Spookyhouse Chess

I designed this about a year ago and just started thinking about it again. Chessvariants link with full description



Summary: 

- This is a dropchess variant, but the rule from Shogi is lifted where you can only drop a pawn on a file that isn't already occupied by one of your pawns. They also cannot be dropped on the first or last rank, as in Zhouse.

- Pawns (I call them Witches but I see that people here already have a piece they call that) can move one space forward or as a knight, but only forward, with no jumping. 
- Cannons are identical to those in Xiang-qi
- Phoenixes are identical to those in Chuu Shogi (one space orthogonally, can jump two spaces diagonally)
- The Ghost is identical to the ghost in David Sirlin's "Chess 2: The Sequel" variant (can teleport to any open square, cannot capture or be captured)
- Starting position is randomized with 720 possible starting positions. Randomization works like this: everything you see in the magenta rectangle is randomized, and the Rook/Cannon are randomized, then the position is mirrored both ways. 

For a more thorough explanation of any of this you probably want to check the link. The biggest inspiration for the game is an obscure variant called Xhess which I found when looking for variants that used my favorite piece (the cannon). The pawns are lifted from that, and the initial setup is also a general modification of it. Xhess probably deserves a thread all to its own to be honest, I get excited when I think about it lol

I'll play. I have a love for eccentric variants.

e7

ge7

df7

d5

wfb