A few minutes after I posted a message containing a generic reference to computer programs, one of my chess opponents berated me for accusing him of using computer help . . . sounds like a guilty conscience working overtime!

here are some links

http://www.bkgm.com/variants/DominoBackgammon.html

http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Games/Board_Games/Serious_Backgammon.html

alanback: I'm not convinced, after all there are other games (all the chess variations) where this should also hold true but doesn't seem to.

Marfitalu: No, I never have. I wouldn't mind trying it. However, I predict that someone here would have a computer program that would play perfectly every time, would shoot to the top of the ratings and stay there.

Marfitalu: Actually it sounds boring, as there should be one and only one correct way to play, with one player (probably the first) always winning.

Speaking about Backgammon variants:
One of the most interesting for me(except Backgammon and Fevga) is Domino-Backgammon or whatever they call it.
What is this? A VERY interesting Backgammon variant where thinking carefully is necessary while it is very fun too....!

How is played: Instead of a dice you have 36 dominoes. Each domino has the numbers of every possible combination of 2 dice, that is 11,12,13,...65,66.
At the start of the game a dice is being used to determine the player who will play first.

But then we forget dice and use a domino to determine our move. The first player picks one domino of his choise(not random) for example 45(a better variant in my opinion is the one that doesn't allow a double choice at the beginning of the game) and plays 45 but he should have in his mind that the other player could pick whatever he wants! The dominoes that has been used can't be used again for that player, until we run out of dominoes(that means we played all our 36). Then the game continues with again having a new set of 36 dominoes from 11,12....to....66.

alanback: LOL.

playBunny: A worthy suggestion, I'll take it under advisement. Fax me a waiver of any copyright claim.

alanback: "Hybridgammon" sounds too generic (and also looks like a misspelling of Hi-bridge-gammon, which is a totally different and tremendously interesting game, if only I could remember the rules). How about "Nackback" and have the gammon bit assumed?

Fencer: I agree, since it would be a very different game.

While I'm in a creative mood, I thought of another variant that I call hybridgammon. The game would be played in sets of two matches with the players taking opposite colors; assuming the colors are black and white, then white always sets up in the backgammon position, while black sets up in the nackgammon position. Thus in each set each player will start one game in the nack position and one in the back position. Black always rolls first.

Another way to approach it would be to play, say, 7 point matches, with the players alternating starting positions. Again, black (nack) would roll first.

The player who starts in the backgammon setup would have a slight advantage in each game, so it's necessary to do something to balance the advantage.

playBunny: yep

mctrivia: Cool.

So "thirded" then.

playBunny: Don't get me wrong I think it is a great idea. Just a sugestion until the feature is added

mctrivia: "you can always type it in yourself"

That's entirely the point of the request. You can't always type it yourself. It's too easy to forget. I started doing that but making it a habit was just not working. LOL. I have trouble enough remembering to decide whether to double before I hit the Roll Dice link.

rabbitoid: you can always type it in yourself or cut and paste the address and use the html link code to make a link.

rabbitoid: That's been asked before and again I'll second it. It's surely an easy addition (eh, Fencer? ) and would be very useful.

could the messages have the move number, or even better a link to the position?
when I comment something like "now THAT was a stupid move of mine", (happens all the time) it's nice to know what it refers to

alanback: It would be much easier to create another variant with these rules.

I would like to see two changes that I think would make hypergammon more enjoyable.

1. Doubles are the same as any other roll, the player can use the number on each die only once.

2. Players may not form blocks, i.e., may not have two checkers on the same point.

that would be very helpful, thank you:)

ellieoop: Impossible. But there could be an asterisk, like on the Stairs pages.

i would like to see online green dot on the drop down box when you go to next game:)

redfrog: this has been discussed before in another fellowship and the answer was to create a second fellowship with the same name, or close to it, and move some of the team members there

Could it be possible to create multiple teams for 1 game type? There would be more involvement on the team tournaments if a fellowship could send more than 1 team.... has there been discussion on this topic?

