"LOTR chess set" Topic
19 Posts
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USAFpilot | 25 Jul 2016 3:07 p.m. PST |
If you were to design a Lord of the Rings themed chess set what would the pieces look like? I've seen a few LOTR chess sets online in which the choice of piece design has me scratching my head. Like one set having dwarves for pawns. Dwarves played a small role in the war of the ring, which was mostly fought by men. Wouldn't it be closer to the story to have one side as orcs and the other as soldiers of Gondor identified by the symbol of the white tree on their shield? For the other pieces it gets more complicated. One reason is due to a lack of powerful female characters on both sides that could be queen. Maybe Galadriel, but she played a small part in the story and mainly as an advisor; and who would be her opposite on the other side? For this reason I'll abandon the notion that a female character needs to be queen. I'll come back to this. For King: Sauron, and Aragon for the good, as he is the rightful King of Arnor and Gondor. Bishops: for the bad, the Nazgul; and for good how about a couple of elves, Elrond and Galadriel. All being ring bearers. For knights: let's bring in a couple of Riders of Rohan and on the other side some orcs riding wargs. Rooks: trolls and now a couple of dwarves. Getting back to queen being the most powerful piece on the board, I'm thinking Gandalf the White set against the chief of the Nazgul, the Witchking. That's my vision. What is yours? |
robert piepenbrink | 25 Jul 2016 3:30 p.m. PST |
I don't think there's a One Right Way. Well, as a card-carrying Dwarf, I say one King is the Rightful King Under the Mountain, with the Vizier--you would say "Queen"--as Gandalf, good stout Dwarven warriors for pawns and so forth, and the other side should have The Great Goblin as King. But the Men, the Elves and the Halflings all see these matters differently. |
Herkybird | 25 Jul 2016 3:34 p.m. PST |
Yes, I think the set would best represent a single race within JRRT's world. |
Hafen von Schlockenberg | 25 Jul 2016 6:07 p.m. PST |
The obvious "Wicked Mother" figure in the story is Shelob. The problem,as you point out,is that in chess,the most powerful piece is the queen. |
Mute Bystander | 25 Jul 2016 6:37 p.m. PST |
Given the Appendices, I suspect there more than a minor role that the elves and dwarfs had in the war. Gandalf summed it nicely in the book post destruction of the Ring and pre-Scourging of the Shire. |
Mute Bystander | 25 Jul 2016 6:46 p.m. PST |
(Mis-spellings alert) Good side: King Aragorn Quenn Galadriel (a Ringbearer, one of "The Three" elven rings.) Bishops – Gandalf and Elrond Knights – Eomer and Theoden Rooks – Gimli and Legolas Pawns – Frodo, Samwise, Merry, Pippin, Eowyn, Faramir, Boromir, Bilbo As for the Evil side – let me think about that. |
langobard | 26 Jul 2016 3:50 a.m. PST |
This IS a lot harder than I thought it would be… Good side (or white, Mordor pretty much has black wrapped up) King: Aragorn Queen: I'm going for Arwen, who after all becomes his queen, and lets face it, if they are a latter day 'Beren and Luthien', then she must have done a lot we simply don't get to see. Bishops: Galadriel and Elrond Knights: Eomer and Faramir/Boromir Rooks: Legolas and Gimli Pawns: Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin. I'll have to think abit about some more. Black side: King: Sauron Queen: I'm going for the Mouth of Sauron. After all, we have repeated entries confirming that no one is aloud to say 'Sauron', and he just walks out and says "I am the Mouth of Sauron". This both underlines the corruption of the society, but also his ability to get very high in it! Bishops: Saruman would be one. Knights: Have to be black riders. Rooks: I rather like the idea of a couple of trolls :) Pawns: easily expendable orcs, what else? Be curious to see where this thread goes! |
arthur1815 | 26 Jul 2016 4:26 a.m. PST |
The mistake made by the creators of many themed chess sets, IMHO, is to make the Queen – the most powerful piece on the board and often very active – a female. Thus, in the Franklin Mint Waterloo Chess Set, Empress Marie Louise and Kitty Pakenham, Duchess of Wellington, are the Queens! IIRC, in the original Asian version of the game, that piece was called the General, so I would use the battlefield commander as that piece. So, on the one hand, Frodo and the Ring would be King, because lose him and Sauron wins, and either Gandalf or Aragorn would be the 'Queen'; on the other side, Sauron has to be the King, and I agree that the Mouth of Sauron should be 'Queen' or a Nazgul, perhaps? |
