Odin's Rune Chess

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Description

From the author's introduction: "To create the game I used an approach similar to that used by Carl Jung when he philosophized about the I Ching and the concept of synchronicity... To put myself in the right frame of mind for creating the rune game I first concentrated on Odin and Chess. In Nordic mythology Odin is a wise god who brought the runes to mankind, something akin to Prometheus bringing fire to men. I then thoroughly shuffled and mixed a set of rune cards and randomly selected six... I was surprised by the results..." This 10x10 chess variant takes inspiration from its theme and converts some of the standard chesspieces into their Norse equivalents. All the non-royal pieces retain their moves and capturing abilities. The queen becomes a valkyrie, with the additional power of transporting a king to safety by taking its place on the board. Knights become Forest oxen, with great horns that can kill in a neighboring square. Pawns become minor pieces, giving up their promotion ability to do so. And kings must "consult" before doing anything. The king moves and captures like any friendly piece it starts the turn next to. Each player has 2 of each type of piece, including kings, and 10 pawns. The game is won by capturing both enemy kings.