Sycarion Diversions

Each side has 26 pieces. Two 5 rank pieces, Four 4 rank pieces, Eight 3 rank pieces, Eight 2 rank pieces and Four 1 rank pieces(archers). Upon being attacked by a superior force, a piece is demoted one rank. If a piece has already been demoted and is attacked by a superior piece, it is removed from the board, not demoted. If a piece comes into contact with an equally ranked piece, both are removed from the board – no demotion.

Undemoted 1 rank pieces are archers that attack from two squares away, or one square diagonally. Pieces they attack are demoted without revealing rank. They cannot attack adjacent squares. They are taken by any piece directly.

Variant rule: A demoted piece becomes an enemy piece!(Except when attacked by an archer)
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Tactique (Pronounced Tak-TEEK)

A Game for Two Players.

The object of the game is to capture the opponent’s flag.

To start the game:

Players choose which set of pieces they wish. (The colors can be any two different colors.)
Each player starts with an army of 27 pieces, in order of rank from high to low, consisting of:

2 Commanders
4 Calavrymen
8 Pikemen
8 Infantry
4 Archers

There is also 1 Flag, the only piece that is not moveable. Note that the moveable pieces have a number or letter to designate the order of rank. Thus, the Commander is ranked 5 (highest), the Calvaryman 4, the Pikemen 3, the Infantry 2, and the Archers who are marked with an “A”.

In addition to the 27 pieces are another 22 pieces marked with a “D”. These pieces are called demoted pieces and are not placed on the board at the beginning of the game. Their function is explained in the rules for attacking.

1. The players place one piece in each square of their half of the board. It is important that a divider is placed between the two players’ pieces so that they cannot see where their opponent has placed their pieces. The final three rows are to be filled from each end. That is, 8 per row, 3 rows deep. The fourth row from the back has three pieces placed anywhere in the row you wish.
2. When playing the opponent should not see the rank of your pieces.
3. Once both sides have placed their pieces on the board, remove the divider to begin play.

GAME PLAY

You and your opponent alternate turns.

On your turn you can do one of the following:

Move one of your playing pieces to an open adjacent space.
Attack one of your opponent’s playing pieces
Charge one of your pieces into a square directly in front of one of your opponent’s playing pieces and declare and attack.

A charge is moving and attacking in the same turn.

RULES FOR MOVEMENT

1. Pieces move any number of squares forward, backward or sideways.

2. Pieces cannot move diagonally. They cannot jump over another piece. They cannot move onto a square already occupied by another piece (unless attacking).

3. A piece cannot move back and forth between the same two squares in three consecutive turns.

4. Only one piece can be moved on a turn.

Remember, the Flag piece cannot be moved and must remain on the square where it was originally placed throughout the game.

Rules for Attack:

1. When two opposing pieces occupy adjacent spaces either back to back, side to side, or face to face, they are in a position to attack. When charging, a piece is moved to an adjacent sqaure before proceeding.

2. When a piece is two spaces away from an Archer orthogonally, or one space away from an Archer diagonally, it will be attacked by the Archer before the opponents next move. The archer’s attack is not optional and is always played.

3. Before moving or attacking, Archer attacks are resolved. Any piece struck by an archer attack is demoted one rank. The archer does not announce his location in any way. If the defending piece has already been demoted, it is removed from the game. The archer does not move into the sqaure of the defending piece removed from the board.

4. To attack on your turn, take your attacking piece and lightly tap your opponent’s piece. Then, declare the rank of your attacking piece. Your opponent then declares the rank of his/her defending piece.

4. The piece with the lower rank is demoted and replaced with a demoted piece of lower rank. If the piece with the lower rank has already been demoted, the demoted piece is removed from the board. Also, if the piece with the lower rank is an Archer it is removed from the board. If your piece (the attacking piece) is the remaining and winning piece, it moves into the space formerly occupied by the defending piece. If the remaining and winning piece is the defending piece, it stays on the square it was in when it was attacked.

5. When pieces of the same rank battle, both pieces are removed from the game without being demoted.

6. Attacking is optional for all pieces except the archer.

WINNING THE GAME

The first player to attack an opponent’s Flag captures it and wins the game.

