Stigia

Well, the first thing you need to do is clarify which pieces are Mortals and which are Charons, because your instructions are conflicted on this. First you say each player has 4 Mortals and six Charons, but then your diagram shows 6 Mortals and 4 Charons. You then say Mortals cannot be on red squares, but your diagrams show 4 of each players Mortals starting on red squares.

So at first I though it was a simple labeling error in the beginning (i.e. you reversed the names in the very beginning), but you then when you give an example of a "push" killing a Mortal, it is indeed the piece you originally identified as a Mortal being killed. And then when you describe how a Charon moves, you show a piece that looks like neither your original Mortal or Charon! Finally, when you show how a Mortal moves, you show the piece that you originally identified as a Charon.

The game sounds like it might be interesting, but you need to work out these labelling issues. At this point, I honestly don't know which is which.

Jeff K.

I've always seen it written as "Stygia", but I've never seen a game by that name. Sort of strange, since it's such a good name.

As to your rules, I also noticed that in your description of the Charon, you have the following statements:

"Your pieces can pass over any of the Charons. If a Charon is occupying a red square, your Mortal can pass over it."

and then:

"Your Opponent's pieces cannot pass over any of your Charons. They can block them. "

I'm guessing you meant for this to mean that a player's own pieces can pass over each other, but a player can only pass over another mortal, and not an opposing Charon, which is in direct contradition to your later descriptions of mortals.

Your implementation of the Ko rule (i.e. not being able to push a player into the same square twice in a row) still allows players to take back the moves of their opponents. Mortal A pushes Mortal B, who, according to your current rules, can push Mortal A right back, but can't be pushed in the same way in response. Is this correct? If so, a mortal piece would ony be able to decisively push another mortal by pushing them into a red square. Is this your intention?

Lastly, you've got strategy hints sprinkled at random throughout the rules. My advice would be to gather these hints and tips together, and present them all at once in a section dedicated to that. When reading about the basic movement, players won't be in the proper mindset to absorb tactical niceties, and when looking for tips on good play, players won't want to wade through the basic rules to sift these pointers out.

I think this is an abstract with some potential, but you need to review your written rules, and then re-release them.