth 5 points.

That's not wacky enough to belong in this thread; it should be considered for the main game, and so is probably worth giving its own thread.

Another wacky piece, the Knight Wizard. A piece that moves like a knight, and casts spells like a knight, but can't do both. Either moves or casts a spell. It can capture enemy pieces by moving, earning points as usual. Casting a spell transforms an enemy piece to another type of piece. Points are earned according to the lowest of the values of the two types. For example transforming a queen to a rook, or vise versa, earns 5 points. Transforming a queen to a pawn, or vise versa, earns 1 point. Transforming any piece to a knight wizard, and vice versa, is allowed. Knight wizards are normally obtained by promotion. They worth 5 points.

Maybe not all of these rules should be in play in the same game.  There should be a list of rules and the system should randomly choose a selection of them at the start of the game.

What if it became first person when you shoot with an arrow and you would have to aim the bow with your mouse.

thank you Skeftomilos

@MCCLEdward chess is a game for training your brain muscles, not your finger muscles. 

Mouse slips come to mind.

@Martin0, I like the "screenshot".  The boss is looking at me and that it scary. You, @Martin0 see his back and think you are safe, but beware, he might has some special power like a fireball from his ... well ... back.

I think @battleMind24 should not read this thread till he finishes the main version of the game. To keep his mind sane.