Greed variation of Monopoly

Start the game with only $500 instead of $1250. To purchase properties, you can borrow money with interest to be paid back over a number of turns. The more turns to pay back, the higher the interest. How much you can borrow is determined by a scale. The first loan is $500. If you pay it back on time, you can go up the scale and borrow more. If you are late, you go down the scale and interest increases.

100
200
350
500
700
900
1150

Ten turns, 5% interest. Twenty turns, 10%. Thirty turns, 20%.

A property must be purchased on every turn. If no one buys a property, everyone must take a loan for the highest interest/longest term.

You can mortgage a property, like traditional Monopoly, only it goes back into circulation if it is not un-mortgaged in 10 turns.

There are seven large population areas of Lenga. The name of each is usually the human name for each area. Each area is not necessarily its own continent, but they are distant enough from each other to be culturaly distinct.

Dacia: Where most characters are from.

Serhanakintra : Land of the Sun and Moon. Trade is important with this region, especially spices and silk. Many scholars of this region are accused of being atheists by the Dacians – this is one of the sources of a negative ethnic stereotype of Serhanakintri by Dacians.

Il-Zehar: Land of the Midday Heat. Trade is somewhat important with this region as it is the home to most saffron growers. Also important in this area is metalworking, mathematics, engineering, and teachers of magic. Stories from explorers to Il-Zehar tell wild tales of large ‘metal-men’, exotic magic, and great riches.

Che-san: Land of Tea. Many in Dacia love tea and import almost all of it from Che-san. Many socities within this area are closed to outsiders. Those who travel here also call it the land of demons as these powerful creatures fight for control of this world and various off-worlds as well. It has been said that one of the powerful rulers in this region has traveled to other worlds bodily, not astrally. (If such stories can be believed.)

Ogdan: The Ogdan lands are not largely human populated, but much favored by humans. This area is named for the predominate species living there, the Ogdan. Although Ogdan are mute, they have no trouble communicating or being understood, despite the use of hand signals to ’speak’. Humans have studied the hand signals, but there appears to be little consistency in signs between each individual Ogdan.

The Ogdan are known for their artistry and metal-working. Ogdan steel is lighter and stronger than even the best Dacian steel. The Ogdan do not make armor, despite heavy bribes offered, but occasionally make swords. (Most Ogdan do not carry weapons, in times of war, an Ogdan is usally armed with either a polearm or a mace.) Ogdans are also known for their crystal work (not glass, but heavy crystal) in addition to their blue and purple dyes. Blue and purple dyes are rare in Dacia and fetch a good price. Many Ogdan trade for things made with sugar, glass items, or horses. (Ogdans did not encounter horses until the first traders arrived.)

More to come, but not much detail yet…

Ohiini: (the ii represents a long vowels as the i in ‘pick’ held longer)

Myenda:

In Lenga, work has begun on the book of spells for use by spellcasters. As mentioned previously, the difference between a spellcaster and someone that knows how to speak Lenga is the Kela. A spellcaster invokes La Kela Lenga, a mental ability, to connect the energy for the spell with the power of thew words spoken. Without the Kela, a person is just saying words in another language.

However, tiny bits of magic are available to the common man or woman. They do not do much, but can be helpful in a jam. Basically, if a person has been taught, a piece of everyday magic can be used. A person needs a small piece of metal (about the weight and size of two nails or a copper piece). It requires three rounds of uninterrupted effort to chant the phrase and perform the apporpriate motions. When a person is finished, the metal is consumed, regardless of the success or failure of the piece of everyday magic. An ordinary person can only use up to three pieces of everyday magic in a 24 hour period.

Three examples:

Spice

This piece of everyday magic allows you add spice to something being cooked. Unlike using the actual spice, the finished food will taste like it is missing a little of the spice called for, no matter how much you use. This piece of everyday magic is usually done when only a pinch remains and more is needed. If you use some of the actual spice AND spice created with the piece of everyday magic, the finished food will taste fine. The chant for this piece of everyday magic is “*” and the motion is rubbing fingers together over the item being cooked.

Clean
This piece of everyday magic removes all small stains from a small pile of clothes. The chant is “*” and the motion is a scrubbing motion over the pile of clothes. (Small stains are determined by the GM.)

Bring to a Boil
This piece of everyday magic allows a person to boil up to a gallon of water or a quart of other liquid that is mostly water (like soup or a stew) within a minute. It is mainly by healers, but is also useful for making meals without a campfire. The chant is “*” and the motion is simply holding the container for half a minute.

