Games

 

Shadow Star, like any culture, has many games, both physical and mental. There are even ones made for bond creatures on their own. Although there are many, these are the four that have been fleshed out through gameplay. Submissions are welcome, of course.

 

 

 

Unity Chess

 

Althougth very similar to the chess we play here on Earth, Unity Chess does have some differences in moves and gameplay.

 

The Game

 

Most pieces have the same moves as their real-world counterparts, just different names and looks. A few have special moves.

 

 

*Depending on the chess set, some sets may have a King and King's Own and some may have a Queen and Queen's Own instead.

 

Pawns: There are four different sets of pawns (called apprentices), two of each. The pawns in front of the King/Queen and King's/Queen's Own are Bond to Bes, the two in front of the druids are druid apprentices, the two in front of the knights are knight apprentices, and the two in front of the mages are mage apprentices. Within the first four ranks (rows, all pawns start on the second rank) an apprentice moves and captures like a pawn: moves forward, captures on the forward diagonals. They cannot move two spaces on their first turn like normal chess. Once an apprentice has passed the midway point of the board, the pawn is designated a journeyman and can move and capture as the piece they are apprenticed to, WITHIN THREE SPACES. Journeyman knights move as normal knights; however, they cannot rampage (explained later.) If a journeyman passes back across the midway point into the first four ranks, it is considered an apprentice again and must move back past the midway point to be considered a journeyman again. Once a journeyman reaches the eigth rank, it is considered a master and the piece is switched out for a piece that it was an apprentice for: knight, mage, or druid. Both BtB apprentices become King's/Queen's Owns. It is a master until the game is over or upon capture.

 

Gang Up: This is a move unique to druids. If a player moves a druid such that an opponent's druid is threatened by two druids of the player (note: Since one druid is always on dark squares and one is always on white, this requires at least one apprentice to become a master.) and the oppenent does not move the druid in the turn immediately following, a player may announce the move Gang Up. The druid then belongs to the player for the duration of the game and the player places a ring of his pieces' color on the oppenent's piece to signify that piece is now playable by him/her. The player performing Gang Up does not move any pieces; his or her turn is now over upon completing Gang Up. If a player loses both druids and both druid apprentices during, their set of pieces is referred to as an "atheist sphere." This name has no special meaning; it is just a label, often used by players to poke gentle fun at the opponent.

 

Rampage: At any point in the game, a player with a master Knight may choose to use the move Rampage. He or she then captures every piece in the L-shaped path of the knight, including the piece on the space where the knight would have landed. The knight is then considered captured and is removed from play. This move cannot be made if a King/Queen is in the path the rampaging Knight takes.

 

Castling: The real-world move castling is still done in the same fashion, though it is called "safety" or "protection." (Doesn't really make sense to call it 'castling' when you don't have castles...)

 

En Passant: Due to the nature of the apprentice pieces, the real-world move En Passant is not used.

 

Check/Checkmate/Capture/Stalemate/Etc.: All are done as in real-world chess.

 

The Set

 

A collection of chess pieces for one player is commonly referred to as a "set". This includes the normal sixteen playing pieces, eight backup pieces (for the apprentices/journeymen to be switched with when they become masters) and four rings (for the move Gang Up). Sets usually come with a playing mat, which is usually two to four times the size of a normal chess board (due to the larger pieces: see SS Chess: The Art) Instead of being black and white, sets come in four distinct colors: dark blue, the Water Sphere set; red, the Fire Sphere set; white, the Air Sphere set; and mahogany, the Land Sphere set. Usually a set is carried with the player, and a player will often have a set matching the sphere they are born into, are most loyal to, or are bonded into, i.e. a pterocentaur may carry a Air Sphere set, a land knight may carry a Land Sphere set, a person bonded to a phoenix may carry a Fire Sphere set.

 

The Art

 

All chess sets are unique, made according to the buyer's specifications. Usually the pieces are carved from wood and painted in the colors of the set, however, some are made of stone (most commonly Land or Fire sets.) There are no 'generic' pieces, like a horse's head for a knight: all the pieces are depicted as people ranging from three inches (apprentices) to five inches (kings/queens and Own's.) Quite often the King/Queen and Own's will be of the current royal, and apprentice and master pieces may be carved in the image of friends or family. If a buyer has no specific requests, the maker of the set will usually carve a standard piece.

 

King/Queen: For Water, usually depicted as a mer with a water dragon. For Land, usually depicted as a elf with a land dragon. For Air, usually depicted as an angel with a air dragon (the newest sets will show ryuuki instead of air dragons) For Fire, usually depicted as a bonded with a fire dragon. Kings/Queens can also be depicted as the gods and goddesses themselves with the dragon of their realm. Also often portrayed as the current King/Queen of a certain realm.