McLaddie | 26 Jul 2016 8:13 a.m. PST |
I don't know. For the Rooks/castles, I'd have the two towers, Sauron and Saruman's. Knights would have to be the black riders. I would think the queen would be the leader/king of the black riders. One of the bishops would be Saruman and one the Mouth of Sauron. For the the Good Side, I'd have the rooks represent the two main cities/citadels Minas Tirith and Helms Deep. Just some thoughts. |
Ottoathome | 26 Jul 2016 12:25 p.m. PST |
Arthur is correct about the "General" in the oriental origins of chess. But also remember that all chess sets are stylized and the exact likeness nowhere to be seen for both artistic and practical reasons. Most chess sets that are used to play with other than mere presentation pieces, have only a symbol for the King, Queen, and Bishop, a stylized head gear. Knights are the heads of horses and castles are towers or cylinders. But remember the castle itself was originally an elephant, and that was reduced to a tower representing the howdah on an Elephants back. most pawns are simple round balls. The other is that the bases are wide compared to the filials which denote the piece to give them stability, so they don't fall over if the table jiggles, or someone makes an incautious movement. Given this I would think a better set would be. White King- A ring with a chain through it on the tall pediment of a normal chess man. Black King- A hand outstretched with the fourth finger gut off, again on a pediement of a normal chess man. White Queen- A staff head with a jewel of grey stone in it representing Gandalf Black Queen A staff head with a jewel of white stone in it, representing Suaruman. White Bishops- A stylized tree, for the ents. Black Bishops- A stump with an axe in it for the Orcs. White Knights- A simple horse as in the standard chess set. Black knights- A simple horse as in the standard chess set, but with a shawl or shroud over it representing the black riders. White Castles- A small cottage on a pedestal, representing the homes of the shire, the apotheosis of good in the novel. Black Castles- A normal castle. Pawns-- No need to change them from the simple ball headed pieces of normal chess sets. Remember if you want to play with them you want interchangeability of styles and features and the different heights otherwise you will confuse the pieces too easily. |
Barin1 | 26 Jul 2016 12:58 p.m. PST |
well, there was quite a number of attempts already… link |
etotheipi | 26 Jul 2016 5:23 p.m. PST |
OK … let's talk about the king. The king is the central figure on the side. But it is not the most, or even a very powerful figure. In fact, it is a target and vulnerable. Good King: Frodo Evil King: Gollum I agree the queens need not be female, but they need to be powerful. And an active, not a theoretically powerful figure that doesn't have a kinetic part in the story Good Queen: Gandalf Evil Queen: Saruman The knight is a protector in symbolism and also in practice in chess. Plus, it moves "unpredictably" (not like other pieces) and moves from light to dark to light to dark Good Knights: Aragorn, Arwen Evil Knights: Isildur, The Witch-King of Angmar The Bishop is surprisingly far moving, and it always stays on it's light or dark squares, one each for each side. They run interference and obliquely influence play. Good Bishops: Boromir (Dark), Legolas (Light) Evil Bishops: Grima (Light), Shelob (Dark) The Rook is a sturdy, predictable piece. But it is a stalwart and an enabler. It drives action
Good Rooks: Tom Bombadil, Samwise Gamgi Evil Rooks: Two Nazgul Pawns are important, but not major drivers of the action Good Pawns: Gimli, Peregrin, Meriadoc, Eomir, Glorfindel, Faramir, Denethor, Elrond Evil Pawns: 3,872 Orcs! $.02 USD(me) … YMMV |
langobard | 26 Jul 2016 6:26 p.m. PST |
Evil Pawns: 3,872 Orcs! Oh, I like that idea :) |
USAFpilot | 27 Jul 2016 9:52 a.m. PST |