In Lenga, the same species is known as Keyalinbele. Unless noted, they are the same in both worlds. For simplicity, they will be described by their Dira name – Kirnemian or Kir for short.

Kirnemians are more commonly known as the the Kir, a species of ken living beyond the borders of the old Hesberian Empire. They were nevered conquered and they also never sought Hesberian land. The few skirmishes between Kir warriors and the Hesberian army demonstrated the superiority of the Kir infantry to the Hesberian’s infantry. (However, the Kir did not have calvary as such, allowing the Hesberians to escape a total rout.)

Personality: The Kir tend to be a peaceful people that enjoy the spoken word, linguistics, vocal arts and drama. Kir are generally welcoming of new ken and enjoy discussing new ideas with anyone with the patience and forbearance to listen. By comparison, the most quiet and reserved Kir would be considered chatty by most ken standards. Other ken tend to react negatively to Kir, especially with their tendency to speak in never-ending run-on sentences. There are Kir that enjoy a good fight and those that devote themselves to a temple, but most Kir tend to enjoy working in the market selling vegetables or cloth or any manner of goods because of the opportunity afforded to talk to others.

Physical description: Kirnemians are broad, squat humanoids with a greyish red, thick, leathery skin. Their eye color ranges from typical colors of green, brown, and hazel. They can also have bright golden colored eyes (not yellow), but do not have grey or blue eyes. They are about five to five-and-a-half foot tall. They are broad in the shoulder and the trunk with two stocky legs.Their heads are wider than a human’s but not longer from scalp to chin. Except for the presecene of a second mouth, they could be mistaken for a beardless Duregar or Dwarf. The second mouth is located just below the rib cage in the center of the abdomen. It is capable of speech as it has its own set of lungs and voice box, like the upper mouth. The lower mouth, though, is the only mouth that allows for eating. The upper mouth can only be used to breathe and to speak. Each set of lungs is smaller than for most humanoids and considering the physical difficulties of both sets of lungs holding air at the same time, they are unable to hold their breath completely for any length of time.

The Kir generally have a weak digestive system. Their food is considered bland and overcooked by most other ken. The Kir would describe their food as very subtle in flavor and prepared dry as a matter of preference. The Kir are not capable of drinking beer or strong drink. They enjoy a type of white wine, but generally drink water and teas.

They dress in whatever clothes are fashionable in various lands except for heavy shirts that would cover the lower mouth. Many enjoy wearing Hesberian togas and traditional garb which consists of a specially made leather jerkin with a cotton half-shirt underneath and breeches. The third button of the jerkin allows a Kir to expose the lower mouth for eating or talking. This can be fastened on the wearer’s left side to close the rectangular flap, or their right side to open it.

Relations: The Kir are quite sociable and strive to maintain good relations with all ken. However, as Kir have the appearance of constantly talking, Duregar avoid them and Ilosians consider them undisciplined and annonying. The Kir enjoy humans – the younger generations tend to imitate various aspects of human life, most notably their dress. Like others, they dread the violent Sook.

Kir lands and society: The Kir enjoy having an urban society and pay great attention to spoken and theathrical arts. Their society has enjoyed real peace for hundreds of years. Elements of their traditional culture still thrive in older cities. Certain artisans still practice the art of harmonic speaking and singing. Despite two airways and voiceboxes, it is still uncommon for a Kirnemian to use both at the same time with any amount of skill. (generally they switch back and forth, one speaks while to other inhales.)

Those with this skill and the ability to use magic have a superhuman ability to control their magic. In general, they are not able to discover new spells or magic abilities easily. Instead, what they do know and use is quite reliable. When Kir spellcasters cast a spell, it will do what they intended unless countered by another spellcaster or the traget has immunity to the magical effect. Their spells do not backfire in any way.

In Lenga, they are almost always surgura and not echewa.

Religion: The Kir acknowledge their own pantheon of Gods. The most revered being similar to Ebulus, a god of the Sun, art, and medicine. Those that become preists concern themselves with ritual chants and sacred rites, the most sacred being a vow of silence. Preists are generally revered for piety as the clergy have little power over day to day life of an average Kir.

