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LEGEND ~ SHIP, CAPTAIN, CREW
A Chess Variant By Simon Edward JeppsDownload ~ PDF ↷ ⋱ ⋱ Chatblog ⨗
Introduction
Legend ~ Ship, Captain, Crew is an 8x8 variant played with a standard Chess set but incorporating SIX regular 6-sided dice, ONE a different colour or style.
There is a dice game dating back at least 100 years called Ship, Captain, Crew and it has been a popular sailor's game ever since the early 20th century. I stumbled upon this game just recently and being both a Yahtzee fan and a swashbuckling adventurer fanatic, it immediately struck a chord deep in my heart.
Yet of course the adventurer part of me wanted thus to augment the game from a mere handful of five dice into something so swashbucklingly awesome, that even the legendary Captain Nemo would be proud to play. Herewith, may I present unto you... 'Legend ~ Ship, Captain, Crew'.
Section Jumper
- Standard SCC
- Legend SCC Intro
- The King & The Genie
- Piece Values / Legend
- Scoring Guide
- Bartering Pieces
- Hidden Treasure
- King Strikes
- Game Concludes
- Summary
Playing Legend SCC
This game is effectively a game of Chess played in tandem with Ship, Captain, Crew. So let me first explain the rules of SCC.
Ship, Captain, Crew
You have FIVE 6-sided dice and THREE rolls per turn.You MUST roll a:
6 = Ship
5 = Captain
4 = Crew
...in order to score your Cargo = the remaining two dice.
You may RE-roll some or all of the dice a maximum of TWO more times to attempt getting the essential 6/5/4 granting you the total of your Cargo... BUT if you DO NOT succeed in getting the 6/5/4 then you DO NOT score any Cargo.
Play would usually continue to an agreed target or number of turns whence the highest accumulated Cargo score wins.
Legend ~ Ship, Captain, Crew
This game adds into the recipe a standard Chess set and ONE extra 6-sided die of a different colour or style. Officially this extra die features roman numerals instead of dots, whereas the other five dice feature dots.
This extra 6-sided die is called the Legend die.
The Legend die is rolled at the same time, or separately in the same turn.
The Legend die represents TWO things:
- Which pieces on the Chess board you may move in the current turn & their worth.
- A secondary score tally, affected by Chess moves, which after 3 rounds contributes to your Grand Score.
So, each turn players roll ALL SIX dice (either together or 5/1) and attempt to score Cargo whilst also moving a piece on the Chess board.
The Chess move can be made before or after the Cargo has been finalized ~ but if attempting Hidden Treasure it would make more sense to move first.
- Should a player LOSE the Chess game, then the round ends - and only THEN does the round end. At this moment we see the surrendering of Cargo from one player to the other.
The LOSER of the Chess game thus LOSES the same number of points in Cargo hereof surrendering this to the winning opponent. However NO Legend is deducted.
Legend is NEVER deducted, only Cargo may be deducted. Legend is not a 'currency' it is only a representation of piece worth / player honour. Cargo IS the currency used to buy/sell pieces, receive treasure and/or surrender to a victor.
The King & The Genie
There is NO Check or Check-Mate.The King CAN and MUST be physically captured.
- King Strikes (aka 'Check' in classical Chess) contribute 1 point each to thy Legend score & Capture of the King awards 5 Legend points.
- A player may Castle the King in the classical way, when rolling a 5 Legend.
- The King may ONCE in the game summon a Genie and Teleport to a random VACANT square, within the central 6x6 arena, decided by the roll of TWO dice. If the given square(s) is NOT vacant the King CANNOT Teleport.
- The two dice will give two numbers/coordinates which can be read backwards or forwards from either player's point of view. For example, 5+3 = 5x,3y or 3y,5x. The number 1 representing file b or rank 2 and the number 6 representing file g or rank 7 from White's point of view and vice versa for Black. So 5x,3y would be either the squares f4 or d6 from White's point of view. Thus the player will have a CHOICE of TWO squares unto which he/she may Teleport.
Piece Values / Legend
The Legend die may ONLY be re-rolled ONCE and still score but if re-rolled TWICE then only move without score. Thus like the other dice, a total of 3 rolls are permitted, but if a 3rd then you forfeit the actual score.Each value on the Legend die represents a different piece & score, as follows.
