Talk:Zugzwang

A1 and B1 Movement and Capture Rules Ambiguity

Interesting game - I look forward to trying it out. One rules question occurs to me: can an A1 piece capture (diagonally) backwards? --Nycavri 16:30, 16 July 2007 (EDT)

I, too, would like to know about A1. Also, it seems that B1 can move one square diagonally forward (per checkers) and that it captures by jumping over an opponent piece on the diagonal. So, can it also move backwards and jump backwards (diagonally), like a Kinged piece in checkers? Further, what happens if you jump one of your own pieces with your own B1: nothing, do you you capture it, or is it an illegal move? --David Artman 13:12, 17 July 2007 (EDT)

Use of "Alpha" and "Beta"

While I can see how you want to theme this game, with the use of "Alpha" and "Beta," might I make a suggestion as to how to better do it:

Use "Cool" and "Warm" to make a theming which ALSO let's folks follow what's going on without making some kind of arbitrary substitution.

"Cool" = blue/green, "Warm" = red/yellow is obvious and even thematic and educational.

"Alpha" = blue/green, "Beta" = red/yellow is not obvious and therefore is confusing.

So you'd refer to pieces as "Cool 1" or "C1" and "Warm 2" or "W2" and trust your players to keep the associated colors straight. After all, this is a multi-stash game and so any player of it likely has several colors from which to choose (I'd use purple and yellow).

--David Artman 11:37, 17 July 2007 (EDT)

Addressing questions, and plans for update

OK, first, to address the first two comments, yes. both pieces can capture backwards, and the B1 piece cannot jump friendly pieces. I thought that this was clear, but then again, I wrote the rules, so it seemed rather obvious to me. This is why I like others to check my work :)

As to the suggestion for the cool/warm suggestion, that's an excellent idea, and one I will consider. In an aside, I wasn't realy trying to theme it any particular way, nor use ONLY those colours. They were simply (a) the first way to distinguish between the 2 colours, and (b) the easiest colours from "paint" to see against the chessboard JPG. As soon as I have the time, I am going to link these rules to my site(now that I'm whitelisted), and update the rules a bit (addressing these questions, certainly). I also am going to name the pieces, but I was kind of resisting using the chess names for the corresponding pieces, although that would CERTAINLY make learning the rules a bit quicker. I can't really use the Icehouse names either, since there's only 3 names, and I have 5 types of piece in Zugzwang. Thoughts?

You could use "Warm" and "Cool" Pawns, Drones, and Queens; but the larger issue is that you also have Knights and "checkers." It would be harder to memorize, if the "Cool Pawn" actually moves like a checker, not like a Pawn. SO... why not call them "Pawn, Bishop, Queen, Knight, and Checker"? I mean, be direct; be obvious.

On a related note, I consider it poor practice to say things like "If you do not understand the movements, then I suggest looking up chess movements on Wikipedia or something similar." It takes almost no effort to make cross-links to Wikipedia, if you can't be bothered take the time to cut & paste its movement explanations here. If you want your game to be played, don't put such barriers to entry in the way like that.

Also, I'd suggest you redo the graphic so that it's not as cluttered: the chessboard needn't be wood grain (waste of bandwidth and irrelevant) and that would also solve any color contrast issues you have.

Finally, I would not turn this page into merely a link-out to your page. Keep a parallel copy on your site, sure (I do for all my games); but ideally we want folks to stay on this site, clicking around games and getting excited about pyramids, not heading off site and ending up distracted and wandering the Internet.

My 2¢ David Artman 10:22, 18 July 2007 (EDT)

Fixt.

Sorry about the poor image quality, I'm not proficient in image editing.

- Rev. Smeg the Kilted -