When two pawns get gridlocked, roll a d4.
After that amount of rounds, they become red queens.
At the end of each player's turn, they have to select a red queen for moving.
*Optional rule: the player instead rolls a d20 and chooses from the number which red queen will move.
The selected red queen's direction is determined by a d8. if the move is not possible, roll again.
The red queen will move as far as possible in that direction, capturing the first piece in the path without capturing pawns.
At the start of each player's turn, any of their pawns that are adjacent to a red queen will be converted into a red queen.

[–] thinkercharmercoderfarmer@slrpnk.net 3 points 3 weeks ago

Ooh yeah. I was imagining a modified chess engine controlling the red team but I like the dice. Simpler and possible to play with a regular set + red checkers for the queens (and dice ofc). maybe for each deadlock, roll a die and on a nat 1 both convert? That way there's always a risk to leaving them alone. maybe the threshold starts at 1 and increases each turn they remain deadlocked.

For movement, each player rolls a die and moves the Nth queen, counting either up from a1 or down from h8, depending on which player is rolling. If the roll is higher than the number of queens, the farthest one moves. a d8 determines direction.

You could even do everything with just d6s, if that's all you have. 1-4 is cardinal directions, 5 is diagonally toward the center, 6 is diagonally away from the center. Or something like that.