Werewolf LXXII: Chess (Checkmate!)
 

Your team is in its formation. King and Queen in the middle, Rooks at the edge of the battlefield, Knights and Bishops primed for battle, and Pawns ready to charge ahead. The terrain has been divided into 64 squares, arranged in 8 rows and 8 columns. Can you and your teammates dominate the other team and kill its King, or will you succumb to the wolves determined to wreak chaos? This game assigns a chess piece to each player, and puts you in your spot on the chess board. If you don't know how to play Chess, that's okay -- I figure the game will play out more like some kind of battle tactics, rather than Chess.

Here are your players:








A picture of the board as it looks at the beginning of the game is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess#Setup. The Kings are at E1 and E8, the Queens are at D1 and D8, the Rooks are at A1, A8, H1, and H8, the Bishops are at C1, F1, C8, and F8, the Knights are at B1, G1, B8, and G8, and the Pawns are all over rows 2 and 7. However, only the Bishops, Kings, and Queens will know what color they are. Rooks, Knights, and Pawns will be told they're White, and the board will appear to them as if they're White, regardless of what color they really are.

A good pictorial description of the way each piece moves can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess#Moves.


Each day, you must do these things:

1. Vote (if you don't vote, you will not be able to do anything during that night phase)
2. Submit a night action if you have one
3. Submit a move on the board
4. Submit a "time" for the move

Explanations follow.

1. Vote

Each day, you must vote for a player to be removed from the game. You may vote "No Lynch" any day, and if that option has more votes than any other option, no pieces will be removed from the game. Ties will result in all the people tied being removed from the game (except for the Kings, of course). Votes must be in bold and on their own line. I will not remind people to put votes on their own line, either -- I simply won't count it.


2. Submit a night action

This is a 24-hour deadline, with a deadline at 3 PM Eastern, so night actions must be submitted during the day. Rooks, Bishops, and Knights have a night action every night. Pawns have a night action every night starting Night 4. Kings must submit a name at some point Day 1, but don't have to change it each day if they don't want to. Wolves must submit the name of the person they wish to chew up and spit out.


3. Submit a move on the board

I guess this one is optional, really. You don't have to move if you don't want to. I'll be using the algebraic chess notation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algebraic_chess_notation) for coordinates, but cardinal directions (White will be on the South end of the board, "facing" North, and Black will be on the North end of the board, "facing" South) for players to tell me which direction they want to go. Combining these two notations, Cell A1 is Southwest, A8 is Northwest, H1 is Southeast, and H8 is Northwest. If the moves are complicated, please feel free to ask questions, and talk with people in your group for ideas!

Queens: Tell me which direction you would like to move (North, South, East, West, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, or Southwest), and how many spaces you want to travel, from 1 to 8. You will stop when you reach your desired number of spaces. If an opposing piece is in the way, you will capture that piece and stop there -- that piece will be removed from the game. If a friendly or protected piece is in the way, you will stop right before that piece.

Rooks: Tell me which direction you would like to move (North, South, East, West), and how many spaces you want to travel, from 1 to 8. You will stop when you reach your desired number of spaces. If an opposing piece is in the way, you will capture that piece and stop there -- that piece will be removed from the game. If a friendly or protected piece is in the way, you will stop right before that piece.

Bishops: Tell me which direction you would like to move (Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, or Southwest), and how many spaces you want to travel, from 1 to 8. You will stop when you reach your desired number of spaces. If an opposing piece is in the way, you will capture that piece and stop there -- that piece will be removed from the game. If a friendly or protected piece is in the way, you will stop right before that piece.

Kings: Tell me which direction you would like to move (North, South, East, West, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, or Southwest). If an opposing piece is in that spot, you will capture that piece -- that piece will be removed from the game. If a friendly or protected piece is in that spot, you will not move. If it is easier, you can also use the algebraic chess notation to tell me which spot you want to move to.

Knights: Tell me where you want to move to, within the guidelines of your move description, using the algebraic chess notation. If an opposing piece is in that spot, you will capture that piece -- that piece will be removed from the game. If a friendly or protected piece is in that spot, you will not move.

Pawns: On Night 1, you can either move two spaces forward, move one space forward, or not move. On Night 2 or later, you can not move, move one space forward, or "attempt to capture" to your right or left. Keep in mind that if you're a Black Pawn, you'll be facing South (or down), so the left-right might get confusing. But when you say left or right, I'm going to interpret it as left or right from your perspective ON THE BOARD. If it's easier, you can give your attempt to capture in cardinal directions -- Northeast or Northwest for White Pawns, and Southeast or Southwest for Black Pawns.


