What is Flagstone?

Flagstone is the first #chess28 game. It may be the last. It uses my generic Chess28 Core Rules System, plus a set of Faction Lists and Game Modes that are specific to Flagstone. This rulebook contains a prototype of the game, which is a fully-functioning grid-based miniature-agnostic fantasy skirmish game, with list building and four factions.

What is a “#chess28” game?

A #chess28 game is a game that adheres to the dictates of The #chess28 Manifesto.

The Black Labyrinth

As you boot heels clatter across the onyx and marble flagstones of another seemingly identical room, you wonder at your foolishness in stepping foot in this maze. Despair is a luxury you can ill-afford: there must be a clue to the path out in one of these rooms?

Discovered by explorers of the Elder Roots a century ago, the scholars of Lucretanica say the labyrinth is an artefact of the ancient makers and call it Maelbonica, (the Marble Forest). To those few that re-emerge from its depths, it is The Black Labyrinth, a nightmarish warren of tens of thousands of seemingly identical rooms, whose arrangement is constantly being reconfigured through the workings of some infernal machinery. As one moves from one room into the next, one cannot be sure if progress towards hope is being made, or if one is just moving through familiar rooms endlessly.

Those that have braved its mysteries and made it out have carried with them treasures and occult artefacts whose value are beyond measure. This lure naturally ensnares the avaricious and the hungry. It certainly led you into this forsaken puzzle-prison.

There are rumours that survivors, weary of the looping path, have gathered into small settlements, filling certain rooms with the smoke and songs of wretched people. There are others that whisper the elves of Lucretanica use the labyrinth as a place of banishment and exile, into which are thrown the most dire enemies of the crown: escape presumably meaning pardon, if any have returned to win it.

What you need to play Flagstone

• A chess board (an 8×8 grid of squares larger than 25mm across)
• Half a dozen D6, (and very occasionally one D8).
• 5-15 miniatures each
• Unit cards (print and play)
• Gambit cards (print and play)
• Wound tokens
• 2-6 Treasure chests (or braziers or similar) tokens or models
• 2 small pieces of terrain (enough to fill a single square of your chess board)
• 2 large pieces of terrain (enough to fill two squares of your chess board)

Feedback Wanted

This game is still in development. If you read it or play it, I'd love to hear what you make of it. You can find me in the Planet Smasher Games Discord server and I'd love to hear your thoughts: https://discord.gg/GHDn42U8Vf