Holochess, a.k.a. Dejarik: The Star Wars Chess Game

In all the original Star Wars trilogy, only one game makes an appearance - the enigmatic but tantalizing holographic chess-like game played by a frustrated Chewbacca and a feisty R2-D2.

Only watch the first 50-sec or so - sorry about the obnoxiousness after that.

What is Holochess?

There's not much to go by in this little scene - we see only three moves - and the film script and novelization are silent about even a name for the game. But fans have dived deep, created various rules and some mythology around the game, and it's now possible to play it. The extended universe provided the game with a name, Dejarik, as well as some details about each of the holomonsters that make an appearance.

Too bad they don't actually sell this game...

But if you want to play, you have to have a board to start, so I decided to make my own.

The Design

As with my Konane board, I've opted for a 450-mm by 450-mm black and white design to be transferred to a sheet of canvas for usability, easy storage, and durability.

I relied on two primary resources when considering my design: the clip from YouTube, above, and this teaser note from director J.J. Abrams for the upcoming Star Wars, Episode VII: The Force Awakens:

Sure looks like a hologame board to me.

I started with a simple black and white design, but it looks flat and uninteresting. It definitely does not evoke a sense of the game seen in the movie, so I toned down the white to a nice gray.

Plain board and gray spaces

Still looks flat, so I created a little brushed aluminum texture. But at this point, it still looks like a vectorized texture. To really make it shine, I switched to a square board design, added the texture and some gradients, then translated it to polar coordinates to make it circular again. (I used Gimp to translate to polar, i.e., make the board a circle, since Inkscape lacks this capability. The downside is that you lose the vectorization of the image. To make up for that, I use very high-res images, which substantially increase the file size. The raw square board .tif image I exported to translate in Gimp is >100Mb! Probably overkill, but it gets the job done.)

Simple texture and full texture square board

Now that's more like it! You may notice that there's no grid lines between the spaces on the board - this is easy to see around the center space. This is intentional - I can't see any such grids in the original boards in the movie or the Abrams image. It makes it feel more like a solid board made of aluminum, not a painted piece of plastic.

Final circular board with Aurebesh decoration

Next, I had to deal with text-like images on the keys around the board in the Abrams image. This is a bit of an enigma. These symbols are not recognizable Aurebesh - the letters used widely in the Star Wars universe. There's no good way that I can see to know their meaning. So, to add a flourish to the design, I added a border to the board, added these symbols and a little Aurebesh writing, and contained them in a slightly unbalanced symmetrical design around the board. The symmetrical imbalance is actually another nod to the original board design from the film - the keys and lights on the board don't seem to directly align with a balanced half of the board. It's a small thing, but it adds a nice flavor, I think.

Making the Board

The next step is to take the hi-res image, get it printed at ~18"x18" (turns out that in black & white, this is only a couple dollars at Kinko's), then transfer the image to canvas. But more about that in a later post...

Playing Holochess

Of course, even after the board is printed out, you still need rules and playing pieces to play. I mentioned that people have come up with their own rules and variations. To that end, I have borrowed from some of these, adapted them for playability (and simplicity) and have put them up on GitHub. [Not all the rules are fleshed out - this is a work in progress.]

For playing pieces, there are a couple of options. One, for at least 2 variations of the game, you could just use 1.5" checker pieces - they should fit quite comfortably on this board. Another option would be to print out your own pieces with images of the holomonsters seen in the movie. I, personally, decided to buy some minifigures of those monsters and adapt them for play. I'm not yet entirely sure they'll fit on the board, but I'll figure it out. Can't wait to play!

Accessing the Resources

The board, some resource files, and my house rules are available on GitHub under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. I consider this work fair use and substantially original work with full credit to the original creators and copyright owners of the various inspirational source works - but all the more reason to keep it under a NonCommercial license.

Star Wars, and all its associated content, is the sole and exclusive property of Lucasfilm Limited of Disney. Original game rules and resources as developed by Mike Kelly are the sole copyright of Mike Kelly, and original rules and resources as developed by Igor Barzilai are the sole copyright of Igor Barzilai - but I'd like to wish them many thanks for the inspiration.

