Villager Checkers
- By
Play checkers against villagers! Their skill scales with trading level, from a Novice who walks into every trap to a Master who converts won endings.
Villager Checkers
That Master-level librarian drives a hard bargain. Can they see a two-for-one shot coming?
Open any villager's trade screen and hit Play Checkers. A full board opens right there - no items, no commands, no setup. You play red and move first.
How strong are they?
A villager's trading level sets its checkers strength - and each level thinks in a genuinely different way, not just deeper:
| Villager level | Checkers strength |
|---|---|
| Novice | Walks into forced-capture traps |
| Apprentice | Sees the traps, misses the shots |
| Journeyman | Sets and finds 2-for-1 shots |
| Expert | Understands the endgame - takes the opposition |
| Master | Converts won endings; doesn't blunder |
Because capture is compulsory, checkers is a game of shots - offering a piece so the forced recapture wins more back. The ladder is built on exactly that: how far into a forced chain the villager can see.
How to play
- Click a piece, then click one of its highlighted squares.
- Capture is compulsory. The pieces that can take are outlined; clicking anything else flashes red.
- Multi-jumps are entered one hop at a time; a chain with no branch plays itself. Right-click cancels.
- Full American/English draughts rules, including a man crowned mid-jump stops there.
- Having no legal move loses. Draws come from the 40-move quiet rule and threefold repetition.
- Resign with the button or close the board. Walking >16 blocks away, the villager dying, or disconnecting abandons the game.
- No stakes, no rewards - just for fun.
Under the hood
- From-scratch pure-Java engine; move generation verified against published perft counts.
- Negamax + alpha-beta + iterative deepening with a per-level capture horizon.
- Server-authoritative; the engine thinks on a background thread.
- Pieces are drawn procedurally - no sprite sheet, crisp at any size.
Compatibility
Plays nicely with the other Villager Games mods - the trade-screen buttons stack instead of overlapping. Requires Fabric API.
Requirements
- Minecraft 26.2
- Fabric Loader 0.19.3+ and Fabric API
- Java 25
- Install on both client and server (works in singleplayer out of the box)
The Villager Checkers Team
