I am tinkering around with world building and thougth it would be cool to have story with the power system being chess based. this is what i could come up with so far. Basic plot line: there are existances known as "castle".a castle can be anything a sword, a pendant or even an castle itself.They choose the king.When two kings fight it's called as war. with the victor taking ownership of the loser's castle. this way the king's power increases.in the presence of his castle the king is proxy immortal the only way to kill him is by drowning or starving him to death. (immune to poison although he may suffer immeasurable pain he wont die from it ) relinquishing his castle while not surrendering will force the king to the state of check at which his subordinates powers are reduced.the kings drunk with their power have become tyrants and war is commonplace . (no castle's are not systems although they do fall from sky.(as is the case of hero) Pawn :- .They can pawn for a period of time i.e they will lose their sense of hearing but gain superior eye sight. Transformation is secondary power when certain conditions are met he can transform into any of the above pieces .The very first pawn of the king can get a glimps of the future(one time use only) Rook:- he can dash through anything but can't change directions in between (imagine juggernaut) knight:- im not sure whether to give intangibilty or a jump based power Bishop/Prince:- in shatranj (said to be the og chess) the bishop was a prince . Healing sounds good but i think an offensive power would be better. he heals the amount of damage he dealt to an enemy rate of conversion depends on his level resurection not possible. Queen:- has access to all powers of the remaining pieces except the king. king:- has no special ability on his own but he is the only one who can grant others power and if your king dies your power goes away to.Also in accordance to the power of the king number of pieces he has will increase (i.e he can have more than two knights) and also he can switch places with the rook (this is however one time use only) can't think of a good one for bishop and pawns
For your knight, just give it jumping powers. Makes more sense to me. This reminds me of Highschool DxD.
just a suggestion, but pawns could have absolute trust in orders and follow them without hesitation like code geass' mind controlled soldiers.. bishops could heal i suppose or maybe convert enemies (with restrictions)
IMO you can tweak some powers according to the name. Pawn - under strict conditions, can temporarily use the power of any one other class except king. Knight - barrier caster or a tank Bishop - healer/mage
Thought up more and was going to post a more comprehensive suggestion but thought better of it since I don't really know the basic parameters of the world you are trying to build. I mean, at this point, we could give you suggestions on the power of the pieces but they could end up being mediocre or worse depending on what kind of setting the world is in. So I think it's important to establish the world setting first so we have a baseline to work with.
Pawns are weak, but if they can make a significant contribution to the king and his army they can upgrade themselves. (Whether this power is a temporary upgrade or not is up to you.) If Temporary: The amount of contributions needed to become another piece is significantly lowered, with Pawn->Queen costing the most. They can store one 'upgrade' to use at a later date. The upgrade should only last for one battle, one day, or one hour. Though, if you (the author) choose the one hour method I recommend being able to extend that time with contribution points (costing less than just upgrading again, but enough that maintaining the transformation forever is unlikely/too expensive). If Permanent: The amount of contributions needed are so significant that most Pawns die in battle before they can achieve it. One time use ability, so if they pick Rook they will remain as a Rook for the rest of their lives. From lowest to highest contribution cost: Rook, Knight, Bishop, and finally Queen. The main pro for this ability is that it doesn't count against the King's piece limit. So if a King can only afford two Queens, a Pawn upgrading into a Queen won't take up one of those two spots (it does still take up a Pawn spot though). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If the Queen role requires the individual to be female, then maybe a male Pawn will become a female upon transforming? That could be a plotline in the novel. MC wants to be female/feels like they're a woman stick in a man's body, so they become a Pawn in the hopes of upgrading into a Queen and achieving their dream. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ For Bishop, the only thing I could think of was holy/healing powers. They can attack and heal, but are wide open to physical attacks like the Rook's charge. They are the second weakest physically (right after Pawns), though this doesn't include the King. EDIT: Bishops cannot heal themselves. This is actually more of a nerf for the Queen, since she'd have the powers of every other role (besides the Pawn and King). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- P.S. Maybe the King can infuse a person with more than one piece's worth of power? Like combining the power of 16 Pawns into one Pawn, so they'll be 16x stronger (thus more likely to survive long enough to upgrade into a better piece). However, doing so would also permanently take up 16 Pawn slots (until the person dies). The King cannot combine different pieces together, so no Rook + Knight combos. Only Rook + Rook or Knight + Knight. This does not combine people together, so if the King wants to infuse a Rook with more power they must have an unused Rook slot. So an evil King (main antagonist maybe?) might kill off their less skilled Rooks just to open up slots. Maybe have all the Rooks enter a death match and empower the survivor?