Bibliography

As a little shout out to those resources I found along the way that go a little deeper into the mythology around holochess:

http://zeelay.free.fr/star-wars-artisanal/ - Igor Barzilai's website with original game rules and other interesting things. This is the game I want to try. It's based on the actual moves made in the movie and isn't overly complicated.

http://dhost.info/rissa/Holochess/ - Mike Kelly's Dejarik rules. Lots of fun mythology around the game and rules for 2 games. These are the rules you'll find first on google - so I made my own variations based on this concept.

https://samstarrett.wordpress.com/2009/03/07/dejarik-holochess-the-ultimate-star-wars-pastime/ - Some ideas for refining Mike Kelly's rules for Dejarik. Interesting, at least.

http://www.xiii.dk/ccccd/Casino.htm / http://www.xiii.dk/ccccd/ - Free printable designs for Pazaak, Dejarik, and Sabaac, and even some Imperial Credits! And loads of info about Star Wars, to boot.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Dejarik - Wookieepedia page on Dejarik with links to more info about the monster behind the holomonsters.

Konane

I've decided to design a board for playing the traditional Hawaiian game Konane. Traditionally, these boards are carved into stone or wood, but that turns out to be impractical for playing at home.

What is Konane?

Konane is a game that, at first, resembles checkers or draughts. However, it is more accurately described as a two player version of the pegging game solitaire. Pieces are jumped and removed until no more moves can be made. Rules for playing can be found on Wikipedia, from Cyningstan, and my own preferred house rules.

The Design

I first encountered Konane at the Polynesian Cultural Center in Oahu, Hawaii. In order to be able to play at home, I wanted to have a board that was both practical and evoked the simple traditional boards found in Hawaii.

I decided on a board that would comfortably fit on a 450mm x 450mm canvas - big enough to comfortably play on, but not so big to cover a whole table. At this size, a 10x10 board would also nicely work with standard Go stones as playing pieces.

A Full-Size 10x10 Konane Board

A konane board is usually carved out of stone or wood such that the playing surface is covered in pits like those on a mancala board. The pits on this design are textured to evoke a 3-d look on a 2-d surface. Furthermore, the pits alternate in orientation in order to allow a simple guide to the checkered placement of pieces to set up play.

The centerpiece of this board covers the center four pits. A traditional konane board is generally without decoration, however, marking the center pits makes it easier to start the game, and provides a little flourish to allude to the game's origins. I will not claim authenticity in these designs, only homage to traditional Hawaiian design elements such as the hibiscus flower and sea turtles.

The Centerpiece

Making the Board

I've made 10x10 and 6x6 pit versions of the board. The 6x6 version is sized to fit on a 11"x17" sheet of paper (or a standard A3 sheet).

The real intent, though, is to transfer the full board to a 18"x18" sheet of canvas in order to make a full size, yet portable playing surface. Maybe someday I'll actually get around to doing this...

Accessing the Resources

The full size, smaller size, and source files, as well as my house rules, are available on Github under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Jarmo: The Asymmetric Game of Tartar

Old school board games tend to be very symmetrical, so it's fun to find one that's not. Jarmo is traditionally considered to have been played by the grandson of Genghis Khan - suggesting that it is at least 800 years old.

Lines connecting the spaces on the board are not functionally the same for both players, and the connections are not exactly regular. This leads to an uncommon style of challenge with a familiar set of ground rules.

Check out ocastudios, which offers a free downloadable version of Jarmo, and its predecessor Jasir, with a full set of rules. An Android app version is also available on Google Play.

Games of the World

Just some of the cards and tiles and games from around the world.

There are seemingly limitless varieties of countless kinds of games that have been played throughout the world. Many of us, however, know only a handful of varieties of just a few games. Even worse, rule books and sites often only give just a few limited variations of the same games - poker, rummy, and Western chess if you live in the US.

All I want to do is try to open up the doors a bit to the bigger world of games that are out there, especially those that are traditional, regional, nearly forgotten, or otherwise unusual. I've added those resources that I have found interesting and useful in this pursuit. As I find more, or reach into the depths of those I've already found, this is where I will share.