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Wand Chess. Pieces have a magic wand, that gives random outcomes.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Charles Gilman wrote on Tue, Jan 6, 2004 09:51 AM UTC:Good ★★★★

Anonymous wrote on Fri, Apr 14, 2006 05:23 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
How about wands of weakness that turn Rooks into Wazirs,Bishops into Ferzes and Knight into there Xiang-Gi cousins?

George Duke wrote on Wed, Sep 26, 2007 12:33 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
This is a series of mutators that apply to almost any other set of rules, and we shall use some in '91.5 Trillion...' for one place. Ralph Betza: 'Instead of a normal move, a piece may zap its wand at any neighboring square or itself'. A random number generator(coins, dice) determines which wand is in effect of twelve. 'Twelve' work for dice perfectly, the first shows which of 1-6 or 7-12, and so the chances being equal, the second specifies the exact number. The adjacent target square named, the 12 Wands(effects) may be 1)Teleport the piece there to square of choice 2)Death(capture) 3)Sleep 4)Stoning 5)Sloth 6)Polymorph 7)Demotion 8)Peace 9)Sickness 10)Speed 11)Protection 12)Healing. In a further toss of dice, there is a 1/3 chance of a misfire, meaning no effect and a wasted turn. Once a piece has its wand, it is stuck with it for the game. If a piece has a Speed Wand(10), one of the few favourable, the player probably applies it to itself, in order to move twice, or a different fast piece move once. This one 1996 Betza article is more packed than some entire month's of 'What's New' after 2003. Roberto Lavieri likely got the idea for Reducer(which causes adjacent pieces to be able to move one square only) of Altair, Achernar etc. from these Betza mutators, and there are similarities in other CVs that must have also drawn inspiration here without commenting. Betza recommends an alternative Wand of Invisibility.

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