 

King/Queen's Own: Matches the King/Queen description, though smaller. Often pictured as the current King/Queen's Own of whatever realm the rest of the set is.

 

Knights: Usually depicted as a sword-carrying centaur.

Druid: Usually depicted as a robed gnome with an animal (commonly squirrel or rabbit)

 

Mage: Usually depicted as a robed human with a staff.

 

Apprentices: Smaller versions of their master counterparts. Btbs may or may not be depicted with a bond animal (commonly a dragon type of the sphere.)

 

Standard piece variations differ from sphere to sphere: a knight in a Water Sphere set may be shown as a spear-carrying sea centaur, for example. Chess set owners are fond of having the Apprentice pieces carved as their friends, family, or themselves, as well as the Knights, Druids, and/or Mages, if they have friends/family of those occupations, or if they themselves hold those positions in real life.

 

Chess sets and pieces are a hot trading and collecting item among the people of ShadowStar. Often rare pieces or sets will sell for high prices at an auction.

 

Nip Tadpole

 

"Nip Tadpole" goes by a couple of different names, depending on where it's played: on land it's often called "Chase Rabbit" and for air creatures it's "Catch Squirrel" or "Seek Butterfly." Whichever name, it is a unique game because it was made up by bond animals specifically for bond animals. An enchanted object, usually in the shape of the creature named in the game, is cast among the players, which are only bond animals (occasionally telepathic pets play as well.) The object moves at high speeds and in random directions, and the first bond animal to catch it is the winner. In the lack of an enchanted object, a bond animal with the ability of telekinesis will move the object, which sometimes makes for a more challenging game. The actual game objects are easy to make and enchant and subsequently easy to find. The game is rarely done in the viewing of creatures other than bond animals or telepathic pets and is never done in front of unbonded people.

 

Triad

 

The object of the game is to score as many goals as possible without being knocked over by the balls. Once everybody on a team has been knocked over twice, then the game is over, and the remaining standing team earns an extra fifty points.

 

There are two balls in play called realmballs. These balls have been spelled so they hover between two and five feet from the ground, and fly around the field, chasing the players, trying to knock them over. The two balls change between four different colors (based on the four realms), red (fire) white (air) blue (water) and yellow-green (land). They change colors randomly and therefore are really tricky, as they are heavy and meant to knock the player over if they aren't controlled. Their weight gives them a disadvantage as they can't turn or swerve quickly.

 

Each of the players (eight to a team) is armed with a short (two-foot) thick wooden bat that they use to try to hit the balls either away from themselves or through the goals. They may also try to throw the balls though that is very difficult.

 

The field is an octagon in shape, and is turf-covered, with two-foot wide strips of sand around the edges. On two opposite edges of the octagon are the goals, which are elevated off the ground and shaped like a square standing on one corner, divided into four diamond/squares, which are actually four separate (triangular) goals, one of each color that the ball is. Clockwise around the goal, starting with the top goal, the colors are: white-red-blue-yellowgreen. The highest point of the White goal is six feet from the ground, and the lowest point of the Blue goal is eighteen inches from the ground.

 

Each team has eight players: four forwards, two goalies, and two guards. The forwards try to score goals. The guards try to let their forwards toward the goal and keep the other guards out of the way. They also try to knock people down with the balls. The goalies try to keep the ball from scoring, or to divert it.

 

Scoring:

Ten points per correct goal, five points for an incorrect goal, and ten point penalty if the ball goes under or over the goal and has to be retrieved from behind. Fifty points goes to the still-standing team. The game ends when a team has had everybody knocked down twice by the realmballs. The team opposite them is considered "Still Standing."

 

OOC Scoring:

Using a six-sided dice/six variable random number system (the one refereeing will use the one from http://www.random.org/nform.html ) we decide if a shot goes foul, scores, misses, or goes through the wrong color.

 

 

For deciding if a person chased by a ball is hit and falls, hit and stays up, or not hit, we use the following dice roll system. If the person gets a hit/stay up three times, the number rolls over to a knock-down. If the player is knocked down twice, any more falls by them will not count against their team's sixteen falls. However, after the player's second fall, knocking him down again earns an award of two points.

 

 

Rules:

Balls must be put through the goal matching its color in order to obtain full points. Hitting the ball through another colored hoop gains only five instead of ten. Penalty shots, if they go through any hoop, gain five points.

 

Penalty shots may be awarded for:

 

"Out-of-bounds" when player or ball goes off the turf and into the sand area around the edge of the field.

Hitting a person with the bat.

In realm vs. realm matches, using wings, fins, or such parts other than feet to move about the field.

Using magic or anything non-physical to influence the game.

Head-shots and maliciously pounding fallen players with a ball.

Foul balls are balls that go over or under the goal, therefore outside the field of play...or into the stand.

