Trying to build and balance a true 'chess' encounter

[Fyrehauwk]

Good day fellow gamers! First time posting so please bare with me:
My group plays Pathfinder (a great system in my eyes) and I am currently running the session. We take turns gming so no one gets exhausted. We have a couple of serious power gamers and few nonchalanters, so its always difficult keeping everyone happy. Anyway, I try to find new and exciting ways to approach combat, and thought it'd be super sweet beans if I put the guys literally on a chess board, and made them move as their respective chess pieces, perhaps giving them a special ability due to the selection of piece (ex: allowing the pawn unlimted aoo and pounce since he can only move 1-2 spaces) and put them up against an opposing side of pieces.

Does this sound like something that could work? I'm mostly worried about the movement constrictions peeving off some people, and the fact its not "true" chess in that you still need to beat AC or CMD or whatever and do appropriate damage to kill a bad guy.
I think it would be fun and a change from the endless supply of goblins and orks we seem to kill.

To give some flavor, I was going to make it so the opposing side were actually hapless adventures who got caught in this chessboard trap, maybe from a bbeg wizard? In order to get off the board and back into reality, you need to win a game, otherwise, you're going to be waiting a long time for next chumps to fall into the trap. To make it even more thrilling, was entertaining the idea of the King on their side to be the npc they are looking for, so not only do they have to win, but protect him too.

Know that was wordy. Any suggestions if this is a good idea or a pipe dream? Has anyone tried something like this before? Also, what piece should have what special abilty if any?

Thanks in advance

[ArcturusV]

Well, first off you got to realize people are probably going to have seen/read Harry Potter books and they will make that comparison. Long as your group is mature enough and has the sense not to poke at that and mock it, then it shouldn't be a problem. But it might. It's one of the banes of DMing, when you think you have a cool idea just to point out that not only was it done before, but it was done in a relatively recent, highly popular medium and everyone is probably going compare to it.

Various Ward Effects, customized, could enforce the "roles" in the game. So that if someone moves out of turn, or in a way that isn't allowed it shocks them, or otherwise punishes them for it. Have the trap triggered when the players step onto a square. The only problem with this is you might have just one person "trapped" and the rest of the party going "Ha ha, so long sucker!"

It'd be interesting to come up with abilities for the various pieces. It should all play into your player's strengths. Like having Chargers able to play Bishops/Rooks who can cross the board and wipe something out. Knights be Rogues who can sneak past pieces, highly mobile, assassinate them. Wizards as Queens able to Teleport/Abrupt Jaunt/Blink as they need and blast things within 8 directions...

[Qc Storm]

I was thinking about something similar just a few days ago. I hope this thread will help.

Should players be allowed to use magic items? Do they keep their abilities? In my case, Knight's Challenge (Test of Mettle) could be a big problem. Could a flanking rogue sneak attack? Do wizards get spells?

It has a lot of potential but could also backfire pretty heavily.

[Yael]

If you don't mind not using the opposites you've planned, you could try the chess pieces from Dragon Magazine #358.

[Spuddles]

I would maybe look through some monster manuals or look into the rules about class levels on orcs & goblins before you start making up rule systems if your only problem is "the two monsters I chronically use out of few hundred or so available bore me".

[Fyrehauwk]

@ Arcuturusv I love the idea of the rook/bishop being able to charge with their long movement. Brilliant. And @ spuddles, I'm not doing this because of lack of creativity when deciding monsters, but I like it when the battle itself feels different. I recently did a zero g encounter where my players were only able to get around via manipulation and contortion of their bodies, kinda like sky diving. We're an old group so its a challenge to try new things.
@qc storm, I was going to restrict some spell use as I know how a wizard with the right spells would soil his trousers with glee at targets who are confined by movement.

Is dragon magazine on the srd? Don't have any of the books