Lunch Chess (LC) is a cross between Lunch Money
(trademark of Trident
Inc.) and regular old Chess. LC was mostly developed by me (Mikko Rauhala) and refined also with the
playtesting and brainstorming help of several other students of the
University of Helsinki, eg. Otso Kivekäs, Leo Linnamaa and Jaakko
Saaristo
(I'll add credits on request or when I remember certain people's names
☺).
To play Lunch Chess, you need the following:
A regular chessboard
Regular Chess pieces (an extra set or two would be useful)
A Lunch Money deck and rules from Atlas Games
These rules (modifying them according to taste is encouraged,
though)
Markers to indicate Stomps, Headlocks and so on, as well as to mark
pieces as those of some other type than they actually are, should you run
out of pieces of a certain type.
Rules
Briefly, LC is about Chess, only instead of capturing the pieces fight
each other using Lunch Money attack cards. This adds variety and
chance to the game, making it more attractive for people with short
attention spans.
In addition to attacks, also other Lunch Money specialities have been
integrated: Pieces have their own hit points, and by playing cards
that affect them, the pieces can be demoted or
promoted (even to King). The game is won by killing or demoting all of the
opponent's Kings.
These rules assume that the reader is familiar with the
rules of both Chess and Lunch Money.
Hit points
Each piece has a hit point count associated with its type. The hit
point amounts are as follows:
Pawn
1
Knight
3
Bishop
3
Rook
5
Queen
9
King
15
For ease of play, these are the only allowed hit point amounts,
and the type of the piece directly implies also its hit point status.
If a piece would end up with some other amount of hit points, they
are rounded down to the nearest of these amounts, as explained in Turn
Sequence below.
Initial setup
Play starts with each player having 5 cards from a common Lunch Money
deck, and their Chess pieces in standard Chess beginning formation.
The white player starts the game, as in Chess.
Turn sequence
Players may use their turns for one of the following
actions:
Moving
Regular moves are made as in regular Chess, except that the King
may be placed (or left) in check, as this does not automatically result in its
capture. Note that this also means that stalemate due to not being
able to move anything becomes impossible.
Discarding
A turn may be used for discarding up to 5 cards, as in Lunch Money.
The hand is then refilled from the common deck.
Playing First Aid cards
Any number of First Aid cards may be played on one of the
player's pieces. Note that a piece may be promoted to a King by using
First Aid, but not by moving a Pawn to the last rank. Also, since
hit points are rounded downwards after each turn, any promotions need to
be done at one step - for example, you need to play 3 First Aid cards
on the same turn to promote a Queen to a King.
Attacking
Normal capturing is not possible in LC. Instead, if a piece threatens
another piece, it may make a single Lunch Money attack towards it. The
attack may be defended against using the normal Lunch Money rules -
including Block/Grab-attacks or Humiliations. If the
attacking piece is not a Knight, the piece is moved prior to the
actual attack to the square adjanced to the target piece and nearest to
its original position, where the piece will also end up if the attack is
not successful in killing the target (Knights remain in their original
position in this case).
If the attack kills the
target, the attacking piece will end up in its square as in normal Chess.
If the target
retaliates (using Block/Grab or Humiliation) and the attacking piece is
killed, the target piece will not move. Also, if a piece is
about to die due to an attack or the only King of a
player is about to be demoted, the player may play an appropriate
amount of First Aid to bring the piece back to life (or even to promote
it), or to restore its status as the King.
After resolving one of the aforementioned actions, all pieces' hit
points are rounded down to the nearest limit for some piece type, and the
piece is changed into a piece of that type. If a piece ends up with 3
hit points after its hit points have been modified, the player who
played the card that caused the latest change may decide if it becomes a
Knight or a Bishop. A piece must end up as the highest-valued
piece that its hit points allow.
Regular promotion according to the standard rules of Chess occurs at
this point. Note that only Pawns that just moved to the last
rank are promoted normally - if a piece is demoted to a Pawn on the last
rank, it just sits there until killed or promoted with First Aid. As a
special case, if a piece attacks another piece in the last rank and succeeds
in destroying it, but in the process is itself demoted to a Pawn, it
will promote immediately again, since the move to the last
rank is considered to occur after the battle, and
hence also after the demotion.
