The Only Son Amongst The Daughters Of Eros

Being a Tactician wasn't an easy role. It was like the role of a coach in a soccer game where every loss was deemed their fault due to a wrong tactical approach.

However, unlike a normal coach who ordered the players in the sidelines, a Tactician led the team in both offence and defence.

Therefore, training both the body and the mind was the best way to grow and learn as a Tactician. This was why PXP was created.

Player X Player was a strategic board game designed to test a player's Tactician skill. The game mirrored dungeon-raiding dynamics, pitting two players against each other in a competitive simulation of dungeon combat.

The board wasn't just a normal board. It was imbued with Divinity to make every move and character feel alive.

The board layout was designed in a grid-based "dungeon" board divided into Quest Lobbies and corridors that led to Quest Lobbies.

There were also tiles which featured traps, treasure chests, or the usual Dungeon hazards.

The game began with each player starting in their respective home base. A player controlled five unique pieces each, representing roles in a traditional Dungeon Squad: the Tactician, the Ranger, the Vanguard, the Support and the Courier.

To activate the movements of any piece, players were also handed action cards that granted unique skills, traps, or environmental effects.

The goal of the game was to successfully take down all the opposing player's pieces, or the Tactician piece which was the most valuable. One could also win by securing the most Dungeon Points through completing objectives like: Activating treasures, defusing traps, and controlling key zones on the board.

There were various gameplay phases, starting from the Setup Phase with Players placing their pieces on their side of the board. Then, once that's done, the Divinity imbued in the board glows as it begins to build the Dungeon, with that; hazards, treasures, and traps are randomly generated.

The next phase involved them setting up their tactics, each player secretly chooses and programs their pieces moves (up to 2 per piece).

The moves included attack, defend, advance, retreat, or special skill.

Then the Action Phase begins where moves are revealed and executed in order of each piece's initiative score. Players can react using reaction cards if they have any.

At random intervals, Dungeon Event Phases such as collapsing tiles, monster spawns, or dungeon debuffs, affect the board.

Moving the pieces required ground knowledge of what each piece did.

Tactician: Even though they are the most valuable piece, they remain in front with the Ranger, although they are heavily protected by the team. They command allies to act out of turn or lay traps.

If defeated, the team loses

Ranger: The Ranger piece is the third most important piece as without it, the player can't make any offensive moves and will continue to retreat until they're out of the board. The Ranger piece performs high mobility and ranged attacks, and can break enemy formations.

Support: The fourth most important piece. It restores health and boosts damage or defense.

Vanguard: Second most important piece. Since the Vanguard piece locks enemy movement, absorbs damage, and protects the rest of the team, if it's taken, it allows attacks to get through and cause high damages on the player's team.

Courier: The least important piece. It only interacts with objectives and provides crucial utilities.

The victory conditions were, either win by; Eliminating the enemy Tactician or Achieving a set number of Dungeon Points through objectives.

Special information: There are also some advanced mechanics created by the Divinity to make the tactical board game more interesting. Some of them were:

Fog of War: Certain areas of the board remain hidden until explored.

Dynamic Board: The dungeon can shift as players activate traps or events, changing the layout mid-game.

Synergy Skills: Pieces adjacent to each other can perform powerful combo moves.

With PXP, Tacticians or Tacticians-to-be's could learn the art of strategic foresight with adaptability. And Aeric knew that he could really use the knowledge.

Especially when he found out that there were XP to gain as well!

"Have you played PXP before, Aeric?" Alzera asked, settling in.

"Not yet," Aeric replied, looking at the board with intrigue. "But I've heard of it."

"Well, think of it as your traditional Dungeon Raid, and the other team is a group of very intelligent monsters. Just do what you would usually do. Plan, attack, protect, heal and buff. Follow the rules and we'd see who between us has the better tactic."

The rest of the team sat in anticipation on the bench close to them. "Where are those bets guys?" Bel said playfully, holding a wooden box with two spaces.

Kael, Ryn and Delva dropped some silver pieces into separate parts of the box.

