User:Inarius/Pawn

Pawn is a strategy game I am currently brainstorming about creating. At the moment, it uses a standard chess or American checkers board, and 1.5 times as many pawns as there are in a chess set.

Motivation
My primary motivation for this game is the game of chess, although the similarities end with the name Pawn. The game rules and movements draw generously from checkers, and after much of the game's formation, I noticed that I may have been influenced by The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures.

All things considered, what truly got me thinking about this game was considering the pawn: chess' least appreciated piece. What if all the pawns banded together, and made a game? What would it be like, and how could you make it fun?

For those interested in my silly ideas, and for my own purposes, I also maintain a list of significant revisions to my "game plan."

Rules
In a game of pawn, the object is to overpower your opponent by taking each of his/her pieces. Separately, each of your pawns are weak but mobile, but when joined together in particular patterns they gain extra abilities that may allow you to excel in the game.

Patterns are formed simply by joining pieces together through standard movements. Once a new pattern is formed it is allowed a chance to strike (or maybe it should be required to strike if it is available...). A strike is an attack made by a pattern in the same move in which it was newly formed. If a strike results in a new pattern formation, the player may choose to strike again but only if there is a new attack available.

Duals and threepieces can both expend a turn to rotate 90 degrees on any pivot, as long as no other pieces occupy the resting space. Threepieces can perform ranged attacks, whereas squads are impervious to ranged attacks.

Patterns
Once a series of pawns are organized into any of the patterns below, they can be moved as a whole according to the diagrams. An X indicates that a piece may take an opponent's piece which already occupies that space. A circle indicates that a piece may only occupy that space if it is vacant.

* A squad has additional abilities, further explained in a later section.

Forming and Breaking
There is no additional cost or steps required to form and break patterns. If an organization of pawns allows for a particular pattern during the players turn, those pawns may be moved as a pattern, or they may move separately. The only exception to this rule is in the case of a strike.

Strike
A strike is an optional attack available to a player when the current move or attack has allowed the formation of a new pattern. A pattern is considered new when one or more of its pawns acquired new positions through standard movements and the remaining pawns remained stationary, uninvolved in the aforementioned move (a rotation alone is not considered a new pattern).

If the newly formed pattern is situated such that it can attack a least one opponent's piece, then the player can choose to strike by executing the attack before the end of the current turn. In fact, a strike does not necessarily end the turn. If a strike results in a newly available strike, then the player may choose to strike again. This may continue until no strike is available.

Movement
Most patterns can only move in a limited number of directions, one space at a time. Some patterns can change their orientation by rotating. Rotating always consumes one turn and cannot be performed if there are pieces in the way. All specific abilities of the patterns are detailed in the sections below.



Pawn
Pawns can either move one or two spaces forward, or one space backward. If any piece (opponent or teammate) rests in front of a pawn, it may jump over it if the next space is free. A pawn can only attack the space directly in front of it. If the only patterns that can be formed on the board are pawns, this may result in a winning or non-winning stalemate.

Dual
A dual consists of two pawns arraigned in a line and could be visualized as two pawns tied back-to-back. It is no longer as mobile as a pawn because it is unable to jump over other pieces, however it can perform attacks both forward and backward and is the smallest pattern that can move horizontally on the board.

A dual can also expend a turn to rotate.

Squad
A squad consists of four pawns arraigned in a square. It is the only pattern that cannot attack but it also the only one that can freely move in all four directions. A squad is well-protected because it is not vulnerable to ranged attacks (from threepieces). An additional ability unique to the squad is that it can push one adjacent pawn (opponent or not) one space in the direction of movement as long as the resting space for all moved pieces are not occupied.

Threepiece
A threepiece consists of three pawns arraigned in a line. It is the most powerful pattern because it not constrained in its movements. It can perform moves and attacks at any range, both forward and backward. Thus, a threepiece can take an opponent's pawn from several spaces away, however it's movement ceases as soon as it occupies the position of it's first capture.

Like a dual, a threepiece can also expend a turn to rotate.

The primary weakness of a threepiece is that it cannot perform ranged attacks against squads. However, if it is positioned in line with an enemy squad that is directly adjacent, it may attack the nearest piece.

Rotation
Rotation constitutes a 90 degree turn, in which a pattern changes its orientation from vertical to horizontal or vice-versa. Only the dual and the threepiece have the ability to rotate, as long as no other piece already occupies the resting spaces. They can pivot on any of the pieces that they are composed of.

Winning the Game
The object of Pawn is to end the game with more pieces than your opponent. The game is over when all of an opponents pieces have been taken, or the board has reached a state of stalemate.

Stalemate
In a stalemate, there are still pieces from each player remaining on the board. However, no combinations of moves by either party can result in any new patterns or attacks. Since all patterns other than pawns can either move sideways or rotate in order to move sideways, this can only occur when the only patterns remaining are pawns.

A winning stalemate occurs when one player ends the game with more pieces than the other. That player is then named the winner.

A non-winning stalemate occurs when the game ends while each player has the exact same number of pieces left on the board.