While playing a game with an internet friend of mine, she revealed that she had misinterpreted the rules regarding edge squares. After the game, we both agreed her misinterpretation was better than the actual rule. She thought that the rules were roughly "you need to capture to get on the edge, and you need to capture to move while on the edge, either to stay [on the edge but move to a different square on the edge] or leave". I think that this is much simpler than the rather complicated current rules and serves the purpose of restricting pieces from edge squares almost as well. No one would want to put a piece on the edge if it meant they couldn't easily get it back. She also pointed out that the Swapper could be powerful with her rules because if it were on the edge, it could threaten to swap with an Immobilizer, and that Immobilizer would be stuck. I think that these rules should be considered. Also, a version where pieces could move to the edge without capturing but had to capture to move within or off the edge might be worth considering.
edit: The Immobilizer would be stuck after being swapped onto the edge, not just from the threat of being swapped onto the edge.
While playing a game with an internet friend of mine, she revealed that she had misinterpreted the rules regarding edge squares. After the game, we both agreed her misinterpretation was better than the actual rule. She thought that the rules were roughly "you need to capture to get on the edge, and you need to capture to move while on the edge, either to stay [on the edge but move to a different square on the edge] or leave". I think that this is much simpler than the rather complicated current rules and serves the purpose of restricting pieces from edge squares almost as well. No one would want to put a piece on the edge if it meant they couldn't easily get it back. She also pointed out that the Swapper could be powerful with her rules because if it were on the edge, it could threaten to swap with an Immobilizer, and that Immobilizer would be stuck. I think that these rules should be considered. Also, a version where pieces could move to the edge without capturing but had to capture to move within or off the edge might be worth considering.
edit: The Immobilizer would be stuck after being swapped onto the edge, not just from the threat of being swapped onto the edge.
edit 2: removed unnecessary information