Grandmaster is an interactive mystery graphic novel similar to those made by Tell Tale games. Players take on the role of "The King" a person trapped in a shopping complex by a mysterious voice using a strange mist. The complex is turned into a game of chess by the mist which each king must attempt to win to save the people in the complex, the trick being no one knows who anyone else is.
The complex is populated by three factions, Team Black, Team White and innocents. Innocents are people who are do not belong to either faction but can still be useful. Players may choose a side however they do not know who in the complex belongs to which faction. Because of this players must use logic and investigative skills to determine which piece players are and which faction they belong to before moving them to try and put the enemy king in checkmate. Cheating is allowed as long as the other player is not aware of it (AKA cannot prove that the player cheated) and the mysterious voice isn't aware of it. If either of these stop them cheating penalties are applied (if the opposing king realises the piece is lost, if the voice realises players lose their turn).
The player is free to move around to organise moves and interact with the pieces over the course of the day however each interaction takes time and at the end of each day they must return to their "position" on the board for the moves to take effect. Once the moves take effect the voice will give a commentary of the turn which will provide additional hints to help players infer information.
There are three ways the game ends. The player loses. The player wins or the player finds another way out of the situation.
Grandmaster is a game about logical inference and collecting information similar to popular traitor games such as Mafia and Resistance. It draws player into logic puzzles to help them derive information and solve the puzzle. This is made trickier by the fact the player can cheat if they aren't caught which will happen often in the early portions of the game where players will have trouble catching or being caught cheating either intentionally or accidentally by other players though they will be able to gather information based on the successes and failures of these moves mixed with the voices commentary. Underlying the tense tactical struggle both in the game of chess and the information game players may also learn more about the mysterious voice who has created the scenario and seek to unravel that mystery.
●New take on the common traitor mechanic
●Highly tactical
●Deep story with player generated twists based on decisions
●Strong potential for replay if a randomly generated system could be managed
