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The golden Dawn has this super fun and easy (and practical and useful and etc) game called Enochian Chess. It's probably great and I'm sure several experts will gladly share their tales of all the matches they played. But this morning I was listening to Chubby Checker and the Fat Boys and I thought “why not checkers?” and then “why not Goetia?” and then “why am I not smoking a joint now?”
Here is how I think Goetic Checkers would be played:
The main and official rules of normal checkers apply.
Each player has 12 pieces which he places on the black squares of the first three rows closest to his chest on a standard board of 8x8 squares.
A piece can only move diagonally – forward.
Pieces of the opponent are captured by jumping over them (when they are directly next to your piece diagonally) and you can not land on a piece that is already occupied by another piece.
If a piece of the opponent can be taken, you must do it (it is not optional)
When a piece makes it to the other side of the board it becomes a king, and it is then allowed to move backwards as well as forward (still only one square though)
But Waite...
The 24 pieces (12 per player) are representative of / represented by the Dukes of the Goetia.
There are only 23 Dukes but there is 1 Knight (Furcas). Together this makes 24.
If a Duke makes it to the other side, he becomes a Prince
Princes have to follow the same rules as Dukes, with the only exception being that they can move backwards as well
(in normal checkers this piece is now called a king)
Now, a Knight is not the same as a Duke, and Furcas is special. But to level the playing field Alloces, Eligos and Berith also act as Knights.
What makes a Knight different from a Duke in this Goetic Checkers, is the way in which he is allowed to move.
Berith, Eligos, Allocer and Furcas move somewhat like the knights in Chess.
Instead of going one move diagonally, they move two (not two squares in a line like “/” but rather in the way like a Kenaz rune or the “<” or “>”).
In practice this looks as if they simply move in a straight line from the black square in one row, skipping over the white line in the next, and onto the black square of the third row.
The Knight is however, just like a Duke, not allowed to land on a square that is already occupied.
If a Knight makes it to the other side, he becomes a King (Knights are therefore placed on the second row – else they can never get to the last row on the other side)
Kings move in the same way as Knights, but just like Princes, they can move either forward or backward.
In theory a Knight can therefore become a King in just three moves. But if his path is blocked he can not go forward at all.
In the example above, if A is a Knight his move takes B and he lands on 1
If A is a normal Duke, his move takes B too, but he lands on 2
If the square with B is empty, and A is a Knight, his move will still land him on 1
but if the square with B is empty, and A is a Duke, he can only move 1 square diagonally, and so he will either land on 3 or B depending on the road he takes
HOWEVER
If there is a piece already in the square with 1, then A can NOT move if he is a Knight (he is Restrained by the Most Holy Names..)
because the main rule of checkers still applies: pieces of the opponent are captured by jumping over them and you can not land in a square where there already is a piece
If A is a Prince ( = a Duke that made it to the other side) then he will still have to capture B, but if the square with B is empty then he can move to the empty square or 3, 4 or 5.
If A is a King ( = a Knight that made it to the other side) then he will still have to take B.. but if there's a piece in the square with 1 then he can not go forward and his only possible move will land him on 6
Anyway.
There's likely quite a bit of things I am overlooking, but I thought this up in an hour or so. a link where you can print all Seals so that if your mom can twist maybe I can come over and afterwards we can see if it even is playable.
Here is how I think Goetic Checkers would be played:
The main and official rules of normal checkers apply.
Each player has 12 pieces which he places on the black squares of the first three rows closest to his chest on a standard board of 8x8 squares.
A piece can only move diagonally – forward.
Pieces of the opponent are captured by jumping over them (when they are directly next to your piece diagonally) and you can not land on a piece that is already occupied by another piece.
If a piece of the opponent can be taken, you must do it (it is not optional)
When a piece makes it to the other side of the board it becomes a king, and it is then allowed to move backwards as well as forward (still only one square though)
But Waite...
The 24 pieces (12 per player) are representative of / represented by the Dukes of the Goetia.
There are only 23 Dukes but there is 1 Knight (Furcas). Together this makes 24.
If a Duke makes it to the other side, he becomes a Prince
Princes have to follow the same rules as Dukes, with the only exception being that they can move backwards as well
(in normal checkers this piece is now called a king)
Now, a Knight is not the same as a Duke, and Furcas is special. But to level the playing field Alloces, Eligos and Berith also act as Knights.
What makes a Knight different from a Duke in this Goetic Checkers, is the way in which he is allowed to move.
Berith, Eligos, Allocer and Furcas move somewhat like the knights in Chess.
Instead of going one move diagonally, they move two (not two squares in a line like “/” but rather in the way like a Kenaz rune or the “<” or “>”).
In practice this looks as if they simply move in a straight line from the black square in one row, skipping over the white line in the next, and onto the black square of the third row.
The Knight is however, just like a Duke, not allowed to land on a square that is already occupied.
If a Knight makes it to the other side, he becomes a King (Knights are therefore placed on the second row – else they can never get to the last row on the other side)
Kings move in the same way as Knights, but just like Princes, they can move either forward or backward.
In theory a Knight can therefore become a King in just three moves. But if his path is blocked he can not go forward at all.
In the example above, if A is a Knight his move takes B and he lands on 1
If A is a normal Duke, his move takes B too, but he lands on 2
If the square with B is empty, and A is a Knight, his move will still land him on 1
but if the square with B is empty, and A is a Duke, he can only move 1 square diagonally, and so he will either land on 3 or B depending on the road he takes
HOWEVER
If there is a piece already in the square with 1, then A can NOT move if he is a Knight (he is Restrained by the Most Holy Names..)
because the main rule of checkers still applies: pieces of the opponent are captured by jumping over them and you can not land in a square where there already is a piece
If A is a Prince ( = a Duke that made it to the other side) then he will still have to capture B, but if the square with B is empty then he can move to the empty square or 3, 4 or 5.
If A is a King ( = a Knight that made it to the other side) then he will still have to take B.. but if there's a piece in the square with 1 then he can not go forward and his only possible move will land him on 6
Anyway.
There's likely quite a bit of things I am overlooking, but I thought this up in an hour or so. a link where you can print all Seals so that if your mom can twist maybe I can come over and afterwards we can see if it even is playable.