My thoughts are currently in a mess and most importantly, it's almost sun rise and I haven't slept yet so please do not wait for my suggestion as it may not come, may not ever come to be completely honest, given the scope of my thoughts. Sorry.
roles are not gender specific with one exception that king and queen can't be of the same gender. thanks a lot
I added some more details for the Bishop and King mechanics. They are at the end, starting from the 'EDIT'.
Long Post is Long. If you just want to read my comments about the Pieces, skip to the bit's starting with a "-", though some of that wouldn't make sense without reading my prior suggestions. First of all, I would suggest adding some requirements where King's who surrender their castle get randomly teleported away, or else the difference between surrendering and dying would typically be non-existent (the victor killing the losing king as soon as they take over the castle, in turn taking the immortality from the losing king). Secondly, I would suggest having some sort of secondary power system that everyone has access to. Nothing as powerful, but that gives minor powers that can develop into supporting characteristics and the basis of individualised powers for those who become Pieces. I understand that it would make things more tricky to start, but it would also allow for the King to make more reasonable decisions based on what powers and power sets he knows others have. A fairly simple "common" power set would be based on Playing Cards, 2 Colours (Red & Black) forming 4 Suits (Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs & Spades), 13 Levels (2 to King + Ace) & a "Joker" Variant for each colour. The Levels improve with training and personal power, and are 0/1 (Untrained, no cards) and then go to 2-10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace, with Joker existing as a special variant for each of the two colours. The four suits each would have a speciality, with Hearts being Amplification Powers, Diamonds being Defensive Powers, Clubs being Offensive Powers & Spades being Environmental Powers. If Red & Black could be separated from their common suits for this, then they each could cover a more Defensive (Red) & Offensive (Black) Focus. Joker's would cover those who have a focus on their colours specialty, but either has a weird variant power or who's power varies depending on the circumstances, but these are very rare. Please note, in hopes of keeping the basis on the Chess Powers, even an Ace would only have about as much power as the average Pawn who's not using their own Card Powers (and most would be using their Card Powers), while the best Pawn's tend to be Jokers. The main purpose of the Card System in the story would be to filter through the power sets and find who's suitable for what Piece, instead of just having the protagonist be lucky or make everyone they want to join but don't know their skill set "luckily" getting a piece they just resonate with. It would also allow for more variance in the Piece Power Systems, allowing you to utilise a more versatile power description for each piece. For example: All Pieces have BASE power equivalent to an ACE as a side effect of having a Piece, with their own Card Level still existing, allowing them to, theoretically, gain power equivalent of two Ace's of the same suit and colour. Piece Powers are applied after that and, if you want individual levelling to be applied to Piece Powers, the effect of the Pieces allow for one person to rise through their Card's Rank's repeatedly (so that the most powerful can be the equivalent of 6 Black Ace of Hearts or something). - Pawn - Perception & Transformation Powers - Joker Cards tend to be the best at this Piece due to their Card Synergising with the Piece's Powers. Those already with Transformation Powers gain two levels of it, their Card Transformation (which they gain greater control over), and their Piece Transformation (which temporarily changes their Pawn into a different Piece under certain conditions). One of the conditions those with Transformation Powers gain to do their Piece Transformation is to have undergone their Card Transformation. Those with Perception Powers get them amplified and made easier to utilise, and gain the ability to utilise Piece Transformation (has slightly stricter conditions than those with innate Transformation Powers), and have the negative impacts of utilising their Perception Powers partially mitigated (a person with absolute vision amplification & diversification could become Photophobic whenever their powers are active, for example, and this would prevent that, particularly