After resolving demotions and promotions, the victory
condition is checked: If a player has no Kings left on the
board, the game is lost.
If the game is not over, both players refill their hands from the
common deck (reshuffle the discard pile if necessary) and the game
proceeds with the other player's turn.
Passing is not allowed.
Special cards
Certain special Lunch Money cards warrant special interpretation:
Choke
Applies as in Lunch Money, but only to the pieces involved. And yes,
while in Choke, a piece changes its type every turn, so a Choke can be
rather deadly. If a Choked piece dies of the Choke, the piece
holding it moves to the old position of the dead piece if and only if
the Choke was the result of an attack initiated by the Choking piece.
However, if another piece kills the Choked piece while it is
defenseless, the killing piece goes to its original position and the
Choking piece remains where it was. Any of the other pieces on both
sides may move and attack normally while the Choke is in effect.
Headlock
Applies as in Lunch Money, but only to the pieces involved. If a
Headlocked piece dies of the holder's free attacks, the piece holding it
always moves to the old position of the dead piece. If the headlocked
piece is killed by another piece, it takes the position of the dead piece
and the Headlock holder will remain where it was. Any of the other pieces
on both sides may move and attack normally while the Headlock is in effect
- note that this means that in addition to the free attacks by the holder,
any one of the other pieces on the same side may be used normally on that
turn. The hand may not be refilled after the free attacks, though.
Stomp and Poke in the Eye
Apply as in Lunch Money, but only to the piece hit.
Roundhouse and Spinning Backfist
Roundhouse and Spinning Backfist spin so that if the
first target dodges the attack, the attack is then forwarded in
clockwise or counterclockwise order (attacker's choice) to the next piece
that is next to the attacking piece after it has been moved next
to the original target piece, or, for Knights, any other pieces
that they threaten. The new target may Dodge, Block or Humiliate as
usual; if the attack is Dodged again, it continues spinning the same way.
Note that the attack may strike at the attacking player's
pieces also, though they may of course defend as usual. If the attack
kills a piece, the attacking piece will end up in the original
position of the eliminated piece. If all the eligible target pieces dodge
the attack once, it dissipates.
Humiliation
A King is considered so noble that he cannot be Humiliated. A King
can Humiliate other pieces, though (but even a King cannot Humiliate
another King). The promotion of a piece of another type to a King may
still be Humiliated, though. Also, while in battle, a Humiliation is
always considered to come from one of the opponents. When Humiliating
a separate First Aid action, the Humiliation is “anonymous”, and can
be counter-Humiliated, but in this case the counter-Humiliation does no
damage to any of the opponent's pieces. The semantics of the first
Humiliation are explained by the piece screwing up its own First Aid
attempt and doing damage instead.
Optional rules
These are optional rules that may be used according to taste:
No discard while in check
A player whose King is in check may not discard any cards.
Humiliation of Kings
A King's action may be Humiliated, but not so much as to cause damage
- that is, the end result is that the whole turn's actions are considered
null and void, and no free attack may be played.
Humiliation interventions
When in battle, even pieces other than the original opponents may
Humiliate the actions of the battling pieces, if they threaten
the Humiliated piece. In this case, the Humiliating piece is also moved
next to the piece being Humiliated, if it is not a Knight.
Personal First Aid Humiliation
A separate First Aid action can only be Humiliated if the piece
applying First Aid is threatened by an opposing piece. Again, the
Humiliating piece will move next to the other piece if it is
not a Knight.
No spinning
Roundhouse and Spinning Backfist lose their special spinning
properties.
Princess
A new type of piece, the Princess, is added to the game. The piece
moves as a Queen, but only up to two squares at a time. The princess has
7 hit points, and there are no Princesses on the board to start
with.
More optional rules may be suggested to the author. The author may also decide to
move any optional rule to the standard rules above, and move the
earlier standard variation to optional rules.