Language: Ancient Kir spoke a di-tonal language that often relied on speaking in chords. Speaking in a third chord conveyed a different meaning from speaking in a fifth chors. Speaking in the same tone had a different meaning still. Over time, however, the Kir learned to speak in the same tone and with only one mouth. To keep the meaning of ancient texts, the language added a series of markers to denote the correct tone. The word pra before and after a phrase or sentence denotes a third chord. A single pra added to a word adds the meaning of a third chord to that word only. There are seventeen markers to denote the sixteen chords and monotone in Kir music. (There are sixteen notes in their scale as opposed to twelve in many Western scales.)

The ancient language cannot be spoken without the aid of magic for most ken. Kir that are trained in harmonic speaking are much sought-after to read the ancient texts.

Names: More on this later

Combat: Their chain mail armor is still the strongest for its weight currently made by anyone in the known world. They are master infantrymen as the stockiness and low center of gravity make them difficult for even calvary to plow through. They do not ride horses and rely on archers and spellcasters for long-range attacks. An individual Kir tends to lack skill for single combat, though they naturally wrestle well.

Adventurers: Kir love to learn new things and so they tend to be enthusiatic companions. However, their combat skill tends to develop over time making them less valuable in times of crisis for an adventuring party.
Kir RACIAL TRAITS

More on this later.

• Automatic Languages: Kir

DESCRIPTION TABLES

Random Height and Weight

As stated in an earlier post, it seemed best to have Lenga be its own language. Of course, using this language is optional when playing the game. However, it does add a certain element if it is done correctly.

The first thing that was easy to decide was that Lenga would not be Latin. It also wouldn’t be English backwards. And yes, it most certainly will not be Latin backwards or even Pig Latin backwards (Aithsi Aisi A  Aisecnetne Aini Aipgi Ailnita Absdrawkca.) More than that, Lenga shouldn’t be related to Latin. Looking around for non Romance languages, I decided to use three Bantu languages as a base.

Creating a language is hard work. There are many conlangers that have more skill and expertise than me. Fortunately, Lenga is a specialized language used only in specific circumstances. That allowed me to use very simple grammar rules to create it. The goal is for it to be fun – it is less important to make it sound like an authentic human langauge. In essence, I looked up the word in three different languages and chose the one I like the best. Then I play around with the word by changing a consonant or vowel or adding or removing a syllable.

The rules of grammar are similar to Ido, so learning it is straightforward – all nouns end in e, verbs have three tenses, etc.The other advantage is that once I spend the time to create a basic vocabulary, using the language in writing or in the game is not so difficult. Again, this is meant to enhance the game, not an effort to create the next Klingon langugage.

The end result is that some flavor is added in describing magic and spells. In English, the process of casting a spell is invoking the power source, concentrating on the spell, making the appropriate gestures and saying the right words. However, in Lenga, the same process is La Kela, La Enkeza, La Kunyiza, eyoda La Simena. (Eyoda is the Lenga word that means ‘and’. The last step is called La Simena, the speaking of magic words.)

In thinking about the design of magic and those that use magic for Lenga, much of my thoughts were fairly standard. I first imagined a person using magic casting a spell. Like many, my mental image is similar to recent Harry Potter® movies: a spellcaster thinks of the spell, waves a wand, says the magic word or words, then a greenish light appears and performs the desired effect.

Then the thought stuck me, “What if someone said the words without a wand?” I must admit that the idea that words have palpable power is an appealing concept. However, if learning magic is a matter of only using the right words, it appears that magic study is simply an exercise in vocabulary. Learn the right phrase, and ‘presto!’ the desired effect occurs. It reminds me of a cartoon where the main characters happens upon a book a magic words and phrases. While making up a song about them, he is able to defend himself against a vampire by accident. When the vampire confronts him, he uses the same phrases to produce completley different effects. At the end, he uses the name of a city to be able to fly home. The thing is, he had said the name of the city three times before but nothing happened. I know it was a cartoon, but it generated a different perspective on the whole mechanic of magic and casting spells in general.

With that in mind, it seems reasonable that casting a spell required an unobservable step. This would be something that occurs on the inside before the saying of words, waving of arms, and lighting the end of a wand. For Lenga, I called this internal step, the invoking. From the mechanics standpoint, the invoking opens a mental connection between the spellcaster and the source of energy used to create the desired effect. Once this connection is made, the external things serve to shape and channel that power.