Begin!

Aeric narrowed his eyes at the Dungeon board. This Dungeon was very different from normal. It featured narrow corridors, a few open chambers, and traps scattered throughout.

There was also a glowing Treasure Chest and a Control Zone lying in the central chamber, while hidden traps blocked alternate routes. Indeed it was more sophisticated than the traditional Dungeon which simply had corridors and Quest Lobbies.

Although there were many Dungeons with similar features.

Aeric once again, activated his sixth sense, the one he now liked to call the 'Gamer's Perspective.' With this, he sat back on his gamer chair in his bedroom and viewed the Dungeon Board like it was just another Dungeon raiding game.

Then, he made his first move; positioning his squad. Aeric knew that Alzera was a go-getter kind of person, and so he positioned his squad defensively. Even though the Tactician was up close, he placed the Vanguard a bit deeper to be close to it, and the Courier a bit further, giving the usual docile piece some defensive duties.

Alzera on the other hand, made an even wilder move that surprised Aeric. She split her squad. She sent the Ranger and Courier rushing toward the Treasure Chest, while her Vanguard and Support formed a shield for her Tactician.

Even though Aeric was surprised, he saw her play here. She was trying to get a quick start as if she opened that Treasure Chest, she'll get one Dungeon Point.

In real Dungeons, Treasure Chests usually contained weapons, amplifying elixirs, Divinity stones and real gold pieces. They were extremely rare but very powerful.

Aeric had to stop her, but he also had to maintain his strategy at the same time. He moved his Ranger piece cautiously into the central chamber, spotting Alzera's advancing Ranger.

However, the experienced Tactician had used the advancing Ranger as a diversion, knowing that Aeric or anyone with common sense would think that the Ranger would be the one opening the Chest.

Not the case here unfortunately. It was her Courier piece, and it had already started unlocking it. If uninterrupted, Alzera was about to get her first point.

"Ehh, she's got you there, young Prince!" Kael said out of excitement.

Aeric skimmed through his action cards and pulled out a trap card. He had pondered whether it was wise to concede the one point or spend a valuable action card in stopping her.

An overthinker would believe conceding was a good move, and save the valuable action card for later. But there was no guarantee there would be a better time to use that card than now. Your next read awaits at empire

And, Alzera was a top Tactician. Allowing her to get an early lead meant a boost of confidence and a clean sweep.

So, Aeric sent his Courier piece and placed a fake Chest trap that instantly replaced the real one with a fake.

Alzera smirked, trying to figure out what trap he had used. "Can you tell me what kind of trap you set?"

Aeric shrugged. "Then it wouldn't be much of a trap now, would it?"

Her Courier successfully opened the chest, but rather than +1 point, it got a burst of sting that exploded in its face.

"Ha! Ha! Ha!" Kael laughed. "The Treasure Chest farted!"

Ryn looked at Kael. "Heavens, big guy. Calm down."

Alzera quickly retreated, moving her Courier backwards instead of forward, with the Ranger still too deep. She squeezes her lips and decides that in this situation, attack was the best defence.

Aeric closed in on her Ranger with his, and she sent an arrow shot, wounding his Ranger.

Aeric knows Alzera is trying to buy time for her squad to heal the Courier, so the move to make was to bring his Vanguard piece into the midst, spending the action card on it rather than his Ranger.

Alzera had to stop the approaching two on one, so she advanced her Ranger to drive Aeric's Ranger out of the central chamber.

The Ranger fired a piercing shot, hitting Aeric's Ranger once again, and Aeric's plan of a two on one fell short, forcing him to retreat the piece be healed by his Support.

Now both him and Alzera needed time for the Support to heal a squad member. But only one person had the upper hand, because for Alzera, it was her Courier who was out of the game for a while, and Couriers were the least important pieces.

But with Aeric's Ranger out, he would not be able to muster an attacks for a short time. And would have to keep retreating until the Ranger was healed, or he left the board completely, thereby making Alzera the winner.

Game was on.