David Weinstock
United States
Edmonds
Unspecified
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ChessHeads
Published by WizerGames
Designed by D. M. Weinstock
30-card Deck-Builder Box $9.99
I had the pleasure of playing and discussing ChessHeads at GenCon this year (2004). ChessHeads is a game played with a chess set, using all of the usual chess rules. On top of these, it adds a hand of cards, which allow the players to do things outside of the usual chess rules things like swapping two pieces, or sacrificing one of your own pieces
to remove one or more of your opponent's pieces.
Adding cards to chess is not a new concept. Among others, Knightmare Chess has done so, and I'm quite familiar with that game after coordinating the development of the second set of cards.
So, what's new with ChessHeads? Two big things, and one of them will be more important to you than the other. Which one will vary by reader. One is a meta-game issue: ChessHeads is a collectible game, and the cards in each box are random. There are no rarity levels; each card is as likely to appear as the next. The other is an in-game mechanic: card effects have to be paid for with "Entigy" (which is just "energy" with some game-world flavor). The usual way to gain Entigy is by capturing pieces.
The addition of Entigy means a game of ChessHeads often comes out of the gate very much like orthochess (that is, "regular" Western chess) as the players must make some captures or play some resource cards before they can start throwing around the board-shattering effects. It is not enough simply to have the perfect card in your hand, you also have to pay for it when you play it.
Behind it all is a new fantasy milieu, the Qualwirld dimension. The cards are all illustrated by Ryan Shreve, giving the world a uniformity of style and flavor. They also get funny names, often with unpredictable pronunciations: Bishlosse Teentati, Keunge Pahreheyeh, QueunLee Taryan, and Roox Saeshebal, for instance. Coupling these with
the long list of game terms, like Block, Cluster, Confine, Reaction, and Scatter, and the game has a tough initial learning curve, rewarded with the promise of more background to come.
And if that reward is appealing enough, deeper pockets can snag you some custom painted boards with Entigy Pool and Boneyard areas.
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J. Hunter Johnson <
http://www.hunterandlori.com
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