DISPATCH

Copyright (c) 2002 Chris (original game and concept)
Actual rule set - Joćo Pedro Neto

This game is played on a 13x13 square board, with the following setup:

 
DISPATCH - On each turn, each player dispatches a stone in an orthogonal direction starting from a friendly stone already on the board, as far as he likes provided it never encounters and non empty cell. 
When it stops it grows a pentomino, a tetromino, a trimino or a domino, provided those cells are empty.
MOVE EQUALIZER - The first dispatch may only grow a trimino.
PASS - A player may pass his turn.
CAPTURE - A group of stones with no liberty (i.e., none of the group stones is adjacent to an empty cell) are captured and removed from board.
GOAL - When both players pass, each player counts the number of stones he has on board, plus the empty cells inside his territory (i.e., empty cells where the adversary cannot dispatch stones). Wins the player with more points.
 
An example

Black tries to isolate the top right white stone. White, instead of protecting it, attacks the bottom right stone. He knows that if black insists on surrounding the other stone, he will dispatch another pentomino to the top-left and creates a huge winning influence on the bottom left area.

On the original rule set proposed by Chris, stones could dispatch orthogonally and diagonally, but just two types of structures: a 5 stone cross and a 5 stone X (or parts of them). The main problem with the game was that diagonal dispatches allowed too much liberty for territory invasion (in practice it was impossible to block them), and the game turned into a boring task of placing 5 stones each time, and when those were not available, occupy 4 cell spaces, then 3, and so on... But Chris' idea and game were too good to be dropped without a fight!

Removing diagonal dispatches was the key to the game playability. The insertion of pentomino allowed a wide playing range. The notion of capture (and the direct implication of using smaller minos), give the game a sense of Go, which is quite interesting in real play.

I wish to thank John Lawson and Bill Taylor for their suggestions and games played.