if that power came purely from the Pawn Piece). This also would be the means through which your character with the future-sight powers (who would be a Joker) has the ability to utilise them once a day instead of once a week or once a month. - Rook - Charged Powers - Charged Powers is basically where someone needs to build up power before a big attack, with the more power built up increasing the power of the attack. Physical Fighters can use this to charge through an enemy, but most competent ones mostly use it to amplify some of their attacks a slight amount in order to end fights with overwhelming force in the midst of battle (before battle they can still use it to imitate Juggernaut, either to get into the fight easily or disrupt their enemies). Ranged Fighters use this to make attacks that penetrate numerous enemies, or create explosions upon impact. Defensive Fighters use this to make temporary one-way walls, make themselves near indestructible, or support their allies. Environment Modifiers use this to change the battlefield, hopefully to their side's advantage, mid fight, or to trap otherwise difficult to deal with enemies. - Knight - Summoning/Movement Powers - Movement based powers for Knights is the commonplace answer, because what defines them is their weird L shaped movement, which allows them to "jump" over pieces other pieces can't avoid. However, I think this is a boring answer. So I'm suggesting that the Knight Piece gains, or amplifies, Summoning Powers and amplifies Movement Powers. Summoning Powers, in my mind, should be making a solid magical construct of some living animal, and the Knight Piece either empowers those with a Summoning Power in some fashion (more Summons or a more Powerful Summon is commonplace), ensures that everyone with the Piece has the ability to Summon a Mount, and gives a minor boost to speed or other movement powers (eg. Enhanced Speed/ Jumping/ Intangibility). - Bishop/Prince - Support Powers - Giving everyone with this piece a damage=heal power seems annoying, particularly since they should be as common as Rooks & Knights. Instead, I'm suggesting that you make this Piece have some sort of support effect, with it's specifics being dependant on the individual's power set. For example, you get your Damage=Heal Prince from a Red Clubs Card (Defensive/Healing Attribute via an Offensive Power) or a Black Heart Card (Offensive Attribute causing Amplification of Healing), while others gain things like sharing Defensive Powers, Empowering their Allies, or just Massively Empowering Themselves (alternative Black Heart Card). - Queen - Unrestricted Transformation Powers - I don't like the standard "Queen Gets Everything" Power Set. It's boring, it's an invitation to make them OP, and there would be so much difficulty in learning to utilise all those powers at the simultaneously that I just want to reject it off the bat. However, I also understand WHY people making Chess Power Sets want to give Queens that power. Instead, I suggest giving Queens a variant of the Pawn's Transformation Powers, that they have control over, as well as a physical transformation power that works alongside it. That is to say, a Queen can transform into a Pawn to observe the battlefield, before turning into a Rook to charge into a dangerous position, a Bishop to cast some support powers, and then a Knight to use a Summon to get out of the fight. And the Queen, while doing this, is easily recognised as a Queen due to their enemies being able to see them physically transform into a new form for each power, thus making them a target. What they can't do is charge up a Rook's Power Attack while providing a Bishop's Support Spells to half their allies on the battlefield due to summoning a Flying Mount like a Knight and keeping up to date with the entire battlefield due to a Pawn's Perception. - King - Creates Pieces - Does not have the ability to become stronger than 2 Ace (one for Piece, one for Natural Limit), but, in exchange, develops new pieces & sets instead of growing in power, and the Immortality Benefit you came up with for being a King. Not much to add here, your idea is interesting. May want to add a time limitation, such as their bodies age slower and Kings are either removed from their Castle's Leadership after a couple of centuries (resulting in their death), or need to pass on their title to a successor after a couple of centuries to keep a temporary version of their immortality for a decade more than they'd have without handing over power to a successor, with them instinctively knowing when their Castle wants them to give up their authority due to old age.
