Games of the Discworld
The fictional universe of the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett features a number of invented games, some of which have gone on to spawn real-world variants.
Many players consider the assassin to be moving "underneath" the actual board, ready to pop out when they have reached their intended destination.
The acknowledged master of the game in the books is Lord Havelock Vetinari, Provost of Assassins and Patrician of Ankh-Morpork.
According to the Companion, some Discworld scholars believe that Stealth Chess is the original form of chess in their world; this belief is corroborated by the in-world discovery, in a tomb in Muntab, of a preserved corpse with an 8×10 board embedded in its skull and a pawn hammered up each nostril.
Cripple Mr. Onion was originally a fictional card game played by characters in the novels Wyrd Sisters, Reaper Man, Witches Abroad, Men at Arms, Wintersmith and Lords and Ladies.
A game called "Shibo Yangcong-San" (derived from Japanese 死亡 shibō, "death;" Chinese 洋蔥 yángcōng, "onion;" and the Japanese honorific さん -san) appears in Interesting Times as a tile game played in the Agatean Empire.
Thud is a board game devised by Trevor Truran and first published in 2002, inspired by the Discworld novels rather than originating in them.
It bears a strong resemblance to the ancient Norse games of Hnefatafl and Tablut but has been changed to be less one-sided.
However, in the televisual adaptation of Going Postal, a Thud board was depicted as resembling a typical square chessboard.
in 2005 led to a special Koom Valley edition of the game published by Mongoose Games and featuring a new "Koom Valley" variant inspired by the plot of the novel (see below), and using the book's cover artwork, drawn by Paul Kidby.
[3] Terry Pratchett devised a fictional history of how Thud was invented similar to the Shahnama theory of the origins of chess.
Upon realising this would equate to more than all the gold on the Disc, the king got angry and threatened to kill the dwarf who was "too drhg'hgin clever by half".
The inventor then hastily changed his reward to 'as much gold as he could carry', to which the king agreed before breaking one of his arms.
The Thudstone is placed on the centre square of the board, where it remains for the entire game and may not be moved onto or through.
The players should then swap sides to play another round, and the sum of their final scores for the two battles determines the overall victor.
A good tactic therefore is to be prepared to sacrifice a few dwarfs to get in the way and slow down any trolls that are advancing into dangerous positions.
Movement is the same as Classic Thud except that trolls may now move up to 3 spaces in any direction (horizontal, vertical or diagonal).
