A game of molecular sabotage

DNA Chess Run the Central Dogma as a war machine. Give your opponent cancer.

Your back rank is your genome — ten genes, ten lives. Switch them on to transcribe RNA, translate RNA into protein enzymes, and march those enzymes across the cell to edit the enemy's DNA. Mutate more than half of their genome and their cell loses control: cancer, and the game.

DNA the genome / your lives

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RNA blocker & builder

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Protein the enzymes that mutate

01Play the board v0.3 · PLAYABLE

A 10×10 cell interior dotted with organelles, drawn after David Goodsell's Machinery of Life. Fully playable — go hot-seat, or tap New · AI for the bot.
How to play: two actions per turn. Each action: tap a gene to express an RNA, or tap a molecule then a highlighted square to move or act. Build a Nuclease and mutate 6 of the opponent's 10 genes to give them cancer. Both sides open with 6 RNA + 3 proteins.

Organelles (coloured tiles): a Ribosome makes translating an RNA cluster there cost 1 less; ER lets a molecule that starts on it move farther; a Golgi traps any piece that lands on it for a turn — shove enemies in with a Helicase. v0.3 folds in the break-analysis fixes plus a faster economy.

△ opponentOPPONENT GENOME

△ youYOUR GENOME

02The molecules

Movement follows a chess analogy so it's fast to learn. The action is where the biology lives. You build proteins by translating RNA — there is no fixed army, you express the one the position needs.

03How a turn runs v0.3

Each turn you take two actions (a main + a bonus). The board doesn't fill on its own — you decide how to spend each one. Those choices are the whole game.

➀ Express (an action)

Click one of your genes to transcribe a single RNA in front of it. With two actions you can express up to two genes a turn. Genes that are blocked, silenced, or at the RNA cap (10) can't fire. Route RNA onto a Ribosome to translate it for 1 less.

➁ Move / act / build

Or spend an action to:

Move a molecule (start on an ER tile to go farther), or
Mutate with a Nuclease adjacent to an enemy gene — move or mutate, and
Translate an RNA cluster into a protein, Repair an unguarded lesion with a Ligase, or shove with a Helicase (into a Golgi to trap them).

➂ Combo & cap (no timers)

A Kinase spends an action to grant +1 action this turn — so a set-up Nuclease can mutate twice (the sudden-death swing to watch). RNA is simply capped at 10 per side: no decay counters. Then it's the opponent's turn.

04Winning: cancer

You lose the moment 6 of your 10 genes are mutated — strictly more than half. Regulation collapses, the cell goes cancerous. So: race to mutate six of your opponent's genes before they mutate six of yours.

Opponent's genome — 6 of 10 mutated tips them into cancer. Silenced genes (switched off) do not count. Only permanent mutations do. Only a Ligase, reaching a fresh lesion in time, can pull a gene back.

05Why it works & what's still open

The core tension

Two actions, many wants: express RNA, march a piece, translate at a ribosome, defend a gene — you get two of those per turn and always want three. That squeeze is the game.
RNA is dual-use: spend it to build a protein, or move it to degrade enemy RNA and silence a gene by sitting beside it.
Mutations are permanent unless a slow, short-range Ligase reaches an unguarded lesion — so you can't just turtle.
Tempo is king: a Kinase grants a bonus action, so a double-mutate can swing the count by two in one turn.

Open questions for playtest

With expression regulated, is RNA now too scarce — does the opening drag?
First-player advantage — use a pie rule, or give player 2 a free starting RNA?
Is the Kinase bonus-action combo too swingy? (test barring a mutate as the bonus action)
Does the wider board make the middle a stall? Repair rule & Nuclease cost are the balance dials.

Design docs: v0.1 spec · playtest & break analysis. This page is a self-contained, playable prototype of the v0.3 rules.