Rift: the Golden Fox.
Hanyway, yesterday I did some work on Rift, which is that abstract strategy board game I started working on last summer. There have been kinks to work out. One of the most glaring was the Dragon piece. Compared to the other Beast class pieces, the Unicorn and the Cockatrice, the Dragon was overpowered. In my efforts to balance it out, its rules became very complex, too complex next to the rules of any other piece and certainly too complex for a Beast piece. The next best option was to change the Dragon to something else. I just had no idea what.
A couple nights ago I came up with an idea. I wrote a note before I went to bed. The new piece would be able to "possess" an opponent piece, allowing the player to use the possessed piece in the same turn against its own side. This may be subconsciously derived from the rules for annan shogi, the Korean variant of shogi in which a piece moves according to the rules of a friendly piece immediately behind it. Possession in Rift would work differently, though, with the possessing piece controlling the possessed piece; the possessed piece is moved or otherwise acted, not the possessing piece.
After a little more research, I decided to call this new piece the Golden Fox, thinking of the golden nine-tailed fox of Japanese lore. It's a fast piece, able to jump other pieces like the Knight, and its ability to dodge attacks gives it a higher Armour attribute. However, it has a base Attack score of 0, so it can't execute basic melee attacks itself. Running with the Japanese tradition, the Golden Fox can possess an adjacent opponent piece. This allows you to then use that piece as if it's your own for that turn. The way I've technically worded it in the piece guide is that the Possess act appropriates an adjacent opponent piece and allows use of its abilities by transferral of intent to act.
I guess I should elucidate that. If you know chess, you know the touch-move rule. The rough equivalent in Rift is declaration of intent to act. When you declare intent to act a piece, you have to act that piece by using one of its abilities, unless there is no legal acting possibility. When you declare intent to act the Golden Fox's Possess ability, provided there is an opponent piece adjacent, the act itself does two things: it grants you control of the piece, and it immediately transfers or baton-passes the intent to act to the piece. The Possess act doesn't count as a turn, so you still act the possessed piece in the same turn.
So the Dragon has been removed and replaced by the Golden Fox.
To accommodate the Possess ability, I had to add a new type of act, the appropriative act. Possess is the only ability that falls under this type, just as the Jester's Invoke card is the only ability that falls under the wildcard type of act. But I always seek elegance.
The Golden Fox-related rules aren't complete. I need to work out the Golden Fox effect of the Beast Enhance cards. Those cards negate the major penalty that each Beast piece suffers. The Dragon's effect was to tone down the complexity a bit. Right now, though, the Golden Fox doesn't have a glaring drawback. One drawback I'm considering is barring the Golden Fox from attacking at all. Generally, a piece that has a base Attack of 0 can gain a basic melee attack if you buff it using Buildup Cards, Jester Cards, or Enchanter spells. I'm thinking of barring the Golden Fox from attacking even then, making it quite helpless on its own; buffing would still increase its attack power via its possession, but it couldn't attack itself. In this case, Beast Enhance would basically allow it to attack on its own if it's buffed. That's rather minor, though, so I think I should come up with something else.
Broadly, I suppose the fact that the Golden Fox's specials are applied through and from other pieces can be viewed as a drawback. In this case, maybe the effect of Beast Enhance would be allowing you to act the ability through the Golden Fox, originating from its own space instead, which is relevant for move acts, attack acts, and any other act that requires you to target another space with reference to the originator's space. It sounds more complicated than it is. This would require you to use some special notation, but it would allow you to do nasty things like attack an opponent piece with its own attack ability, which would benefit the Golden Fox defensively. Actually, that's not bad. I'll mull on it.
Enough for now.
A couple nights ago I came up with an idea. I wrote a note before I went to bed. The new piece would be able to "possess" an opponent piece, allowing the player to use the possessed piece in the same turn against its own side. This may be subconsciously derived from the rules for annan shogi, the Korean variant of shogi in which a piece moves according to the rules of a friendly piece immediately behind it. Possession in Rift would work differently, though, with the possessing piece controlling the possessed piece; the possessed piece is moved or otherwise acted, not the possessing piece.
After a little more research, I decided to call this new piece the Golden Fox, thinking of the golden nine-tailed fox of Japanese lore. It's a fast piece, able to jump other pieces like the Knight, and its ability to dodge attacks gives it a higher Armour attribute. However, it has a base Attack score of 0, so it can't execute basic melee attacks itself. Running with the Japanese tradition, the Golden Fox can possess an adjacent opponent piece. This allows you to then use that piece as if it's your own for that turn. The way I've technically worded it in the piece guide is that the Possess act appropriates an adjacent opponent piece and allows use of its abilities by transferral of intent to act.
I guess I should elucidate that. If you know chess, you know the touch-move rule. The rough equivalent in Rift is declaration of intent to act. When you declare intent to act a piece, you have to act that piece by using one of its abilities, unless there is no legal acting possibility. When you declare intent to act the Golden Fox's Possess ability, provided there is an opponent piece adjacent, the act itself does two things: it grants you control of the piece, and it immediately transfers or baton-passes the intent to act to the piece. The Possess act doesn't count as a turn, so you still act the possessed piece in the same turn.
So the Dragon has been removed and replaced by the Golden Fox.
To accommodate the Possess ability, I had to add a new type of act, the appropriative act. Possess is the only ability that falls under this type, just as the Jester's Invoke card is the only ability that falls under the wildcard type of act. But I always seek elegance.
The Golden Fox-related rules aren't complete. I need to work out the Golden Fox effect of the Beast Enhance cards. Those cards negate the major penalty that each Beast piece suffers. The Dragon's effect was to tone down the complexity a bit. Right now, though, the Golden Fox doesn't have a glaring drawback. One drawback I'm considering is barring the Golden Fox from attacking at all. Generally, a piece that has a base Attack of 0 can gain a basic melee attack if you buff it using Buildup Cards, Jester Cards, or Enchanter spells. I'm thinking of barring the Golden Fox from attacking even then, making it quite helpless on its own; buffing would still increase its attack power via its possession, but it couldn't attack itself. In this case, Beast Enhance would basically allow it to attack on its own if it's buffed. That's rather minor, though, so I think I should come up with something else.
Broadly, I suppose the fact that the Golden Fox's specials are applied through and from other pieces can be viewed as a drawback. In this case, maybe the effect of Beast Enhance would be allowing you to act the ability through the Golden Fox, originating from its own space instead, which is relevant for move acts, attack acts, and any other act that requires you to target another space with reference to the originator's space. It sounds more complicated than it is. This would require you to use some special notation, but it would allow you to do nasty things like attack an opponent piece with its own attack ability, which would benefit the Golden Fox defensively. Actually, that's not bad. I'll mull on it.
Enough for now.