I thought I might be a good idea to have a forum thread where the purpose is to announce new variations or new games. 2010 saw an explosion in new games or variations of existing games. Now it seems that a new variation can be introduced and few people know about it because it is buried as a variation of another game, and some games have many variations! It can be difficult to keep up with all the new possible games.
Anytime you notice a new game or variation, post it here. If you notice a game that has rules changed, that could also be announced here.
The newest game was added today, January 1, 2011. Happy New Year!
The game is related to Shogi, but has many new pieces (a somewhat complicated rule set) The game is called "Tori Shogi" and it has the following pieces: Phoenix, Falcon, Eagle, Crane, Pheasant, Quail, Swallow and Goose.
You can review the rules by googling "tori shogi" and click on the wikipedia page.
I will create some voting about a new game. Some suggestions: Backgammon, Draughts, Dameo, Grand Chess, Chinese Chess, Oski (variant on triangular board), ConHex, Hockey (similar as StreetSoccer but played on hexagonal board), some game for four players - Halma, Shogi for 4, ...
"I'd like to see a game with simultaneous unveiling of moves."
This.
The focus on alternating-turn-based games to the exclusion of simultaneous-move games I've never understood. There's no intrinsic reason the latter can't be just as fun as the former. That's a slot that definitely needs filling.
Noticing that we have 2 chance-influenced games already, I also think it's better to fill the not-perfect-information slot before adding another chance-influenced one like Backgammon. (Yes, I'm ignoring the not-quite-perfect information of WYPS pools)
all of these are interesting but i would in particular vote for draughts. and although it wasn't suggested, pente.
and if phil is correct about backgammon, the kalah variant of mancala (with swap) might fill the bill; to me, mancala resembles backgammon (for possibly superficial reasons).
I don't know what's already out there in 2-player, simultaneous-reveal games. I don't think games with more than two players, like Diplomacy, would be good for this site. Rock-Paper-Scissors fits the definition, but also is not the sort of thing I had in mind.
Have the games from the "World Mind Sports Games". This would mean Draughts and Xiangqi (Chinese Chess). Make sure it's 10x10 international draughts, not 8x8 checkers. I can't see bridge fitting in quite well here, though.
i sort of agree with mirror man, british/american checkers would be boring, especially now that it's solved, but russian or brazilian checkers have rules close to international 10x10 but are played on 8x8 board.
@ Dvd Avins - i think Rock-Paper-Scissors would be very cool
One variation I particularly enjoy is Turkish checkers, in which the moves are orthogonal, so I'm going to recommend that. Additionally, I'll cast my vote into the thousands of the for Xiangqi/Chinese Chess, as well as for Janggi/Korean Chess, which is similar enough that it could probably be considered a variant of Xiangqi.
In case you did not notice, the latest game is yet another change in the number wyps game. The last championship recently began and everyone was surprised to see a completely new variant of the game. This time, it is called "numeric wyps". The rules are much much different than the last championship which was "ascending wyps".
If you want to give it a spin, I have set up a user tournament numeric wyps #1
double round robin rated open to all, begins Sept. 20
The rules can be seen in this PDF file, scroll down to the last page, page 4
My biggest wish by far is still to have mini shogi listed as an independent game (rather than a variation on shogi). Especially because this would allow month tournaments but also simply because the game is completely different.
yes, and many have said chinese checkers would be ideal. but maybe a 3+ player game should be special somehow, as in only available through TEAMS, or ladder tournaments?
Little Golem