Truth's Gamble

In this Death Match, attempt to make your opponent run out of coins by capturing their pieces.

Designer(s): Zero Match Type: DM (for 2 players)
Featured in: Zero's Gauntlet

This game is played on a 7x8 board. Each player starts the game with 30 coins, and some preplaced pieces. This is shown in the image below:




Turns alternate, with the DMO choosing who goes first. On your turn, there are 2 actions you may perform:

Recruiting

Moving


On your turn you must perform one of these actions. If you cannot perform one of these actions, you lose the DeathMatch. Each turn, you will have 1 minute to submit your action. The first time you fail to give an action, you will be given a warning and 1-minute extension. If you fail to give an action within 1-minute again, you will lose 2 coins and be given another minute to resubmit. If you have no coins, you lose the DeathMatch.


Recruiting


There are a total of 29 different types of pieces. Each Piece has their own Cost and Return.


The Cost is how many coins you must spend to buy that type of piece.

The Return is how many coins are given to the player who captures this piece.


On your turn, you may spend some of your coins to Recruit one of these pieces.

You may choose where to place the piece on the board, but it must follow these 2 conditions:

  1. You may not place a piece on an occupied location.
  2. You may not place a piece such that there is an enemy piece within its movement range. (note, this could be less than its full movement range if there is a piece blocking its full range)

When you place a piece, its identity will be hidden. The pieces identity remains hidden until it moves. The cost of the piece will be removed the turn the piece is placed though. Use this as a hint to help identify pieces placed.


Broadly there are 3 types of pieces:

Emboldened

Timid

Heroic


For every Emboldened piece, there is a corresponding Timid piece with the same movement abilities. Heroic pieces have unique movements.


There are 3 main differences between Emboldened & Heroic pieces, and Timid pieces:

• The pieces have a different Cost and Return, even if they have the same movement.

• Timid pieces may not move the turn immediately after they are deployed.

• Timid pieces are revealed if they are in the movement range of a revealed enemy piece. (this could be as soon as they are played)

The following is a table of pieces, and a graphics of how they can move:






On the piece image, the left section are the Emboldened, the middle section are the Timid, the right section are the Heroic


Moving

For this, you can move one of your pieces to one of the spaces within its movement range. You may not jump over other pieces. If the moving piece was hidden, it is revealed.


You may move off the edge of the board. If you do, the piece is removed and you receive the Return coins for the piece.


Capturing an enemy piece is done by moving one of your pieces to the location of one of the enemy pieces. If the enemy piece was hidden, it is revealed. You gain the Return coins for the captured piece.



Ending the game

The game ends when any of the following things occurs:

A player fails to submit and must take the 2 coin penalty, but that player has less than 2 coins. The game ends with that player’s loss.

Both players’ coin totals have remained the same for 8 turns by each player. (16 moves). The player with more coins wins the DeathMatch. If this is a tie, the DMO wins the DeathMatch.

A player has no valid moves they can make. This means they have 1 or 0 coins, and no pieces left on the board. When this happens the game ends with that player’s loss.

Tags

Grid-based    (The game involves play on a grid.)

Psych    (The game tests the players' psychological & bluffing abilities.)

Strategy    (The game tests the players' strategic & tactical abilities.)

Turn-based    (The game involves players taking turns one after another.)