Gungi (From HxH)

Greetings! Have you ever want a game like chess, but...SPICER? Look no further, internet adventurer. Introducing Gungi, a variant of chess involving THE THIRD DIMENSION.

Now here you may point out that standard chess too involves a dimension of depth. This is true, but despite being 3D, chess pieces can only move on the x and y axises. This injustice is rectified in Gungi, where pieces can stack on top of one another, and gain range for doing so!

I can sense you quaking with excitement already. But allow me to stimulate your exhilaration gland further by revealing a second twist: in Gungi, rather than being stuck with one symmetrical starting position, both players decide how their pieces are placed at the start of the game. Say goodbye to repetition! A new age of strategy boardgaming is upon us.

Ready--no, aching--to play? Surely at this point it would be hard not to be. Wait no longer, and read up on the full rules here!

Step 1: Making the Board

A Gungi board is, perhaps inconveniently, made up of a 9x9 grid of squares. If you’re looking for a low-effort way to play, I would recommend either using a Shogi board, or adding 17 squares to a chess board using paper, which is a little scuffed, but certainly playable.

On the other end of the spectrum, if you are a highly enterprising e-maker who owns a laser cutter, please use the attached SVG file on a 10’’ x 10’’ slice of project board to create a professional looking, maybe even slightly dapper, Gungi board (pictured above, my apoligizes for the low image quality).

Step 2: Making the Pieces

Making the Pieces: Gungi requires a total of 24 stackable pieces, 12 in one color, 12 in another. In addition, there are 5 different types of pieces. Refer to the image of the painted pieces below if you would like a reference for what a complete set looks like.

On the low budget end, I would recommend adding squares of masking tape to Othello pieces, and then using pen or marker to draw the required pieces and range numbers (as detailed in the rules document) on to these squares (pictured above).

Note how which way the Othello pieces are flipped determines their team. Ignore the slight variance between some of the symbols: this is an artifact of earlier versions with more pieces.

On the high budget, diamond studded bathtub end, you could use a 3D printer and the attached STL file to create the ludicrously fancy plastic pieces you see above!

Goodness, how dazzling. But, if you own both a 3D printer AND and a laser cutter, you can take it EVEN FURTHER by using the attached SVG file to create stencils. Then, you can paint your pieces!

Conclusion: Once you’ve read up on the rules, made your pieces, and made your board, you’re ready to go! Happy Gunging, and thank you for taking the time to look at our project!

Inspiration: As you may have already guessed, Gungi is based off of a fictitious game of the same name from the manga and anime Hunter x Hunter. To our knowledge, there is no official ruleset for this game, so we invented our own. As you may have noticed, there are many discrepancies between the mechanics of Gungi in Hunter x Hunter and the mechanics of Gungi according to our ruleset; we prioritized playability over accuracy to the original. However, many of the the main ideas, like the players setting up their side, and the pieces being able to stack, do remain. Hopefully, this is enough to give the feeling that you are playing the original game.