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May 16, 2020
From:
Boston
Age:
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Re: Dead Stones. A community project.
Posted:
Oct 27, 2026, 2:11 PM
Nice thanks rainwolf! I just put out a couple turn based invites.
I just pushed out a new variant called “corpse-pente” and would love some feedback. It is inspired by the dead stone discussion here and kind of treats dead stones like a 3rd player. See below for rules. I’m not sure that this necessarily balances the game. More that it kind of adds complexity. I’m curious if you all feel this mode still has a strong p1 advantage.
And yes, I assume the code is originally from Mark Mammal from a long time ago and has been maintained by rainwolf. I was able to fork the code and play around with it because the pente site is now open source, which is pretty cool. The code is mostly meant for demo purposes and is handy for quickly testing out new mechanics. Let me know what you guys think!
“Corpse-Pente rules Corpse-Pente is just like regular Pente, except for one twist: when you capture a pair, the two captured stones aren't removed from the board -- they're replaced with two red "corpse" stones.
Corpse stones can't be used by either player to form a line of five -- they block, the same as a wall. But they CAN be used to capture against: a corpse stands in as a flank for either color. So a red corpse - black - black - white pattern captures the black pair the moment white completes it, exactly as if the corpse were another white stone.
Corpse stones can themselves be cleaned up. However they end up sandwiched -- even by one black and one white stone -- the two corpses are removed from the board. That doesn't count as a capture for either player.
Everything else is standard Pente: captures still win the game at 10.”
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May 16, 2020
From:
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Age:
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Re: Dead Stones. A community project.
Posted:
Oct 27, 2026, 3:19 PM
I realized that being able to use corpses as walls for captures was a bit different than the official 3 player version of pente. Just updated to more closely follow the original 3 player mechanics. Just dropped a v2 with tweaked rules: “Corpse-Pente v2”.
“Corpse-Pente v2 rules Corpse-Pente v2 changes one thing from the original: a corpse can no longer stand in as a flank. To capture, both slices of bread in the sandwich have to be the same color -- your own color, exactly like regular Pente.
What's new is the middle. The two stones being sandwiched no longer have to match each other. So black - red - white - black is a valid capture for black, even though the two middle stones are different: one corpse, one white.
Only real stones count toward your capture total -- the red ones don't. In that example, black captures exactly one stone (the white one), not two. A corpse caught in a sandwich like this is simply swept off the board for free. Keep track in intervals of one, not always two.
Everything else is standard Pente: captures still win the game at 10.”
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Re: Dead Stones. A community project.
Posted:
Oct 27, 2026, 3:53 PM
Sorry for the spam. I just wanted to pitch why I like these concepts more than the previously pitched ideas, is because I feel like the concept is more simple and easier to explain. Whereas enabling dead stones and only having them available at specific move numbers feels unintuitive to me. Although I do admit this variant totally changes the game and doesn’t really preserve existing pente opening structure which I image yall won’t like.
Also another name for this version could be blood-pente which is kind of fun. Okay thanks, that’s all from me for now.
Message was edited by: noahred16 at Oct 27, 2026, 3:27 PM
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Mar 4, 2007
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Re: Dead Stones. A community project.
Posted:
Oct 27, 2026, 5:50 PM
Thanks Rainwolf and Noah! You guys are awesome.
Its a good interesting viable variant. Doesnt seem to hit the goals of preserving the original feeling of pente. But doesnt mean it doesnt have a place in the variants.
I get that its unintuitive about windows of when can use. But the thing is, the opening needs to have a natural flow to plot against. And the end game shouldn't use it as cheap emergency button. It should be for mid game. But, what is mid game. How long is a game.
Master vs novice is 13 moves. Average
Master vs Master is 18 to 24 moves. Average
Moves Each.
So, in those 2 scenarios, the mid game is in 2 different move sectors. Is why i had with chatgpt proposed two different windows.
Does it make sense how i explained or?
Scire hostis animum - Intelligere ludum - Nosce te ipsum - Prima moventur conciliat - Nolite errare
Posts:
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Re: Dead Stones. A community project.
Posted:
Oct 27, 2026, 5:57 PM
I mean, the 2 windows could be split into 2 different versions. Novice, and masters. Novice being earlier window, and masters being the later window.
I think, ultimately, we need to actually all face each other in some serious main lines, to determine the average move numbers where it makes the most sense. So I look forward to rainwolfs online multiplayer testing sand box model. With chat feature.
Thats when we can get some better results and stronger consensus I think.
Scire hostis animum - Intelligere ludum - Nosce te ipsum - Prima moventur conciliat - Nolite errare
