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Marad was written for the Autumn 2022 Lisp Game Jam, though began as a cardboard grid with coins strewn on it, and can be played as such.
It is a two-person board game. Perhaps you could call it a chesslite.
A nine by nine game board is required. The center square is used for scoring and should be marked in some way that makes it stand out.
A four-sided die is required to produce a move count. This could also be done with a coin flipped twice:
Coin Flips Move Count
TT 1
TH 2
HT 3
HH 4
Fourteen pieces are required, seven per side. These consist of:
These could be implemented with two quarters, four nickels, and eight pennies, or similar pocket change, if you are not much invested in the game.
The pieces are arranged in lines in the second and eighth columns. The Kings face one another and form a straight line with the central scoring square. Next to each King are placed two Rooks, and finally at the ends of the lines the Bishops, who face their opposing peer on a diagonal line through the center scoring square. A picture and diagram may help; the "x" marks the central scoring square in the diagram.
. . . . . . . . .
. ♗ . . . . . ♝ .
. ♖ . . . . . ♜ .
. ♖ . . . . . ♜ .
. ♔ . . x . . ♚ .
. ♖ . . . . . ♜ .
. ♖ . . . . . ♜ .
. ♗ . . . . . ♝ .
. . . . . . . . .
The die or a coin should be tossed to determine who goes first; this should alternate between games.
The player to move must roll the four-sided die to determine the move count; this move count is used by both players in the first and second turns, then another roll is made for the third and fourth turns, etc. The players should alternate rolling the die between the turn pairs.
The first player then picks a piece to move and the direction; the piece moves in the direction up to the move count, pushing any pieces that are in the way. A piece may move fewer squares than the move count if the board edge (or other pieces between it and the board edge) prevent the move.
The second player then picks a piece to move, which will move for the same move count as the first player used.
Then a new move count is rolled, and the players make their moves, etc.
Scoring is accomplished by having a piece owned by the player moved into and remain in the central scoring square at the end of the turn. This need not be a piece owned by the player, so take care when making moves. A piece must move into the scoring square for a point to be scored; a piece idling in the scoring square generates no points, as it did not move there that turn.
The players should agree to play until a particular score is first reached; 15 is used in the computer version of this game, which is not too short nor too long.
This game is recorded from screen captures of the LISP implementation. animate(1) from the ImageMagick package can display animated GIF, among other software options.
With commentary, the board having been copied from the Game::Marad Perl version.
A "4" is rolled, player 1 to move:
. . . . . . . . . 4 . B . . . . . b . . R . . . . . r . . R . . . . . r . . K . . . . . k . . R . . . . . r . . R . . . . . r . 0 . B . . . . . b . 0 . . . . . . . . .
No piece can move to the center square, so player one parks a Bishop in a corner in the event that a future turn rolls a "4". Player 2 to move.
. . . . . . . . . . B . . . . . b . 4 . R . . . . . r . . R . . . . . r . . K . . . . . k . . R . . . . . r . . R . . . . . r . 0 . . . . . . . b . 0 B . . . . . . . .
Player 2 moves their King back a square.
. . . . . . . . . 3 . B . . . . . b . . R . . . . . r . . R . . . . . r . . K . . . . . . k . R . . . . . r . . R . . . . . r . 0 . . . . . . . b . 0 B . . . . . . . .
The move count is now 3; player 1 moves their King to score a point. They could have also scored with the Bishop at the top of their line.
. . . . . . . . . . B . . . . . b . 3 . R . . . . . r . . R . . . . . r . . . . . K . . . k . R . . . . . r . . R . . . . . r . 1 . . . . . . . b . 0 B . . . . . . . .
Player 2 moves one of their Bishops, also scoring a point. This pushes the King of player 1 off of the scoring square as a side effect.
. . . . . . . . . 2 . B . . . . . b . . R . . . . . r . . R . K . . . r . . . . . b . . . k . R . . . . . r . . R . . . . . r . 1 . . . . . . . . . 1 B . . . . . . . .
Player 1 moves their top Bishop, pushing their King onto the scoring square.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . b . 2 . R . . . . . r . . R . B . . . r . . . . . K . . . k . R . . . b . r . . R . . . . . r . 2 . . . . . . . . . 1 B . . . . . . . .
Player 2 moves a Rook out.
. . . . . . . . . 4 . . . . . . . b . . R . . . . . r . . R . B . r . . . . . . . K . . . k . R . . . b . r . . R . . . . . r . 2 . . . . . . . . . 1 B . . . . . . . .
Player 1 advances their corner Bishop to score, which pushes a few pieces.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . b . 4 . R . . . . r r . . R . B . K . . . . . . . B . . . k . R . . . b . r . . R . . . . . r . 3 . . . . . . . . . 1 . . . . . . . . .
Player 2 advances their King to score.
. . . . . . . . . 1 . . . . . . . b . . R . . . . r r . . R . B . K . . . . . . B k . . . . . R . . . b . r . . R . . . . . r . 3 . . . . . . . . . 2 . . . . . . . . .
At this point player 1 could score with their Bishop or King, and probably wants to, given that they cannot stop player 2 from scoring on the next move. Anyways, hopefully this shows enough of the game for it to make sense.
Luck can play a significant factor, though often games are pretty close, especially if the players know what they are doing. Repeated move loops pushing the same pieces back and forth are easy to get into; this is pretty boring. But I do not have any ideas for fixing that, and it has mostly been me playing the game, so that is not much by the way of critical review.