Thank you so much i did have ideas of creating another commonly available power system some thing like aura/qi but your idea is so much cooler. I ll try to incorporate it as much as i can
My thought process was akin to "If you're making a story where the focus is on a game, and you stick in an unrelated growth mechanic, then you should have it related to a completely different game". Hell, you could make it so that, instead of people developing up a card ranking system, they Cultivate certain cards, with higher numbered or ranked cards being more difficult to cultivate, and each card fully cultivated gives them some level of power related to their natural inclination, the card developed, and the cards previously completed, with certain combinations being more powerful than they are individually. For example, a group of cards that add up to 21 (King, Queen, Jack & 10 all equal 10, Ace can be 1 or 11) gives significantly more power, as per Blackjack (where the goal is to get as close to 21 without going over), but getting a group to add up to 20 also give a lesser amount of power, while a Flush (from Poker, Five cards of the same suit... and colour, since I added that variable) also gives a power up, but not as much as a Straight Flush, and a Straight Flush of 2 to 6 not only gives the significant boost of a Poker Straight Flush, but also a lesser boost of a 20 pointer from Blackjack. I just went the easier route of "These cards increase in "rank", so make them the cultivation levels". Partially because I don't know many Playing Card Games, and partially because it can easily detract as much as add to the Chess System you're intending to implement as the basis of the story. Edit Add: In response to below (because I didn't want to comment again): That's fair. This post was making a incredibly complicated card system just because it was an option. After writing it, and posting it, I was questioning whether or not having that many options on a power system that's intended to support the story's focused power system would be a good idea.
I thougth of using tarot cards but then realised it will just be another version of LOTM. The normal power system is card based every one starts at 2 of a suit(clubs,heart,spade,diamond) and levels up with ace being the highest. each suit has it's own set of powers.a person having two suits is common . A mans first suit is decided at birth and when he is 13 years of age he can choose his second suit of the oppsite color this is of utmost imporatnce as having two suits of same color will cause imbalance and eventually a persons destruction. the pawn is as powerfull as the jack of an offensive suit. i just wanted to keep it simple. so i won't include combinations. there is already two power systems and i don't want to info dump too much.
Look into 5d chess with multi-dimensional time travel as it makes a suprisingly good guide chess and time based storys.
Sounds unnecessarily convoluted, in Dai No Daibouken they simply made them into different warriors each, like adventurer archetypes Those are golems animated via a forbidden spell that drained the caster's lifespan, and that bad guy was the king An interesting variation was that all pieces had the same power level, and their strength lies on their specialization, which matches with the idea of using strategy to get an advantage Pawn - close quarters combat Bishop - blades, 'cause of diagonal moves Rook - defense and brute force Knight - lance techniques, anti-magic shield Queen - long distance projectiles and close quarters combat, but she had to swap modes The rook guy also had a self-sacrificial move to save the king by swapping places In this story the formation is justified as the pieces are absolutely loyal to their maker, and will die if he dies, but it becomes strange when actual people willingly choose to be completely reliant on someone else as a source of powers It would make more sense if the piece formation had only tactical advantages, but accepting weaknesses for a power up is very plot specific I do am writing a story where the MC has chess-themed powers, but not chess-based The MC has magical armors, that allow him to channel and transform energy, the king piece is inside of him, the queen is his personal armor, and the other pieces are armors used to send or receive magic at large distances At the start the MC is the king of a faction, and his armors are a way to empower his army at a distance, by supplying them with the right type of magic they need, while absorbing and transforming magic from other areas Later on, he has to rebuild his powers, and this time the pieces are power armors for him to switch A chess themed power must involve strategy, or it will look silly For a completely different system It would be easier to have modes, one for each piece, and switch between modes Every mode could have a time limit depending on their power, and king mode could allow the user to regenerate the other modes, at the risk of becoming weaker If every mode has advantages and disadvantages over each other, the strategy could come from determining which mode the enemy is using, and countering it before running out of power Becoming the "piece" of another person, would enhance the advantages of the mode, but disable the ability to switch to the other modes