My son is four and we have started to play board games together. He really loves board games, even if we do not implement all the rules, yet.
One day, while setting up a game, he began to play with a 10 games in 1 set that I got for Christmas one year. Turning the board to the checker/chess board, he takes the checkers pieces and four meeples and begins to place them on the board. (I say meeples because they weren't chess pawns, they were four differently-colored pawn shaped pieces.)
At first, I do not pay a lot of attention as I am trying to setup the other board game. But after a few minutes I stop and notice that he is working at making up his own game.
A father can be so proud.
When we were done working together on the rules, he was quite happy with it. I will say that my part in it was quite small. I only added one rule, otherwise, I am simply clarifying the rules he made up and putting them together in some kind of order.
Slide n Stack
Required materials: Full set of checkers, checkerboard, 4 pawns - (ideally, 2 each that match the color of the checkers.) And something that can fit on a stack of checkers to mark "kings". (Recommend odd colored checkers or double pawns or pennies)
At the start of play, arrange checkers on the last 2 rows of the checkerboard. Off the board behind the last row, place the remaining checkers and two pawns.
The rules are the same as checkers with a few additions:
When it is your turn, you may move a checker and stack it on a checker(or stack of checkers) one square away. You may also 'stack' a pawn on a checker (or stack of checkers) that is one square away. No move is permitted that allows a stack to be larger than 3 checkers + 1 pawn. Two pawns may not exist on a checker or stack of checkers.
Stacks of checkers move a number of squares equal to the number of checkers in their stack. A stack can only move in one direction.
Stacks of checkers with a pawn may move a number of squares equal to the number of checkers in their stack, but may move in any forward direction. For example, a stack of 2 checkers and a pawn may move diagonally right and then diagonally left on its turn.
Stacks cannot move and jump in the same turn.
Checkers added to a stack that promotes to a 'king' do not gain extra movement. They only gain the ability to move in any direction.
Kings with pawns on the stack can move in any direction, but they cannot move back into the square where they started.
Try it and see what you think.
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