Possession

 


 
 

Development:
 

Here, if you care.


 
 

Components:

The pawns are little glass pieces. I got the blue plus mostly clear turquoise glass pieces from Michael's (years ago). The knights are dice, which you can get from a game store or dollar store. You can get a pretty little white bag for the pieces at Michael's, in the wedding section. I'm told dollar stores have them too.
All this goes on a tightly-packed 5 x 7 grid on a little 5 x 7 inch board.
The board is made from posterboard. Cut it with a utility knife and a metal ruler. Posterboard does not work for other games, but it works for this. Instead of posterboard you can use ordinary paper. Use an ordinary blue pen for the lines.
The crown is invisible. When your piece has a crown you turn it upside down. A die which would normally have a 1 on top would have a 6 on top.
 
 

Rules:


 
Possession

 

A player wins Possession when the opponent can not have possession of the crown and resigns.

The board is a 7 x 5 grid. Pieces include pawns (glass pieces) and knights (dice). The blue player moves the 15 blue pawns and two blue knights, while the white player moves the 15 white pawns and two white knights. The game is set up as shown in the picture below. The dice have ones on top. The crown begins in the centre cell.
 
 


 
 

The crown is invisible. If a piece lands on the crown or captures a piece that has the crown, the moving piece now possesses the crown. This is shown by turning the piece upside down. When a piece that has the crown moves, the crown moves with the piece.

The two players take turns moving one of their pieces. A piece must be moved during a turn. If a move is made it can not be taken back, and if a piece is touched it must be moved.

The two types of pieces have different types of capture, as though they are from two different games. A knight can not land on a friendly knight and a pawn can not land on any pawn, but other than that moves can not be blocked. Knights move like chess knights, two spaces orthogonally (not diagonally) and one space perpendicular to that. If a knight lands on an opponent's piece, the piece is captured and removed from the board. Pawns move exactly two spaces orthogonally. If a pawn jumps over an opponent's piece, that piece is captured.
 
 

What gameplay is like:
 

The action starts right away. Pawns work differently than other games. A game does not last long.

The game involves struggles in the top and bottom of the board where knights and pawns attempt to eliminate each other. Pieces generally don't threaten other pieces of the same type. At the beginning the knights tear through the pawns. As spaces are opened up the knights become vulnerable. At the end there can be spaces between pawns and they can't protect each other, but the game is just about to end at that point.

You're generally concerned with capturing and surviving; you kind of forget about the crown. Players will focus too much on trying to take out another pawn, so the game involves stupid moves followed by instant regret, hence the tough rules for moves.

The game is not very complex. There must be catch up mechanisms because the two players will be surprisingly even through the game. You can still keep on fighting after losing a knight. Although the game is not very complex, there are decisions to be made, and this continues steadily through the game. That makes it likeable.
 
 

Pictures:


 
 


 

Setup. Note the ones on top of the dice, and the invisible crown in the middle.


 
 
 
 


 

Blue's turn. One of the blue pieces has the crown.


 
 
 
 


 

white's turn


 
 
 
 


 

blue's turn


 
 
 
 


 

white resigns


 
 
 
 

How good is this game?
 

This is a good game. It has good replayability.