4. Submit a "time" for the move

With your move, you must submit a number from 1-8, telling me how early or late in the night you want to make your move. 1 is the earliest, 8 is the latest. If no time is submitted, I'll place the move at time 4.5, right in the middle. Moves done at the same time will be simultaneous. That means that if two pieces move into the same spot at the same time, neither will be able to occupy it, and if one piece is trying to capture another and at the same time, that piece is moving away, the capture will not take place. The wolves must also submit a time that their kill occurs.


After each night phase is completed, I will:

1. Post a report of what pieces were captured, and what players were eaten by wolves.
2. Send a PM with scan results for Bishops and Knights (and Pawns as of Night 3).
3. Send a PM informing you where on the board you are, and which pieces are within your visibility. I'm not going to do this for Night 0 -- all the beginning positions are known, and can be seen at the link I provided earlier.


Endgame

The game ends in one of four ways:

1. If the White King dies, Black wins.
2. If the Black King dies, White wins.
3. If only the two Kings and wolves are alive, the Wolves win.
4. If only the two Kings are alive, the game ends in a stalemate.

A note about PMs -- please cc me in all communications. There is no mechanism that allows that PM to be read by anyone else -- I just want to see everyone's thoughts on the game. If it's via PM, you can send it to me. If it's email, you can send it to [email protected]. If it's chat, you don't have to bother, but if you have something interesting cooked up, feel free to let me know!

Players:

1. claphamsa -- Lynched in place of ntndeacon Day 3, Black Bishop, Villager
2. The Jackal -- Lynched Day 7, White Knight, Wolf
3. mccollins -- Killed by Wolves Night 6, White Pawns, Villager
4. Lathum -- Lynched Day 3, Black Bishop, Villager
5. jeheinz72 -- Lynched Day 8, White Rook, Wolf
6. st.cronin -- Killed by Wolves Night 5, White Bishop, Villager
7. Anxiety -- Lynched Day 4, Black Knight, Wolf
8. KWhit -- Killed by Wolves Night 2, Black Pawns, Villager
9. Narcizo -- Lynched Day 8, White Rook, Villager
10. PurdueBrad -- White Pawns, promoted to White Queens, Villager
11. RendeR -- Lynched Day 6, White Bishop, Villager
12. hoopsguy -- Lynched Day 1, Black Rook, Wolf
13. Chief Rum -- Lynched Day 2, Black Queen, Villager
14. oliegirl -- Killed by Wolves Night 7, Black Rook, Villager
15. ntndeacon -- White King
16. path12 -- Killed by Wolves Night 3, White Queen, Villager
17. Barkeep49 -- Killed by Wolves Night 1, White Knight, Villager
18. Sonic Youth -- Lynched Day 5, Black Pawns, Villager
19. Neon_Chaos -- Black King
20. Qwikshot -- Killed by Wolves Night 4, Black Knight, Villager

Significant events:

wow! i grew up playing chess... yes I was a nerd, even won a national team title in high school! That beign said im goign on vacation from thursday May 1 thrugh monday May 5....... I gotta play tho!

in

IN!! I just started playing chess again after a couple year hiatus. Fun fun!

In, how many people will you need?

dola- I'll try and get Saldana to play, he can be the Queen

32 would rock. 20 is kind of the minimum I have in mind, where everyone gets to PM with someone else.

hmm, 32 is a severe longshot, 20 may be tough.

24 hour + 3PM deadline = not ideal for me.

Do you have an expected start date?

NC would probably know more about that than me. Maybe Wednesday?

OK, just looking to get a sense if it was a mid-week start (right after other game) or looking at the following Monday regardless of end date for Neon's game.

By the way, I love how you posted that at 3:06 Eastern. :p

I would certainly prefer a monday the 5th start ;) hopefully the villegars can hold out for another week!

I'm all about this. I suck at chess but I like to knock peoples pieces over in fits of complete frustration

In like Ted Ginn.

I'll play.

Heh, all depends on the day and the client I'm visiting. I know that I'm going to have no FOFC access at one of my clients at some point next week ... if it looks like it is going to be a frequent issue during the run-time of this game then I'll be sitting another one out. If not, then I'll play.

In

Hold up, I'm in, assuming I can send in conditional orders. I forgot I'm away in Olympia for an interview next Tues Night through Thurs Night.

Any deadline work better? I'm pretty flexible.

Whatever crazy conditional order you can think of, I'll do it.

Evening (9PM EST and later) always works best for me personally, but I'm not trying to rock the boat here. I'm sure the time you have picked works better for others.

In like Kasparov.

Good luck keeping your PM box from overflowing with that one Pass. If 20 people are the minimum and everyone gets to PM someone else, there's the wolves PMing each other and individual orders then there's no way that's going to be viable.