Summertop: Also indicator for tournaments where you cannot sign, could be on the same column where the you are allready signed mark.

Summertop:

On the tournaments page, could there be an indicator next to the tournaments that I have already signed up, for at least one game. I know I can go to "My Profile" to see a list of tournies I have signed up for, but it would be nice to see it on the Tournaments page. That way, when I want to sign ujp for more tournies, I can easily see which ones I have already joined.

Fencer:

i am not sure if it hasnt be asked before already .. but ..

could it be possible to allow a fixed-width font ? (like courier) .. that would make it easier to 'draw' game boards or post tables to explain game situations on the boards

francescolr: Profile / Finished games.

didn;t show the bkr for that type of game

francescolr: you could search in the player list for the player then look at his profile

i was looking for a friend of mine to see if this guy position on the bkr but i had to go on each page to find him .. is it possible to add a feature wich by put the name of that person will show right away wich position is in that game ?

emmett: I like this idea.

رضا: I like the idea of team captains being provided with a more active role. After all, at this point, what is the merit in the position of team captain?
I think that inter-fellowship team challenges could get teams playing together more often, with solidarity and a common goal. It would help fellowships take more notice of each other, and that helps improve communication and good sportsmanship between us all.

Maybe we could run the inter-fellowship matches like stairs, limiting the number of challenges and defenses, so we can avoid teams being flooded with too many challenges.

emmett: I like the idea. I second that.

رضا: Exactly - by counting each inter-fellowship match as a single game. We would have to establish fellowship-team BKRs as we would with an individual. After all, a good team acts as one. Massive all-team tournaments make the process slow. By reducing the inter-fellowship matches to one-on-one affairs, then they can occur more often. The teams that are cohesive and that are here to play will be the competitive ones, comparable to other team sports. It would provide more people with a reason to take an interest in their fellowship teams. I think the fellowship bosses would like to see how their fellowship can compete with other fellowships (all in the name of friendly competition, naturally)...

emmett: And how would you do that? By counting each tournament won on the wole by the whole team, as a single game?

I like the idea of rating teams, but am not sure how it's possible.

If we gave each fellowship team for each game a team rating, like an individual player gets, then we could avoid a method which involves averaging the BKR's of the teams' members. That way competition could occur between fellowships without affecting individual ratings.

Is it feasible for us to find way to make Fellowship team matches more interesting? Part of the reason why I am drawn to fellowships is that most fellowships have teams for various games. I would like to see a rankings list for top teams in each game. Then, to make this competitive, to have each Team Captain able to challenge another Team Captain to a fellowship team match.

Jay61: I know plinco exists. But any time I have seen it has been a game of chance where you have prices for different positions. My idea was to make a line 4 game out of it.

It would be well to see in 'My Profile' page on the 'Tournaments' tab, for all tournaments' names together with the counts of 'Signed players'!

Thank you!

From the tournament page when I want to invite a member and send message, I got the following message at the top of current page in red:

"The player has been invited to the tournament."

It would be better to see the alias name in this sentence like:

"The player [member_alias_name] has been invited to the tournament."

Thank you.

mctrivia: Plinko does exist in real life. I've only ever seen it on The Price Is Right though.

playBunny: Yes, quite true.. :-)

rod03801: Thanks Rod. I'd forgotten about that as I've had it disabled for ever (I hate clutter on my main page). I switched it back on to have a look. Unfortunately TopMovers is a set of randomly ordered pages (from the point of view of finding a player) which would make it difficult to use for that purpose.

Or, if you don't want that information on your main page all the time, the address for the page is:

http://brainking.com/en/TopMovers

Either remember it or put it in your notepad. :-)

playBunny: That information really isn't thrown away right at midnight. If you click on "more..." where it shows the person who made the most moves yesterday, on your main page, it will show you the entire list of all rooks/knights who moved that day, with the number of moves they made. So you can view this information for 24 hours. (As long as in settings you have it checked off to show that information at the top of your page.)

Fencer: Cool.