Ideas for adding a large chess board needed

[DeadDM]

I'm wanting to put a large chess board with pieces in a wizard's dungeon. What would be fun?

so far,

-the chess board is 40' x 40' which makes each square 5' which corrisponds with the chess board. The board has all the pieces which are skelletons. Red and Black.

-Surrounding the room is a spiral ledge that spirals upward around the entire board making four levels. Several caves along the ledge have challenges that allow the pieces to be moved. What are some good challenges?

-The ceiling above the chessboard is 40' high and has magic property in place so as to allow any entering the area to be affected by featherfall and fall to a random square on the board. Any chess pieces can attack if in reach.

That's as far as I've got. Looking for any input to make an exciting encounter.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The level of the adventure matters.

At low levels, you'd want individual foes, while at higher levels, each "piece" could represent an extradimensional encounter space- like a rook being a tower adventure; a pawn could be an encounter with a low-level group of bandits; a bishop could be an encounter within the confines of a haunted church...

 

[thejc]

you could add pieces and such. That is a large board so and extra few pieces that the players don't know what they do
Ideas for what they do
-an orb: must move forward until the next forward move is blocked by an opponents piece, or players piece, or end of the board, and then moves left or right 2 squares.
-a piece that teleports up to five squares.

I think if you stayed with the idea of dual boards one topside and one on the bottom and a piece or timer in which an anti gravity effect would happen could be super cool.

 

[DeadDM]

I'll work on my map today, then I can see what game mechanics would work well. So far I have nothing. Writers block.

 

[kitsune9]

My idea is to completely use different pieces so that the chess is unfamiliar to your players. For example, the king piece is the dragon. The dragon can move like a king, but it also has a "breath weapon" attack in which it takes any opponent within two squares of it.

Another piece is the exploding pawn. Only one pawn on the board, but when the player moves to take that piece, the pawn explodes and takes out all pieces surrounding it.

Another strategy that can make the chess game get ugly really quick is that the board is actually above a bottomless chasm. As pieces are moved or taken, sections of the board disappear. This limits the movement of the rest of the board and forces the rest of the pieces toward an quick conclusion.

Not only is the board dangerous this way, but some of the squares are trapped too with falling blocks, fireballs, lightning, etc.

The other thing is since you have a multi-level chess board, why not make it completely three-dimensional? Allow the pieces to move along the walls and ceiling? Or instead of three dimensional chess, make the squares irregular or odd shaped?

My last suggestion is to make the goal of winning the game something other than making a checkmate or defeating the king piece. For example, there are three pieces the players must capture or destroy if they are not able to get the king, particularly if you make the king like the dragon piece that will use it's breathweapon on any piece within 2 squares.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

To expand on my idea upthread, a knight could represent an encounter with mounted foes...which could include exotic ones like griffins, if the party is high enough in level. An encounter with a queen or king would represent something like a diplomatic mission, thwarting an assassination, or capturing an evil royal.

As for color, black or white would determine the nature if the encounter. Black encounters would be more "proactive"- an attack or delve such as raiding a tower for a black rook- while white encounters would be more "reactive"- defensive type adventures like defending a keep from intruders for a white rook.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The other thing is since you have a multi-level chess board, why not make it completely three-dimensional? Allow the pieces to move along the walls and ceiling?

I really like that.

I could also see the chess-obsessed keepholder having the chess board distributed all through his castle like trap-panels. You're wandering down the hall and *click*, you're in a knight encounter (whatever that ultimately means).




What if the chess pieces were created by an innocuous artificer who is now being held prisoner?

 

[anest1s]

What if the pieces are having an ever going battle for ever? Maybe a wizard challenged death in a game of chess....which is bound to go on for ever.

Maybe that wizard is a necromancer (skeleton pieces-then again death may have them) or maybe the battle is between a powerful devil and the Necromancer....a bet between eternal life or losing his soul...

Maybe the battle will go on for ever...until one side loses some pieces...or maybe until one side gets distracted.

You could assign a value to each piece, and say that in order to have one side to win, the total of the values of all the pieces has to be "x" more than the other side...else the game can keep on forever.

You can give a very difficult intelligence check for the players to realize that one side needs less to win...(if it does) thus allowing them to skip an encounter (if they wish to join the winning side).

Also, if you find a way to force the players to stick with one side, you will have to plan only for one-color encounters...or maybe you want them to have a certain theme (undead/devil).