Time constraints over 3/5 of the week mean that I wouldn't really be able to contribute a huge amount in what looks like it could be a complicated game. I'm not really sure I like these extreme theme games either but I'll give this ago and you can add me if you need to make up the numbers. I just won't be able to be very active, particularly if the thread is as big as I suspect it could get.

I was able to do it for the BCS game, which had 16 people, and each conference of 4 could PM themselves. I think I'll be all right.

I don't know crap about Chess, will I be able to get through this? If so, I'm in.

I don't think that should be a problem.

How do we go about getting our PM box inreased in size? who do we ask? I know I kep hitting my limit running my games every time. I just want a bigger PM box =)

Oh and put me IN, wtf, I'll probably not be around for any deadlines but I can get my input in the night before while at work.

Render has a good point. hoops, is it really a big deal to be around at deadline? I've played in tons of games where I haven't been around at deadline, and still had a great time playing when I was around. People have all sorts of schedules that we accommodate in the game -- being around at deadline is hardly a prerequisite.

Pass, go ahead and sign me up for the game.

In terms of playing the game, as a rule I want to know that I'll have a consistent presence over the lifetime of the game. So if I'm going to be missing days, I won't sign up. If my work commitments are going to keep me away for huge chunks of time, I won't sign up because I don't want to be a slave to the game at home.

Obviously everyone plays a style that gives them a high level of enjoyment. I don't enjoy playing nearly as much when I'm forced into a more passive observer role for large chunks of time. But I'll give it a go this time and see how it works out.

Sounds good, hoops.

If other people would prefer an evening deadline, I'll definitely do it, since I think this game will work infinitely better with 20+ people. Let me know.

I think afternoon deadlines actually generate larger numbers of players, Pass.

You're probably right -- the last afternoon deadline I remember had several people around. I'm just trying to do what I can to get a lot of people in this one.

I think afternoon deadlines==good for East Coasters and people who can post from work. Evening deadlines==better for Left Coasters and people who can only post after work.

That said, I can't pass this one up. ;)

Oh, to be clear, that means I am submitting my name for entry into the game being proffered. Which I would have gone back to edit into the last post. But I am not supposed to do that. So I didn't.

adn there is only one coast......

Well I am home from our honeymoon, complete with kick ass tan, and am ready for another game. Count me in...I don't know anything about chess though so I may have to ask some relatively stupid questions at some point in the game. Though new hubby does play and he said he'll help me if I need it...

Anyway, I'm in like Bobby Fischer :)

your dead?

LOL, no...he's just the only chess player I could think of off the top of my head :)

Dola, I don't even think I knew that Bobby Fischer was dead...I only know his name b/c of the movie from a few years ago, Searching for Bobby Fischer. Told you I didn't know anything about chess...

Good movie. One of the very few where I liked the movie more than the book, I think.

I will be in like Karpov.

Sign me up. I'll castle yer rook. Just like the way that sounds.

in? to late?

never too late... unless youhave been mated already, then its to late.

Definitely not too late. I'll send out roles sometime over the weekend, with the first deadline being 3 PM Eastern, Monday, May 6.

and ill check once or 2 X on sunday.... and I guarantee a check before i leave... but i wont talk day one.

I haven't been mated in over a month.

:(

TMI?

wow, that sucks.... :(

nah, ur fine.l


just dont rhyme
!

Don't look at me.

Alright, I'll have a go. I don't know how often I'll be in, as next week is two tricky pracs and they need attention.

I'm in.

Ok. Thanks.

I've got just the outfit for you to wear...

In like Eugenio Torre.

My plan is to send out roles Monday morning, and have a long Day 1, with a Day 1 deadline of 3 PM, Tuesday May 6. I'll keep signups open until then.

If there is space, I'm in

If there is space, I'm in
There is space
--------------
You're in!

Yeah to Qwikshot. I know Pass really wanted 20.

Yep. 20 means that everyone gets a PM partner -- each side has two rooks, two bishops, two knights, two pawns, and a king and queen. Any additional players just mean that the players controlling pawns won't get as many pawns per player (which I still would love).

I made a few edits to the rules. Bishops now have the power that the Knights had originally (scan someone and find out if they're the same color as you). Knights now have a power similar to what the Bishops had originally (restricted seer), but different restrictions were used. The area that Knights can see on the board was also changed.

Also, this was added:


Also, the Pawn power of being able to learn a player's location on the board was changed so that it can start being used Night 4, instead of Night 3.

