Chess pieces as characters?

[Matafuego]

Hello everybody!

I am sure this idea isn't a new one...

I'm building the defenses of a Kingdom and I decided to base them entirely on chess pieces.

This is what I have so far:

King: Fighter. Lethal on Melee. Useless in ranged combat (High armored low dex?)
Queen: Might be a wizard or a sorcerer?
Bishop: Of course, Cleric. There would be two, different religions or different domains?
Knight: The most obvious is the Knight or the Paladin. Again, two.
Rook: Here... I have NO idea. An archer? A Golem?
Pawn: Foot soldiers? Hirelings? Low level fighters? Warriors?

I'm sure lots of you came up with this idea before me! So any ideas or hints or experiences you can throw in my way will be appreciated!

The whole point is to build the main characters of the kingdom off the chess pieces, not playing some weird D&D Chess version...

Thanks

Lucas

 

[earthbinder]

Depending on how much money the kingdom has and if you want impressive or not.

Queens Rook : Animated Flying Wizards Tower with spellcasting capability

Kings Rook : Animated Keep with Permanant Heroes Feast and Minor globe of invunerability

Pawns: Low level warriors or Clones of the King/Queen (representing their ability to become the queen

King gets a line of sight Teleport contingency with the Kings Rook (the both move halfway between each other and the king is inside the keep.

Or for a more money/magic poor kingdom

Queens Rook: Fighter With specilization in Shield and Defensive fighting
Kings Rook: Dwarven/Stalwart Defender

For the knights: One a paladin the other his Blackguard brother.
or One a Paladin the other a Royal assassin
or A knight (phb2) and a mounted Barbarian javilin(sp?) expert

 

[scourger]

An interesting twist would be to make all the characters besides the king female. As noted above, a pawn can become the queen--actually any piece no longer in play. So, pawns can take the place of anyone but the king. It would be neat to have pawns advance to become one of the knights if one fell, a new bishop, etc.

 

[Particle_Man]

As noted above, a pawn can become the queen--actually any piece no longer in play.

You mean, you can't have more than one queen per side?

 

[MatthewJHanson]

As noted above, a pawn can become the queen--actually any piece no longer in play. So, pawns can take the place of anyone but the king. It would be neat to have pawns advance to become one of the knights if one fell, a new bishop, etc.

(Sorry that it's getting off topic, but...)

It actually doesn't matter whether a piece has been captured or not, so it's theortiecally possible to have 9 queens on the board at the same time.

The only rule is that you can't become a King, or another pawn (not that anybody would want to do that).

 

[blargney the second]

For the rooks, two words: Powerful Charge.

 

[Particle_Man]

Re: actual chess, I could see bare possibilities where a pawn might become a Knight instead of a Queen, but is there any reason for a pawn to become a bishop or rook instead of a Queen?

But in the context of "classifying" pieces, perhaps the major pieces could be prestige classes that the pawns could qualify for (representing their advancement). Depending on your high powered tastes, you could have ArchMage, Heirophant, etc. as Majors. Well, the King could be some single classed power.

 

[Jdvn1]

Re: actual chess, I could see bare possibilities where a pawn might become a Knight instead of a Queen, but is there any reason for a pawn to become a bishop or rook instead of a Queen?

Not per se, but if, upon reaching the eigth rank, one wouldn't need a queen (ie, it being a rook would win the game), then sometimes they do that.

 

[Klaus]

You could go with the actual basis for chess, i.e. Indian tactics. In India, the Queen was the chief advisor (so wizard is good), whereas the Rook was the Elephant (a chariot works as well).

 

[Wilphe]

King: Fighter. Lethal on Melee. Useless in ranged combat (High armored low dex?)

Nah, the king should be an apprentice level aristocrat, build him on 12 stat points and then make him venerable...


Or keep him venerable and make him a Marshall on a normal point total but low STR, CON and DEX to begin with. Just make sure he's useless as a fighter and boost his other abilities.


Either would fit better than making him a powerhouse. He's the guy you are suppossed to be protecting remember