For ease of playability there needs to be symmetry to the pieces less you get confused in the middle of a game which piece is a bishop and which a pawn. In a traditional chess set all pawns look exactly the same; as do other pieces of the same type. So for each side there are only 6 distinct pieces: King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, Rook, Pawn which all represent certain type of people except the Rook which is sometimes called Castle and is usually depicted as a tower. And both sides pieces should look relatively the same except for color, black versus white. Definitely harder then initially thought. The book being written from the good guys perspective yields a large number of good characters to chose from but not so many evil humanoids especially women. Galadriel or Arwen both good ideas for White Queen except no opposite to play Black Queen. And as others have said the Queen should be more a symbol of power then womanhood. So that leaves me with Gandalf as one of the most powerful characters representing the forces of good countering one of the most powerful characters representing the forces of darkness, the Lord of the Nazgul (ie the Witchking of Angmar, chief of the Black Riders, One of the Nine). And the problem with Saraman is that he is dressed all white and kind of looks like Gandalf. For the rest of the chess pieces in keeping things mostly symmetric, I'll go with a theme of Gondor versus Mordor with pawns being men-at-arms. One side dressed in white, with blues and silver highlights and bearing the device of the White Tree on their shield; and the other side dressed in the livery of Mordor, black with the red eye painted on their shield. The Knights would be two Black Riders on black horses set opposite two white knights (of Dol Amroth) on white horses. The Rooks would be two black towers versus two white towers. I'm least sure of the Bishops; lots to chose from but symmetry may be a problem. Maybe figures that look similar to the pawns but of greater stature, representing senior officers. Thanks for the replies and all the ideas. Like someone said, no one right way; but most of the suggestions on this thread are far better then the LOTR chess sets I've seen. And nothing against dwarves or elves (and I'm familiar with the appendices) but the war of the ring was mostly fought by men thus ushering in the Fourth Age of ME, an age of men. Now if you want to talk a First Age chess set or one based on The Hobbit… |
etotheipi | 27 Jul 2016 3:02 p.m. PST |
For ease of playability there needs to be symmetry to the pieces less you get confused in the middle of a game which piece is a bishop and which a pawn. I've made a lot of chess sets from miniatures. The best way to take care of this is with the bases. Two solid colors and symbolic base shapes. Plus, if you know the story, you won't mix up a Gandalf the Grey with a Saruman the White. |
USAFpilot | 27 Jul 2016 3:35 p.m. PST |
Good point about the bases. I'd also make the bases higher for the more important pieces. During the war of the ring (the later half of LOTR), Gandalf the Grey becomes Gandalf the White. IMHO the two figures would look too much alike. (Even Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn mistook Gandalf for Saruman for a brief moment in Fangorn Forest.) |
etotheipi | 27 Jul 2016 5:08 p.m. PST |
Absolutely. Depending on the figures and the paintjobs, you could easily mistake Gandalf the White for Saruman the White. That's why colored bases helps. For pawns, I just give them a flat base. Rooks get a flat base with a plus on it (the ends of the crossing lines are flat). Bishops get an X (the end of the crossing lines are pointed). Knights get an odd shape. The Queen gets a plinth and the King gets a plinth on top of a regular base. You could use a square, triangle, circle, and plinth or really any other evocative shape set. One of the first mini chess sets I made was for SWMBO and one of her friends. SWMBO likes turtles, and her friend likes frogs, so I used the Eureka Pond Wars figures. They're all fairly similar figures, so the bases to id them were a must. Frogs are pretty easy to tell from turtles, but I still put them on lillypad (green) and water (blue) bases. |
Hafen von Schlockenberg | 28 Jul 2016 5:43 a.m. PST |
Remember,by the time of the war,he was Saruman of "Many Colors". You could try painting that. . . |
Ottoathome | 29 Jul 2016 11:43 p.m. PST |
So how much would you pay for such a set? |
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