Another small rule change:

This is how the board will look for white pieces, and the Black King, Queen, and Bishop:

For Black Pawns, Black Knights, and Black Rooks, I'm going to use a separate board that makes it look like they're white. Since Pawns, Knights, and Rooks won't know what color they are, I'm manipulating it a little bit so that both colors think they are white -- for example, the Black Knight who starts in cell G8 will think he starts in cell G1, and the Black Pawn who starts in C7 will think he starts in C2. This might get confusing as players try to communicate towards endgame, so I thought I'd get that out there now.

Considering the fact that I am a very, very good chess player (sorry humility), I should probably sign up....but I need to get my stuff together for my game. Even though it'll be 100% simpler than this one.

That could screw up the rooks trying to go towards his own end and ending up at the other side.

So... what's the time table on this game starting?

Not if Pass reverses the orders coming in from the black pieces (which I presume he will be doing).

Pass said that he'd be sending out roles Monday morning EST (so Monday night in your case, I guess) with the first day ending Tuesday.

hey guys sorry, but im not going to be able to play. My schealdue is going to be to hard to play i have school from 7am-2:30pm then work from 3-9 this week, sorry for the inconvenience

I'm not sure I understand the comment or the reply -- can you guys clarify?

Right. I'm sending out roles in about 2 hours, first deadline in 31 hours.

No problem, man! Sorry you can't make it!

Say the black rook believes that he is white and currently on A5 and wants to move to A1. He might say that he wants to move "south" 4 spaces or something. You'd see that he's actually on A4 and then move him "north" 4 spaces so he arrives at A8.

I think.

Thinking about it the main problem is that if he thinks he's white then he's going to have to see the same opposite effect on all pieces around him. So if he sees a black knight next to him he will have to be told that it's a white knight, so he doesn't attempt to capture it. Or if a white pawn is in a position where it could capture him he'll have to be told that it's a black pawn so he knows he needs to try and move away.

Right. Part of thinking you're white means that you'll think the other pieces are black. My plan is actually to use "friendly" and "enemy" for the people that don't know what color they are.

I'll play if you need someone to fill in Imthecrew's spot to make it an even 20. Even though my wife is out of town, and I'm spending alot of time working this week, so won't be as active as normal.

Dola... err something weird change with the boards? I don't see how many Private messages I have any longer. It only tells me when I last visited.

Ahh it is my Firefox noscript extention blocking it. Guess they changed how that part of the board works for some reason!


Anyhows, I'll play if you need a 20th Pass

Hmmm. I can see mine.

Yeah there's a bit of a script now that allows you go directly to a folder or send a new message without going through the Inbox first.

Im gonna be super quiet the first day, or first 8 or so hours, Ill be heading home soon, and wont check back till 9PM EST or so, and timmmorow will be super busy at work (just back from vacation) so im not sneaking by UTR :) and ill be sure to get action sin.

Starting to send out PMs. Please wait until I post that I'm done to start chatting. Thanks.

The following PMs have been sent out:


Begin play!

OK, got my PM - it is one of the ones listed above (duh).

Time to re-read the rules and create out a homemade map to see if I can get a little better feel for my options.

I'm not sure how Team White and Team Black are supposed to coordinate their moves. Is there something obvious I'm missing?

I'm not sure I understand why some players don't know what team they're on.

Cronin, my impression is that the leaders of the teams (the ones who actually know whether they are white or black) get to make risk/reward decisions about communicating within the thread. Clearly if they identify themselves as one color then they alienate several others (four players to start, 50% of the other players if there is total disclosure).

I do'nt know what color I am - given that this yields information about what my role would be, you (the collective you, not Cronin specifically) can either take that statement at face value or assume I'm bluffing.

From the rules:

FYI, I don't have AIM at work. I may be logged on, but that's because lurker is using it at home while she studies. You can reach me with questions via PM or google talk (agage1 AT gmail DOT com). Or just email me.

I know it's in the rules. I'm saying that I don't understand why it's done like that. It seems to just make things unnecessarily complex.

I've thought about this and I would imagine it's to prevent mass reveals. Say we lynch a white piece and then another white piece is night killed. What's to prevent the black pieces all outing themselves and targeting the other white pieces for a lynch?

Yep, if we all know what color we are then it gets pretty hard to agree on kills when the game is both "black vs white" and "villager vs wolf".

So how does "line of sight" work in this game? For example, I have a certain amount of distance that I can see - but the PM doesn't include information about who is in the spaces around me.

Hey folks checking in.

I really need to re-read the rules though.

PM received, will re-read the rules and post more once I get to work later on.

As I recall Pass said that you will see whatever you can see 'AFTER" you move. So tostart the game you start blind and must move to gain information.

Small correction to post 86. My PM to the rooks said that one of them can prevent attacks against wolves. Obviously, I meant they can prevent attacks made by wolves.