CardShock

Make a deck of 2-4 index cards for every kind of unit in the game, then play subframes with them as in Karten Schach (including some original ones, TK). Don't worry about being able to accurately draw the unit; if you're not an artist, just write out the name of the piece, for example, KNIGHT.

Here are some CardShock subframes you can use.

• Purist: This is one of the simplest subframes and is based on one in Karten Schach. Shuffle the deck and draw one card at the beginning of each turn. You may only play that kind of unit this turn, unless it is illegal or impossible to move that kind of unit, in which case you may move any unit.
• Tricksy : Every player gets a hand of cards and plays one card per turn. The winner of each trick is the player with the lowest card, and may move both types of piece specified by the cards. The loser may move nothing. (TK: Everyone gets all of their cards every round, and resets at the end of the round. 44S:15.)

Few board games other than Chess and wargames have more than a a couple of different kinds of unit. If you are playing a game such as Chinese Checkers with a large number of relatively undifferentiated pieces, try a deck that specifies pieces indirectly. Make a deck with two of each of the cards below per color of piece in the game, using more cards for more common units, and then when you decide to play a game, use only the cards that seem most appropriate. Remember, the Karten Schach deck only contains seven different kinds of card.

In the list below, an item like “The (largest/smallest) piece on the board” stands for two cards: “The largest piece on the board” and “The smallest piece on the board”.

• The (most/least) common piece on the board
• The (farthest/least) advanced piece on the board
• The (largest/smallest) piece on the board
• The (most/least) central piece on the board
• The piece that has moved (most/least) often
• The (most/least) valuable piece
• The (most/least) powerful piece
• A piece adjacent to a (friendly/enemy) piece
• A piece adjacent to both friendly and enemy pieces
• A piece adjacent to more than one (friendly/enemy) piece
• A piece en prise (that may be captured)
• A piece that may capture
• A piece able to make a Special Move (see Special Moves frame)
• JOKER

Future enhancements

Enumerate the cards in the KS deck. CardShockUltima?-- if you have a KS set, you can play this right away.

Give examples of cards for some games, such as cards with types of coin for coin games.

Games that can use the cards above include Emergo, Crossfire, Death Stacks, etc. Make cards for 1-high black stacks, 5-high white stacks, etc.

Use new versions from the deck I made; also, mention animals to represent players instead of colors.