Are there any Portable Game Notation (PGN) experts out there?
What does it take to modify PGN so that it can capture games other than Chess (like Camelot)?

CHESS13440

INTRODUCTION
My chess variant is like Chess960 (or Fischer Random Chess) except that a General, Marshall, and Cardinal are substituted for a Rook, Bishop, and Knight.

PIECES
Chess 13440 uses a standard 8x8 chessboard.  Each player has a force of eight Pawns, five standard chess pieces (one King, one Queen, one Rook, one Bishop, and one Knight) and three variant chess pieces (one Cardinal = Bishop + Knight, one Marshall = Rook + Knight, and one General = Queen + Knight).

STARTING POSITION
The starting position for Chess13440 must meet the following rules:
1. White Pawns are placed on their orthodox home squares.
2. All remaining white pieces are placed on the first rank.
3. The white King is placed somewhere between the white Rook and the white Marshall.
4. The black pieces are placed equal-and-opposite to the white pieces.  For example, if white's King is placed on b1, then black's King is placed on b8.  Note that the King never starts on the a-file or the h-file, because there has to be room for a Rook or a Marshall.

PROCEDURES FOR CREATING THIS STARTING POSITION
This procedure generates any of 13,440 possible initial positions.
1. Randomly place the white General, white Queen, white Cardinal, white Bishop, and white Knight on squares of the first rank.
2. Randomly place the white Marshall on either the first or the third empty first rank square.
3. Place the white Rook on the third or the first empty first rank square (depending upon the result of the previous procedure.
4. Place the white King on the remaining empty first rank square.
5. Place all white and black Pawns on their usual squares.
6. Place Black’s pieces to exactly mirror White’s.

RULES FOR CASTLING
Chess13440 allows each player to castle once per game, a move by both the King and Rook, or the King and Marshall, in a single move.  After castling, the King and Rook’s (or Marshall’s) final positions are exactly the same positions as they would be in standard chess.  Thus, after a-side castling (notated as O-O-O and known as Queenside castling in orthodox chess), the King is on c (c1 for White and c8 for Black) and the Rook (or Marshall) is on d (d1 for White and d8 for Black).  After h-side castling (notated as O-O and known as Kingside castling in orthodox chess), the King is on g and the Rook (or Marshall) is on f.  Castling may only occur under the following conditions:
1. The King and the castling Rook (or Marshall) must not have moved before in the game.
2. All of the squares between and including the King's initial and final squares must not be under attack by any opposing piece.
3. All of the squares between the King's initial and final squares (including the final square), and all of the squares between the Rook's (or Marshall’s) initial and final squares (including the final square), must be vacant except for the King and castling Rook (or Marshall).

ChessVariant:

Regarding Pawns in the variant Protected Chess, I gave it some thought, but couldn't come up with anything that I thought was logical and playable and consistent with the other promotional piece abilities.

For instance, one thought I had was....

Pawn: Moves, captures, and promotes like a Pawn if unprotected.  Moves (straight ahead) but can't capture (diagonally) or promote if protected.

talen314:

Protected Chess--interesting idea!

Perhaps a modified version like.....

Queen: Moves like a General (Queen + Knight) if unprotected by a friendly piece. Moves like a Queen if protected by a friendly piece.
Rook: Moves like a Marshall (Rook + Knight) if unprotected. Moves like a Rook if protected.
Bishop: Moves like a Cardinal (Bishop + Knight) if unprotected.  Moves like a Bishop if protected.
Knight: Moves like a Cardinal (Bishop + Knight) if unprotected.  Moves like a Knight if protected.

This clever idea of pieces that assume different powers at different times is also present in the Chess Variant that I've lobbied for on this site -- Inheritance Chess: Pieces have inheritance powers.  Pieces of a given color on the same file inherit the movement powers of one another.  These powers do not stay with each piece for the entire game; the inherited powers are only inherited while the pieces are on the same file as one another.  Also, the rook pawns begin on their third rank, and castling and en passant capturing are not permitted.

ChessVariant: Hi, CV.  I thought I would mention to you the two chess variants that I am lobbying for, since I gather that you've had lots of experience with creating and playing variants.

Inheritance Chess
In this variant, the white rook pawns begin on the third rank and the black rook pawns begin on the sixth rank, castling is not permitted, en passant captures are not permitted, and, most importantly, pieces have inheritance powers.  Pieces of a given color on the same file inherit the movement powers of one another.  These powers do not stay with each piece for the entire game; the inherited powers are only inherited while the pieces are on the same file as one another.

The Lost Pawns
In this variant, white's pieces actually start on the 7th and 8th ranks, and black’s pieces start on the 1st and 2nd ranks, with the direction of the pieces remaining the same as with a standard chess game.  In other words, all pawns are just one square away from promotion.  Two-square pawn advances and en-passant captures are obviously not possible since all pawns start on their 7th ranks.

Both of these variants have been played on other sites, and users have found them to be a blast to play!  Hope they're given some implementation consideration on this site, someday.

Undertaker.:Yes, I think that's the point we're trying to make to rabbitoid, right?  That a winner is not declared if all of the games are not completed.

grenv: And likewise, if that were true, wouldn't a winner be declared in this tournament?
Camelot Brains

Perhaps it's of relatively minor importance, but when a player has earned enough points in a tournament so that his/her opponents cannot possibly catch him/her, he/she should be declared the winner, earn the brains award, etc., rather than having to wait for all of the games to eventually be completed, sometimes up to a year later. 

Just a fast mention to this discussion group (I’ve already suggested them to Fencer) of my three favorite chess variants--ones that I would like to see here, someday...

Alekhine Chess
Played on a 14x8 board, this variant includes three non-standard piece types: the Cardinal (Knight + Bishop), the Marshall (Knight + Rook), and the General (Knight + Bishop + Rook).

Inheritance Chess
In this variant, the white rook pawns begin on the third rank and the black rook pawns begin on the sixth rank, castling is not permitted, en passant captures are not permitted, and, most importantly, pieces have inheritance powers.  Pieces of a given color on the same file inherit the movement powers of one another.  These powers do not stay with each piece for the entire game; the inherited powers are only inherited while the pieces are on the same file as one another.

The Lost Pawns
In this variant, white's pieces actually start on the 7th and 8th ranks, and black’s pieces start on the 1st and 2nd ranks, with the direction of the pieces remaining the same as with a standard chess game.  In other words, all pawns are just one square away from promotion.  Two-square pawn advances and en-passant captures are obviously not possible since all pawns start on their 7th ranks.

I would like to see Camelot offered on BrainKing. Camelot is one of the finest abstract strategy board games ever invented.

Camelot is a tactically complex, yet easily learned and quickly played mixture of American Checkers (British Draughts) and Halma (Chinese Checkers). Camelot is played by two players on a board of 160 squares. Each player begins the game with 14 pieces: four Knights and ten Men. The pieces utilize three different move types: Plain Move (one square, any direction), Canter (leap over friendly pieces), and Jump (leap over and capture enemy pieces). Knights may combine Canters and Jumps in a single move. The game is won either by moving any two pieces into the opponent's Castle, or by capturing all of the opponent’s pieces.

Camelot's forerunner, Chivalry, was released by George Parker in 1887. In 1930, a few changes to the board and piece setup resulted in a name change to Camelot. Camelot's greatest popularity was in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. Camelot was discontinued in 1968, then reissued as Inside Moves in 1985, and finally discontinued again in 1986.

You can learn much more at http://www.worldcamelotfederation.com/