Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

Behemoths are usually loud and heavy, which makes it hard for them creep around. My main issue with the names is that the Behemoth is a Rook, the Dragon is a Bishop, neither the Castle nor Tower are Rooks, and the Knight is not a Knight. I get the impression that the author is unfamiliar with other hexagonal Chess variants and does not know how the usual Chess pieces have already been adapted to hexagonal boards.

Thank you for the feedback.

The board is indeed somewhat compact, having the same span as a shogi board but with 20 fewer tiles. While I suspect increasing the board size would allow for more strategic maneuverability, play-testing has thus far suggests that the size—paired with the move sets of the pieces—works well for skirmish games. I will do some testing with a larger board and perhaps include them as minor variants.

I am unaware of the contexts in which "behemoth" would be an uncomfortable name, with most of my exposure referencing an unusually large animal. I agree "heart" can sound a bit creepy. My intention was the usage aligned with "essence" or "core", but there are likely better words to use.

The name "Dzura" is not an actual word (as far as I can tell, though it is close to the Japanese word for "wig"), but was selected in the context of a conlang. The game itself is part of a worldbuilding project, under the intention of finding something similar to the chess family but not explicitly derivative. The name is simply a word that fits the intended in-world culture.

I will update the introduction to give a better understanding of game's context (and see if I can find some better piece names, or at least clarify that the piece names are more thematic than descriptive of their chess counterparts).

This is an accurate take.

I have lightly researched a number of other chess variants (with Gliński's being the main hexagonal one), but I did not put substantial effort into learning other hexagonal conversions, as conversion was not my priority with the game.

The piece names are more thematic than descriptive to their chess counterparts. The selection of the name "behemoth" draws more from a fantasy depiction of a large, mobile beast (perhaps like crossing an elephant and a sheep). Though, it is now clear that I should prioritize referencing existing pieces over theme in my naming here.

My intention was create a game that felt similar to chess (granted, leaning more towards tactics than grand strategy) while otherwise being distinct.

I will make some updates to improve my use of terminology.

The author, Jarad Yukiri, has updated this page.