Pyramid Review
Elvish Checkers
Published by Three Sages Games
Designed by David Wainio
16 stones (seven each of two colors & two Stone Men), cloth map, string, rules sheet, and storage instructions, stored in a clear plastic mail tube; $12.95
Every time someone wants to do a game about elves, or has elves show up in their stories or their game world, they always start the same way: "Not much is known about the elves." Elvish Checkers, -- a new board game from Three Sages Games -- is no different, but it doesn't attempt to take us on a tour of the entire elven culture. Rather, it limits itself to this one facet of their lives.
The rules start by telling us not much is known about what this game means to elves. Is it a leisure activity? A way to train potential recruits should war break out? A metaphor for their civilization and its customs? Maybe. You're paying for it, so you decide if it has deeper meaning.
Regardless of what you decide, the object is to be the first to get all your elves into the opposing player's village.
Two village spaces sit on opposite sides of the board, and between these extremes are several leafy glades, the sort elves seem keen to inhabit. Both players occupy the spaces nearest to their home towns, and the village itself contains a large and imposing Stone Man, a summoned creature who -- like a golem of legend -- has a limited ability to discern what the summoner really wants. Lines from one village or glade to the next . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: June 8, 2007
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