- 1 = Pawn
- 2 = Knight
- 3 = Bishop
- 4 = Rook
- 5 = King
- 6 = Queen
- Dictate which pieces may be moved in the current turn.
- If you cannot move a piece you forfeit your move.
- Create and grow your Legend score.
- If you forfeit your move you do not score Legend.
- Represent a 'piece worth' for bartering pieces.
- Piece trades are taken or added to your Cargo score.
- Pieces CAPTURED can be bought back for FIVE times their Legend value in Cargo, or bartered, but only if placeable on their start square and if the opponent agrees. Here 5x the piece value is deducted from thy Cargo score and added to the opponent's Cargo score. Entering a piece counts as ONE move. Bartering pieces is elaborated on later.
Whilst a Knight & Bishop are arguably of similar value in classical Chess, for this game the points are merely for convenient function of the die and to allow re-evaluation of Scores.
Besides in truth a Bishop is marginally more valuable than a Knight anyway.
Scoring Guide
Each player maintains TWO score tallies - one for Cargo and one for Legend. The reason they are both separate is because the Legend score is tactically affected by how you choose to move on the Chess board.- Cargo ~ Physical wealth / currency. A dynamic running total and inventory of treasure awarded which is also used to barter Chess pieces or to pay the winning opponent.
- You do not always score Cargo since it requires a specific combination of dice outcomes.
- Aside from Cargo itself, Hidden Treasure, Bartered Pieces and Chess Victory contribute to this score.
- Legend ~ Decorative wealth / honour. A stable running total of Chess points awarded which is therefore influenced by how you choose to move your pieces on the board.
- You usually do likely score Legend providing you can move a piece, otherwise no score is awarded.
- Aside from Legend itself, King Strikes (aka 'Check' in classical Chess) contribute 1 point each to this score & Capture of the King awards 5 Legend points.
Yet, the WINNER of the current round's Chess game ADDS a BONUS Cargo score taken from their opponent's Cargo ~ EQUAL to the SUM-value of all pieces the WINNER captured during the game, including the King ~ PLUS 5 points Legend, before writing their NEW carried-over score totals at the top of the next column.
Whilst, the LOSER of the current round's Chess game therefore SUBTRACTS the same number of points in Cargo, hereof surrendering this to the winning opponent, before carrying-over their NEW score totals. However NO Legend is deducted.
Legend is NEVER deducted, only Cargo may be deducted.
For example, if the winner captured:
- 3 Pawns = 3 pts
- 1 Knight = 2 pts
- 1 Bishop = 3 pts
- 1 Rook = 4 pts
- 1 Queen = 6 pts
- 1 King = 5 pts
There are three more aspects of scoring; Bartering Pieces, Hidden Treasure & King Strikes. I will explain these now before describing how the Game Concludes.
Bartering Pieces
As mentioned earlier:
- Pieces CAPTURED can be bought back for FIVE times their Legend value in Cargo, or bartered, but only if placeable on their start square and if the opponent agrees. Entering a piece counts as ONE move.
Officially pieces would be bought & sold for 5x their value or 'worth', however players are at liberty to raise or lower this price as they see fit. Thus players may barter for a prized piece.
Thus whence a player 'buys back' a captured piece, they DEDUCT the value of the piece 'x5' (or whatever has been agreed) from their Cargo score, whilst the selling opponent ADDS the value of the piece 'x5' (or whatever...) to their Cargo score.
Hidden Treasure
An extra element of the game which adds some more swashbuckling fun.
Hidden Treasure can be won and added to your Cargo on TWO occasions:
- Whence a player Castles his King.
- Whenever a Pawn reaches the penultimate rank.
This rule not only spices up the game some more but remedies an ancient dilemma of whence having fought so hard to reach a Pawn to the penultimate rank ~ only to then LOSE it before promotion. Rewarding such a Pawn with the chance of Hidden Treasure makes the achievement much more worthwhile.
Hidden Treasure is awarded in addition to the current turn's Cargo score.
King Strikes
Whilst there is NO formal Check or Check-Mate, whereby CAPTURE of the King WINS the game:
- King Strikes (aka 'Check' in classical Chess) contribute 1 point each to thy Legend score & Capture of the King awards 5 Legend points.