 

 

Paddlewack

 

A sport popular in cities, paddlewhack is a team game marginally similar to tennis with a heavy dose of magic thrown in. Lacking the complexity or large teams of triad, it is especially popular among the younger generation as a competitive and physically demanding sport that is easy to learn, but difficult to master.

 

The Rules In Summary

The object of paddlewhack is to send the balls into the 'out' areas of the square in which it is played, by use of large flat paddles. Balls struck by a paddle will change from gray to a dark purple, which will move up the spectrum (and become worth more points) the more the ball is struck by paddles. Balls that strike one of the players turn the color of that player's team (black or white) and result in a point reduction. The team that has the most points after a certain number of balls or time, wins.

 

A Brief History

The modern magical version of paddlewhack was developed around ten years ago, beginning in Cascadia and spreading to the other major cities from there. Paddlewhack in its earliest forms, however, dates back farther than history books can cover; evidence of early paddlewhack courts can be found all over Shadow Star. Paddlewhack began as a one-on-one game without any magical touch whatsoever. The simplicity of the game opened it easily to innovation, and it soon evolved to include team play.

 

Not long after the end of the Age of Darkness, a few innovative mages developed the magicked balls which are still in use today. As the game grew in popularity, mages were intrigued by the seemingly simple but very nuanced control system constantly in development and flocked to the development side of the game, whereas knights became interested in the physical aspect of play; it quickly spread through the miuts as a popular team exercise. Higher-ups in both guilds realized this was a breakthrough: paddlewhack was the first game to manage to put mages and knights together in small spaces without mass bloodshed. Capitalizing on this, the guilds began a joint venture for the first official league, which is still growing in Cascadia today.

 

The Court

The court itself is square, usually with a standard size of 60 by 60 feet, although they can be built smaller or larger depending on how many normally play in them. Portable courts are even more flexible. The midway line is a thick gray line, dividing the court into two halves, one which is painted black, and one which is painted white. Those two halves are farther divided in half by two parallel lines of opposite color on either side. Play takes place mainly in the two center strips, the 'in' area, although there is no rule stating a player cannot cross the quarter and three quarter lines in the 'out' area. Crossing the center line is not permitted.

 

The Control System

"Whoever said necessity is the mother of invention has obviously never met a paddlewhack mage." The complicated control system of a paddlewhack court is not only an academic topic of study but a hobby by many a mage. Many enthusiasts of the game with the means own their own control systems, the vast majority customized. The simple to operate but difficult to create and master system has been a basis for several control systems in other areas.

 

The central control mechanism is a sphere, about the size of a melon, held in the hands and controlled by thought. The first thing the system sets up is the 'wall', a high, often ceiling-ed shimmering barrier, attuned to only stop the outward movement of the balls within.

 

The other core portion of the control system is control over the balls themselves. Most systems are set up only to get the balls onto the court and then send them in random directions, but some more sophisticated systems are set up to give the system manager control over the movement of the balls, allowing for more of a challenge. Usually in such cases two managers are used to ensure fairness.

 

Most other customizations are merely cosmetic, such as overlaying the ground with the court lines or keeping a virtual scoreboard.

 

The Tools

About the size of a closed fist, the balls are hollow on the inside to prevent serious damage (though knights and hardcore players are sometimes known to play with solid balls.) and made of rubber. The balls themselves are gray in their natural state, but enchanted to shift colors as gameplay demands. The standard enchantments also include the ability to leave black or white marks, depending on who is hit, on the body of a player when they are struck by a ball. These marks vanish once a player leaves the court. The balls have one more trick, that enforces the unwritten rule of keeping play in the 'in' area: If struck by a paddle or person's body in the 'out' area, they explode. Yes, explode, leaving large black or white marks on the poor victim in a spectacular display of pyrotechnics and resulting in a major point deduction, as well as a good deal of embarrassment.

 

The paddles of paddlewhack are much less complicated: large, oar-shaped implements with shorter handles, typically made of wood. Most are one-handed, but two-handed paddles are also very popular. Most league locations will provide paddles for rent for free, although many players prefer customized ones.

 

The League

A joint venture between the Knights and the Mages, the Paddlewhack League has a central office in uptown Cascadia, surrounded by several varying sizes of paddlewhack courts. The League is responsible for housing official tournaments, keeping track of registered players and officials, and also keeps an eye on the trade and industry related to the paddlewhack business.

 

League standards for paddlewhack games are four players per team in a 60 by 60 foot square, with either a thousand-ball or 5 minute limit. The paddlewhack season usually starts with first matches on Firstday, with playoffs held in late Loyortob/early Loirym.

 

League officials for the game are paired, usually one knight with one mage. The mage is responsible for the control system, while the knight takes care of a paddle set and directly referees the game, watching for illegal actions (hitting a player with a paddle, stepping over the center line). Non-knights/non-mages can become officials, but it's rare.