[Kickstarter] The Check Deck: A Twist On Checkers

 I love gamehacks and optional home rules folks think up for their favorite boardgames. (For example, tossing all taxes and penalties into the center of the Monopoly board, then hoping you're the first to land on Free Parking for that jackpot!) A new gamehack I stumbled across on Kickstarter is "The Check Deck" -- a deck of 34 rule-breaking cards for Checkers. Similar to Knightmare Chess, The Check Deck adds an element of randomness to the otherwise straightforward game of Checkers.

At the beginning of the match, each player is dealt 7 cards at random from The Check Deck. Play then proceeds normally, with the exception that -- instead of moving -- a player can instead play one of the cards in his hand and follow those instructions for his turn. He may be allowed to treat any piece as if it were a King for that turn, jumping and capturing as many opponent pieces as possible. He might play a card allowing him to move two pieces that turn instead. Or he may swap the position of one of his pieces with that of one of his opponents. Freezing a piece in place, or removing any piece from play could also happen.

The Check Deck already hit its minuscule goal of $100 with 27 days left to go. Only $12 gets you a deck shipped free anywhere in the U.S. with delivery in November in time for Christmas. (Apparently all that's needed is funds for printing, as a prototype deck is featured on the Kickstarter page.) I can't remember the last time I broke out my Checkers board, but this sounds like a nifty addition to try out and toss into the gamebox for future diversions. For $12? Sure, king me!