I also imagine that this internal step can only be learned from another spellcaster and that it would take some time to learn and master. This seems necessary to make users of magic less common. It also allows them a certain amount of elitism as well as a sense of ‘otherness’ as compared to non-magic using people. This is fairly traditional, but important. People that can use magic are seen as having a mystical connection with the universe. In some ways, they are usually perceived as understanding more about the true nature of the universe than scientists. Besides, those that use magic should be different and distinctive, even in a world where magic is commonplace. The best analogy that comes to mind centers around those that are considered experts with computers. Computers are everywhere and we rely on them to do just about everything from measure how much gas we pump into our cars, to maintain financial records of multi-national companies. The fact that they are commonplace doesn’t remove the mystique around the ‘geeks’ that we know. Demand is high for those that are expert with ERP systems, but the supply of qualified people is pretty low.

So if it is established that a person must make a connection with their source of magical energy before casting a spell, interesting possibilities appear. The most striking one is that anyone can use magic words and phrases in everyday conversation without anything happening. They can even know what those words are supposed to do in the hands of a spellcaster. This allows everyone to have a certain knowledge of magic without being able to use it. Magic can be everywhere while the vast majority of people are limited or prohibited from using it.

To make this distinction more obvious, I decided that Lenga should be its own language. More on that in another post.

Latrunculi or Roman Chess is mentioned in many ancient documents, but the rules are speculative at best. These rules are based on suggestions made by Dr. Wladyslaw J Kowalski, an engineering professor at Penn State University.

The folks from Board Games Studies take issue with Dr. Kowalski’s suggestions. Their interpretation of the game is here. I chose Dr. Kowalski’s version because, frankly, it looks more fun. Here are Dr. K’s proposed rules.

Equipment

The Board: Unlike a standard board, a Hedge Checkers board requires a 12×12 board. Also required are objects to serve as the hedge. (Pens work well and well as Scrabble(R) trays.) The green shaded area in the picture represents the hedge.

click here for a larger image

All play is done on dark squares. The correct orientation for each player will show a dark square to the player’s bottom-left corner.

Checker Pieces: These are the same shape and size, usually round. Each player is given 12 of the same color. Usually checkers are black and red, but can be any color. It is suggested to avoid green chekers if the graphic above is used.

Players

The players sit on opposite sides of the board. Each player is called by the color of their checkers. Black moves first, but if black is not used, flip a coin to determine who moves first.

The Play

Each player places 8 of their 12 checkers on the board outside the hedge. Six are placed on the dark squares of the row closest to the player, and one each is placed on both sides on dark squares above the first row. Click on the diagram above for a larger picture – checkers are initally places on the squares marked with an X.

Each turn, a player may “jump the hedge” to put one of their checkers into play, move diagonally forward one square, or jump an opponent. If a player jumps the hedge, he must place a checker outside the hedge, if he has any left over. When jumping over an opponent, you must take all jumps available.

Crowning: If a piece reaches the far edge of the board, he is crowned and called a King. Kings can move and jump backwards, in addition to being able to move and jump forwards.

Object of Play

Deprive the opponent of the ability to move. This happens if all 12 pieces are taken, but can also occur if remaining pieces are blocked.

Notation

Notation is based on the graphic below. X’s mark the initial position of checkers at the beginning of the game. *’s mark the Pits (explained later). The numbers mark squares either player can use in legal moves. When writing a game, it is common to write the number the pice moved from and the number where the piece moved to separated by a hypen. In the case of initial moves, X is used.

click here for a larger image

Special Rules

Hiding: It is possible to hide a piece by jumping back over the hedge. However, the player’s next move must be to jump over the hedge and return to play. If the piece is blocked from returning to play, the piece is forfeited. For example, a player may move a piece 5-14. On his next move, he must move 14-25 or forfeit his piece.

The Pits: A move into the squares marked with a star *, are considered sacrifices. Moving into the * squares provide no means for a piece to return. For strategic reasons, a player may opt to sacrifice a piece. Such moves are notated number-*., namely 15-* and 22-*.

Strategy

There is no rule that you must move all 12 pieces into play as soon as possible. However, it is generally considered more beneficial to play aggresively. Not placing pieces on the board can potentially trap several pieces behind the hedge, as well as leave a player greatly outnumbered.

I made comments easier. Acutally, I didn’t know that I had set it to “Must have account and be logged in to post comments” turned on.

All comments welcome.