Game Concludes
After THREE ROUNDS all final scores are combined - the total Cargo & Legend scores added together - to give a total singular value Grand Score. The player with the highest Grand Score wins the entire game.
Summary
Legend ~ Ship, Captain, Crew was passionately created to live up to its name and deliver a swashbuckling Chess adventure of epic proportions.
The game has been carefully crafted to deliver not just a game, but a lifetime companion, who in the form of warm entertainment, will travel with you on a fantastical adventure through life itself. Even ~ if you have no apparent opponent.
You see, as I have mentioned in many of my works, Chess with dice can be (providing the game is designed livingly well) a greatest solitaire pastime with the sacred AETHER.
Out of all my games crafted in this way, where utmost honesty to one's self is the key to a recreationally meaningful conversation with existence, I am convinced, Legend ~ Ship, Captain, Crew is the ultimate deliverance of this fantastical 'peace in play'.
Indeed if anything else, one may not be able to find a human opponent. There are countries, for example Britain, where Chess clubs are sparse, strong players likewise so and unfortunately public Chess tables are a forbidden infrastructure. I could write a book on that too!
Herewith, in my opinion, there is no greater pleasure to the solitary Chess fanatic than an actually playable solitaire Chess game of fantastical theme. I am a Monk of my own philosophical means and so without a human Chess opponent I must endeavour to enrich my own peaceful company. Legend ~ Ship, Captain, Crew is in my humble opinion the greatest remedy to this dilemma.
Now, in regards to the actual logic of the game proper, as played between two good human beings, on this there are a couple of points I have to make.
Firstly, for this game I wanted to preserve somewhat the classical ability to move pieces naturally and so for this reason I decided rather than give players a choice of only two pieces from two dice, instead I would use a hierarchy attributed to one single die.
Herewith the chances of moving each piece are as follows:
1 = Pawn / 6 in 6 chance. 2 = Knight / 5 in 6 chance. 3 = Bishop / 4 in 6 chance.
4 = Rook / 3 in 6 chance. 5 = King / 2 in 6 chance. 6 = Queen / 1 in 6 chance.
This way from the Opening positions there is a higher likelihood of classically themed play, whereby re-rolls only gradually increase as the game progresses and as lower value pieces make way for medium to higher value pieces.
For example, since Pawns are of the lowest value, there is a 100% chance that the player will be able to move one during the Opening. This works because of the dice 'hierarchy' whereby the higher the die value the larger the 'umbrella' of pieces which can be moved.
Likewise therefore, Knights & Bishops similarly stand a good chance of being moved during the Opening, thus allowing the preservation of somewhat classical play.
Vice versa, the allowed 2x re-roll of the Legend die (1x w/score or 2x w/out/score) counter-remedies the logic to allow a better chance of playing medium to high valued pieces during the Middle or Endgame. Whilst mathematically there is always only a 1 in 6 chance of rolling a particular number regardless of the number of attempts, Simon's Law states, "Yes, but you must be stupid not to."
Aye indeed, if you cannot block a Strike on your King or indeed Queen, there is a lesser chance of moving it compared to other pieces and so for this reason in addition to the 1x/2x re-roll, I created the Genie aspect, as a special escape ~ and also because it enriches the "legendary" theme of the game some more.
Secondly, another point of design, is how I have integrated Strike points, Hidden Treasure, Cargo surrender and thus Capture of the King to fulfill and preserve an equilibrium of play-scoring. In other words, it would for example be illogical for a player with a very high running score to just sit-back and let their King be captured whilst hoping to win on points over game-technique.
For when the game ends the player will have to surrender an enormous amount of Cargo after likewise receiving Strike after Strike on their King and having missed several opportunities to grab Hidden Treasure.
Herewith the game is especially crafted to be wholesomely playable.
Legend ~ Ship, Captain, Crew is a very personal creation, summoned from within the deepest caverns of my soul. It is not just about Chess, it is about honour and chivalry, of commanding thyself to conquer over chaos, to triumph over evil and to do this through the embracing of all the wonders of the world, both natural and of all civilisation... to venture onwards with God speed ahead and cast anchor unto thy well earned paradise.
This game is to me, the start of a new beginning and the forever soaring forward with wings of golden sun... Aye, land ahoy Captain! Land... ahoy...
Thank you for reading.
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