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Inspired by team chess variants like Bughouse where capturing pieces has an impact on other games, but not everyone is a fan of tactics like waiting for pieces/stalling and time scramble aspects, which are caused by allowing captured pieces to be dropped into ongoing games. How to play a variant where every team starts each round with pieces determined by what happened in the previous round? Is there an existing ruleset like this? This can include losing captured pieces and/or gaining pieces from capturing and/or redistributing pieces between players, but doesn't have to include all these aspects. Can also include getting pieces from teammates' games during the same round, as long as it can affect future rounds. In particular, how to make sure the rules are fair and don't easily cause future rounds to snowball/spiral into meaningless unplayable games?

Here are some possible ways to solve obvious issues that may prevent the game from being playable.

  • Which team plays white/black and what if there are more than 2 teams? Each team can play pieces of the same color, like red/yellow/green/blue etc, and randomly decide who plays first in every game.
  • Two teams may want to exchange pieces of the same type, but what if captures are not symmetric or multiple teams captured each other's pieces in a cycle? I think each team may barter captured pieces of any color with other teams and redistribute pieces between teammates before each round.
  • What if some but not all of the players want to play Bughouse-style, dropping off pieces during a game? I think if players involved (including opponents) agree to it, they may barter and add/remove pieces during ongoing games, but it's optional. Opponents may agree if their team have something to gain from the barter, but can refuse it to avoid the stalling tactics in Bughouse.
  • How to avoid promoted pieces making some teams start out overpowered? Promoted pawns can be temporary and turn back into pawns when captured or when game ends, or alternatively players can only promote to pieces the team have lost (replacing a captured piece owned by an opposing team with a pawn in the process).
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    Please note this is not a discussion forum
    – Brian Towers ♦
    Commented Jun 30 at 17:36
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    Other variant questions and even questions like "is there a ruleset or variant like this" are on-topic, especially since this variant/event uses usual pieces and movement rules. Asking how to make variant rules fair is objective and is not discussion any more than asking playing strategy or openings are discussion.
    – alices_and_bobs
    Commented Jun 30 at 17:42
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    "is there a ruleset or variant like this" is on topic. Your long paragraph floating ideas "For example, here are some ideas" is not. It invites discussion and opinion.
    – Brian Towers ♦
    Commented Jun 30 at 18:22
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    I just want to show my work in attempting to tackle obvious problems, like logistics (who plays white/black?) and how to prevent promoted pieces from snowballing. SE question askers are supposed to have done some research, right?
    – alices_and_bobs
    Commented Jun 30 at 18:29

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Maybe one way to do it is one-way Bughouse. Pieces captured on board 1 can be dropped on board 2. Those captured on board 2 can be dropped on board 3 and so on. Nothing is ever dropped on board 1.

The boards do not even need to start at the same time or to play in synchrony. If a board is unready to receive pieces, they just accumulate in a buffer until the game opens.

The only constraint is that there is no loop in the food chain.

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