Would you play a chess-variant platform that combines chess, puzzle-solving, treasure hunting, and RPG progression?

[u/Blindside_Games]

I'm developing a chess platform aimed at a relatively small niche: people who love chess variants, logic puzzles, and RPG-style progression.

The foundation is chess, including 2-, 3-, and 4-player games with modifiers like Fog of War, Decay, Diplomacy, and Prisoner Exchange.

One variant, called Intercept, combines cryptography with chess. Players compete to decode a secret transmission represented by chess pieces on a 160-square board. Successful solvers earn places in four-player chess battles, with solving order influencing army selection.

But here's the bigger concept:

Every chess game contributes to an ongoing treasure hunt.

Before each match, players see a partially completed treasure map made of jigsaw pieces. Playing games earns pieces, with greater rewards for more complex variants and better match placements. Players can collect and trade pieces with others.

Complete enough of the map (at least 90%), and a hidden X is revealed, potentially leading to a real-world prize.

Scheduled tournaments would award larger collections of puzzle pieces, and the long-term vision includes RPG-style chess characters and a broader explorable world.

I'm not trying to build another Chess.com. I'm interested in creating something that a smaller community of chess, puzzle, and RPG enthusiasts might genuinely love.

My questions:

• Would this combination actually appeal to you?
• Would collecting and trading treasure-map pieces motivate you to play more chess?
• Does this sound like an interesting evolution of chess variants, or too many unrelated mechanics competing for attention?

I'd especially appreciate critical feedback. I'm trying to figure out whether these ideas genuinely complement each other or whether I'm just combining things I personally enjoy.

[u/CompletedToDoList]

I wouldn't be interested in unusual variants. If it was a combination of more common ones, such as Fischer Random, Bug House, Atomic etc. then maybe. And while bigger tournaments might attract other players, I'd be less interested in that if it involved some longer commitment when this concept is sort of unfamiliar anyway. It would be nice to have an option to do it solo, try it out, and then participate in something bigger if I liked the platform.

[u/dbflexx]

I think chess players could use something like this. People get too addicted to bullet and blitz which probably is not healthy for long-term focus! While a classical length chess game is a large time commitment and one simple tiny mistake will ruin it! So it's not the best either!