Trickster's
Chess

Players: 2 · Time: 45–90 min · Components: Chess board, 32 chess like pieces, 12-card deck per player, some dice

Overview

Trickster's Chess transforms the classic chess board into a battlefield for your miniature collection. Whether your army hails from the grim dark future or a realm of gods and monsters, any miniatures can take the field. Each piece follows standard chess movement but the moment blades are drawn and a capture is attempted, fate takes over. Combat is resolved through a trick-taking duel, blending strategic positioning with card management and the drama of a well-timed play.

The Deck & Your Hand

Each player maintains a personal 12-card deck numbered 1–12. At any time your active hand consists of two cards you may inspect freely, plus your remaining unplayed cards in a face-down draw pile.

Combat — The Trick

When one of your pieces would capture an enemy piece, both players select one card from their hand face-down, or the top card of the deck then flip simultaneously. The higher number wins the trick and the capture succeeds for that player. Ties go to the attacker.

Each piece type has a power ceiling — the highest card value it can actually bring to bear in combat. Any card played above that ceiling is capped down to the ceiling for this trick only.

Example: Your Pawn attacks and you have a 9 and a 12 in hand. Both would be capped to 3 — so your effective play is 3 regardless of which card you choose. Your opponent's piece matters too: if they defend with a Rook holding a 10, their 10 becomes a 9. Compare the effective values, not the printed ones.

Strategic note: Sending a weak piece into combat wastes high cards. A Queen attacking with a 12 plays the full 12. A Pawn attacking with the same card plays a 3. Knowing when to commit a strong piece versus sacrifice a weaker one is the core tension of the trick system.

Warband Modifiers — Pick 6

Before the game, each player selects six Warband Modifiers that define their faction's unique identity and bend the rules in their favor. No two warbands need ever fight the same way twice. These are announced openly.

Deck rules: Every deck always contains all 12 cards (numbered 1–12). Choosing a card's number as one of your six picks upgrades that card to its Trick version — the named card with a special ability — in place. It doesn't add or remove any cards; your deck stays 12 either way, it's just a question of which of those 12 slots carry an effect. Standard and Trick cards share the same power number; only the Trick version has one.

Browse the warband sheets using the tabs above to build your lineup.

Army Points — Build Your Force

Instead of the standard chess setup, each player spends a fixed budget of points to choose their own army, then places those pieces on the board themselves before the game begins. No two games start from the same position.

Piece prices match the same power ceilings from the combat table above:

Budget: 89 points. A fully standard chess army (8 Pawns, 2 Knights, 2 Bishops, 2 Rooks, 1 Queen, 1 King) costs exactly 89 points at these plain prices — the whole budget, nothing free and nothing left over. Standard chess isn't a discount option, it's simply the one army that happens to spend the budget exactly evenly. You're free to play it as-is.

Overflow tax: Want more than the standard count of a piece — a 9th Pawn, a 3rd Knight, a 2nd Queen? You can, but each copy beyond the standard count costs more than the last: the 1st piece past standard costs its normal price plus 3, the 2nd past standard costs plus 6, climbing by 3 every additional copy after that.

Example: Want a 2nd Queen? It costs 12 + 3 = 15 points — which means cutting something else, since the standard army already spends the full 89. Drop both Rooks (−18) and you can afford that Queen with 3 points to spare. Want a 10th Pawn too (the 2nd Pawn past standard)? That one costs 3 + 6 = 9.

Deployment

Once both players have chosen their armies, they alternate placing pieces on the board — one piece at a time, back and forth, starting with White — anywhere in their own half of the board (Pawns excepted: a Pawn may never stand on its own back rank). There is no standard starting position and no castling once deployment ends; where your pieces land is entirely up to how you and your opponent chose to place them.

Burnt Cards

Burnt cards are tricks that have been used during the round. They are left face up so players can track which values remain in each deck.

A New Round

After all 12 tricks have been played, each player re-shuffles their deck and draws two new face-up cards. Cards with a reset icon are flipped face up again.

Victory

There is no checkmate. Because every capture — even one aimed at a King — is decided by a trick duel the defender can win, a King is never in inescapable danger just for being attacked: check imposes no restriction on your moves at all. The game ends only when a King actually loses a trick as the defender and is captured. A single misplayed card at the wrong moment can cost you a queen, or your King. Resource management and board awareness work together, rewarding players who know when to commit a high card and when to let a piece fall.

Trickster's Chess · Draft synopsis v0.1