MissingInAction

No, this page isn't about piecepack games that are slow or boring -- some of these games look quite promising! It's just that their creators announced the games as in progress or ready for release, but the games somehow were never heard of again, much less made it to the BigBoard.

Come browse this list of might-have-been piecepack games, and add your own favourites -- preferably with a link to the place you spotted it online and an excerpt from the game description.

Billiards, Chris Young and James Kyle discussed doing Billiards as a flicking game very early on the mailing list (See Message #5, Message #7, Message #8 and Message #9) but nothing ever show up as a ruleset. I used some of their ideas in my ruleset for NineBall. -- Mark A. Biggar

Delvenwarr by EdThorn is another early ruleset on the mailing list (see Message #211) that looks very interesting. Ed asked for comments, there was a little discussion, then nothing.

PiecepackBank by David Hassell: was added to the rulesets-in-progress folder and announced in Message #595 then withdrawn by the author. His comments follow: PiecepackBank is an abandoned work requiring, IIRC, 4 piecepacks (!). I was attempting to design something that would make use of lots of coins. The board was set up like a Monopoly board. You rolled two dice to determine movement. You moved for one of the die rolls (gamer's choice), drew a coin from a bag and placed it rank-side up next to the tile, moved for the other die, drew a coin and placed it rank-side up next to the tile. Then you could collect coins already distributed on the board based on rummy-like properties (3 of a kind, 4 of a kind, sequence of 3, sequence of 4). Due to the large number of piecepacks required and need for more playtesting, the project was abandoned. -- David Hassell

PiecepackIsle by Roger: was instructions of how to play Forbidden Isle with two Piecepack sets. Message #3613. It was pulled from the public once Roger asked Matt Leacock, and he in turn asked Roger to pull it down Message #3645. Forbidden Isle can be played with two piecepacks. If one of the piecepacks is the PlayingCardsExpansion, then these tiles can form the island and a regular deck of cards can be used to withdraw tiles from the island. Dice are used to represent the treasures. Coins from both sets are used to define floods, sandbags, etc. and put them in a bag.

PiecepackMailroom by David Hassell also announced and withdrawn by the author (See Message #599) was I thought a very promising game -- Mark A. Biggar

PiecepackScramble yet another David Hassell game, announced and withdrawn by the author (See Message #605).

Quarm by Robert Mundschau: "This is a conversion of a board game idea I came up with back in 1990, but did nothing with at the time. The original idea would take about 2 piecepacks worth of pieces, but it is scaling very nicely. players take turns moving pieces according to strict movement rules. Players win by capturing opposing pieces or special spaces called quarm." --Message #85. Robert was trying to write a book of 100 piecepack games.

RockinNewYears by DavidBoyle: "Comments: Funny theme. Mechanically reminiscent of DungeonCrawl (another piecepack game, for those of you who have not seen it). This game felt undertested, which Dave conceded. Suggestions: Finding 'hidden' stuff should be harder (ideally, it should start out difficult and get easier as the deadline looms closer). Stealing should be a little easier (and maybe less random... what about trading parts?) The problem with 2 players being able to block an opponent's exit might be fixed by giving players higher base movement, then penalizing that movement when burdened with Clarkdroid parts (which would also eliminate the need for capping the number of Clarkdroid parts carried)." --Message #342. An entry in the TimeMarchesOn competition, and apparently the only competition entry that has not been published on Piecepack.org -- and yet it's by one of the Piecepack.org maintainers! Update: "Dave's game from TimeMarchesOn isn't listed on the site - it is because it was never released - he just didn't seem to be able to work the kinks out to his satisfaction..." --Karol, Message #1831.

TrickOrTreat by Robert Mundschau: "Be the first kid to collect a treat from every house in town and get back home safely. Do you dare go into the haunted manor, or old cemetery? Bad things might happen, but the brave are often rewarded. Play tricks on opponents to slow them down. Random board layout and lots of dice rolling keep the game unpredictable and chaotically fun." --Message #85. Robert was trying to write a book of 100 piecepack games.

War & Piecepack by ClarkRodeffer was a war game included with the war-themed piecepacks sold by Blue Panther Games: https://web.archive.org/web/20200217133556/http://www.bluepantherllc.com/BP4_NewPiecepack.htm

There are also some slick piecepack designs without Downloadable Piecepack Sets files made available yet:

Geometric Tile and Watercolor Bold piecepacks by Spencer Dub: https://blog.spencerdub.me/piecepack-build-diary/ , https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2225837/designing-my-piecepack-watercolor-bold-set

CP Face made chess/french-suited DualPiecepacks: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2378211/homemade-piecepack-seeking-suggestions

DanielAjoy made a Ligretto-inspired piecepack: https://www.facebook.com/groups/589647544699867/posts/1496254470705832 , https://www.facebook.com/groups/589647544699867/posts/1836316766699599

Ray Davies made an element-suited set: https://www.facebook.com/groups/589647544699867/posts/1361503574180923/

selfthinker (Anike Henke) made piecepack/Micaya-deck suited piecepacks: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2201610/creating-new-piecepack-game-crafter

quarterpack by Tim Schutz were one-suit donut-themed piecepacks sold at select Art-o-mat machines: https://www.facebook.com/ztuhcSmiT/posts/10220744248464914 , https://boardgamegeek.com/image/6351640/piecepack

Woodburned Piecepack Set by Jennie: https://thequiltlist.blogspot.com/2010/11/woodburned-piecepack-set.html