Stones system.

[Sirlin]

Richard Garfield wrote that anyone who likes Chess would not be interested in a new Chess game even if it were way better and people who don't like it would not be interested regardless, so it's a dead end to try. Regardless of all that, I present the best game I can. The best game I can is NOT one of complete information. I take it as a given that complete information games are on their way out.

I think it's better to present a game that has some aspect of prediction and mindgames instead of no aspect of that. I think it's better to present a game with a layer of unpredictability (not from randomness, but from calculated player decisions) than to present a game of complete information. I mean, that's the whole mission in creating games, I would think. So why would we want to create a complete information that has the same problem as the original game?

[garcia1000]

Also if you try to create a complete information game based on chess, you run into the "why not play Arimaa instead" problem

[ARMed_PIrate]

Fair arguments.

In some ways, I see this as an attempt to find a halfway point on the spectrum between Chess, the classic miniatures game, and more modern (expensive, intensive) miniatures games like Warhammer and Warmachine.

I will admit that unpredictability in the form of yomi is perhaps more interesting than unpredictability from randomness (which, in the form of dice-rolling, is so integral to those more modern miniature games).

I could see Chess 2 players saying, "You play Animals? That's cool I guess. But Reaper is so much more awesome!" in the same way that a Warmachine player might say, "Oh, I play Cryx. And your pitiful Khadoran souls will soon be enslaved to the Dragon Father."

From that perspective, I think it might be really cool to encourage folks to paint their chess pieces, for that air of personalization. I'd almost like to see an "official" color scheme for each army.

[Sirlin]

I looked into how to manufacture it a little bit, though to do it right you need *at least* custom pieces for 4 new queens + 2 kings. And if you want to all out, then you probably want custom elephants, tigers, everything else...for both sides. The number of custom pieces total ends up being more pieces than are in a base chess set. In other words, super expensive at low quantities. So even if it was a super amazing game, not sure what to do there. Maybe a digital version, though we have so far not been able to complete and sell digital anything yet.