Rococo was designed by Peter Aronson and David Howe in 2002. It belongs to the same family as Ultima, but it is a game in its own right, reworked to favour attack over defence. As in Ultima, almost every piece has its own alien way of removing enemy pieces, and one move may remove several at once. Two things set Rococo apart: the board is 10x10 with a special outer ring, and you win by capturing the enemy King rather than by checkmating it.
| Piece | Move | Capture |
|---|---|---|
| Cannon Pawn | one square, or a hop | by hopping over a neighbour onto the enemy just beyond |
| Advancer | like a Queen | the enemy it stops right in front of |
| Withdrawer | like a Queen | the adjacent piece it moves directly away from |
| Long Leaper | like a Queen | by leaping over enemies, as many as the line allows |
| Swapper | like a Queen | trades places with any piece, or destroys a neighbour and itself |
| Chameleon | like a Queen | each enemy by that enemy's own method |
| Immobilizer | like a Queen | never captures - it paralyses instead |
| King | one square | by displacement, like a chess King |
Every piece except the Cannon Pawn and the King moves like a Queen: any distance along a rank, a file or a diagonal, over empty squares only, and never onto an occupied square. No piece may jump over another - the Long Leaper and the Cannon Pawn do, but only as part of their capture.
The board is 10x10. The inner 8x8 is the playing area; the 36 squares of the outer ring, shown darker in the game, are edge squares. A piece may only pass over or stop on an edge square when doing so is needed to make a capture - and then it must cross as few edge squares as possible. A move that captures nothing may never touch the ring. This idea, borrowed from Jumping Chess, stops pieces from sheltering along the rim.
A Swapper's exchange counts as a capture here, so a Swapper may swap with a piece standing on the ring.
Each player has 8 Cannon Pawns on the second rank and, behind them: Immobilizer, Withdrawer, Long Leaper, King, Chameleon, Long Leaper, Advancer, Swapper. Both armies are set up in the same order, facing each other. White moves first.
A Cannon Pawn moves without capturing in two ways: one step in any direction, or a hop over an adjacent piece of either colour onto the empty square directly beyond it. It captures the same way it hops: it jumps over an adjacent piece - the mount, friend or foe - and lands on an enemy standing immediately beyond, taking its place.
A Cannon Pawn that reaches, by a move of its own, the rank where the enemy King started (or the edge rank beyond it) may promote to any friendly piece that has been captured and is off the board - anything but another Cannon Pawn. Promotion is optional.
The Advancer moves like a Queen and captures by approach: if it stops directly in front of an enemy piece, that is, if the next square in its direction of travel holds an enemy, that enemy is removed. The capture is part of the move and is not optional - an Advancer cannot stop next to an enemy in its line of travel and spare it.
The Withdrawer captures by retreat: standing next to an enemy piece, it moves any distance directly away from it and takes it. Only the piece it backs away from is captured, and only if it was already adjacent before the move. Like the Advancer's, this capture is compulsory.
The Long Leaper moves like a Queen but may jump over an enemy piece and capture it, provided the square immediately behind that piece is free. It may then carry on in the same direction and take further enemies on the same conditions, before landing on any free square beyond. It may never jump a friendly piece, nor two enemies standing side by side.
The Swapper moves like a Queen without capturing, or it may trade places with any piece, friendly or enemy, that stands a clear Queen's move away. It can also destroy an adjacent enemy piece and itself at the same time, by mutual destruction - a move it cannot make while immobilized.
The Chameleon moves like a Queen and captures each enemy by that enemy's own method: it approaches Advancers, withdraws from Withdrawers, leaps over Long Leapers, hops a mount onto Cannon Pawns, swaps with (or mutually destroys) Swappers, and takes an adjacent enemy King by moving onto it. Several of these may be combined in a single move: leaping over a Long Leaper can, in the same move, take a Withdrawer left behind and an Advancer reached at the end.
A Chameleon freezes an enemy Immobilizer, and is frozen by it in return, but can never capture one - and it cannot capture another Chameleon.
The Immobilizer never captures. Every enemy piece on one of the eight squares around it is frozen and cannot move. Two facing Immobilizers paralyse each other. A frozen piece other than a King may still remove itself from the board, which counts as its move - usually to open a line. The Immobilizer may never enter an edge square by its own move, though it may be swapped onto one.
The King moves one square in any direction and captures by displacement, like a chess King. There is no check and no checkmate: a King may walk into danger and may stand next to the enemy King. It may only enter an edge square to capture a piece standing there.
You win by capturing the enemy King. A player who cannot make a legal move loses, and so does a player who brings about a threefold repetition.