Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

James, the Inspector piece should be short-range but unblockable;
effectively a Guard-Squirrel combo, say. After all, they're not always
around, but when they show, they come out of the walls. (Literally [for
non-postal people], there are secret passageways for the inspectors built
into post office buildings.)
Larry, the WELOJDGWAAK piece could be a customer. You'd probably need a
special capturing turn, where multiple capturing pieces could all move at
once. Possibly the piece might need to be totally surrounded to be
captured. So cornering a 'Gwaak would be a good idea, making it easy to
capture.
It should be a large variant; I suggest the Registry Clerk (the Keeper of
the Keys) as a power piece;  some more minor pieces like the On-Break
window clerk and the Route Inspector; and finally, the 204B*, possibly the
most dangerous piece of all, subject to blowing at any time.
My condolences on your experiences with the USPS, by the way. I've been
retired 3 years now, and the nightmares are starting to go away. There is
hope. And, no, you can't blast the jam out of a machine by running more
mail into it. Believe me, it's been tried by experts. I've seen it, and 
it's not pretty. And then you have to put each bit of remains into its own
 little plastic 'body bag' which says on its side how the PO is trying to 
fix this problem. Right! You ever see anybody working on it?
* 204B: an acting supervisor; in other words, a clerk or carrier who
probably wasn't doing their job anyway, so it doesn't hurt to take them
off the workroom floor...

Hi, Joe:  A good size for Postal Chess might be 12 x 12, with a limit of
maybe 15 different pieces, some of which are unique and some symmetrically
placed.  So far we have 12 named pieces, and I think to maintain the
character metaphors, they should be divided into Travelers (long-sliders)
and Confined (those who work in the Mailroom/Station/Annex.); the
Travelers would be free to go anywhere on the board, and the Confined
would be kept to the, say, 5 home rows. So how 'bout this for a piece
set:
Inspector: Travels as Q
Supervisor: Confined, any 3, square or diagonal, in any combination
Registry Clk: Confined, any up to 3 in a straight line, sq. or diag.
WELOJDGWAAK: Travels any 2; sequential captures if possible; must be
bracketed by at least 2 pieces to capture; defending side may move as many
pieces as GWAAK captured on his rampage to attempt to confine him, once per
rampage.
Letter Carrier (walker): Travels any 1 space in any direction
Franker:  Confined, detonates if Supervisor gets within his 3 x 3, and
disappears
204B:  Confined, detonates if Supervisor gets within his 3 x 3, taking out
8 surrounding cells with him
On-Break Clerk: moves any 1 in any direction, but doesn't move unless
Supervisor is within his 3 x 3
Route Inspector: Travels as Rook
Route Carrier:  Travels as Bishop
Mean Dog:  Travels any 2
LOLIAB:  Little-Ol'-Lady-In-A-Buick: Travels any distance at random;
player picks up LOLIAB, closes eyes, and plunks her down somewhere on the
board. Cannot be captured, but may not function if completely surrounded.

Just working suggestions.

Maybe we oughtta change the thread-name, or include an Elk in the piece
set, as though the Post Office is in Colorado, maybe.
Another suggested piece, duh:  the MAIL. Only travels if moved with
another USPS piece. Win condition: Get the MAIL to the other guy's home
row? (So don't LOSE the MAIL!!)
Another suggested piece:  Postal Assistant (Confined, filler, doesn't
move unless shoved out of the way by Inspector, Supervisor or 204B.)

One or two postal pieces could actually strew Mail around the field.
Causing the others to have to collect them in order to move.

This could be the job of the Franker. As a turn it places Mail on each of
its adjacent vacant cells. Causing it to be immobilized.

All pieces might be able to collect the Mail, and there might be a limited
number of pieces of Mail.

Since in real life there is no end to the Mail, it really should not be
considered as a goal.

Maybe we do need a new thread.

How about we incorporate the spirit of the elk piece, and make our pieces
double-sided? One side: sane; the other: normal working conditions - okay,
no, but you could flip a piece to 'activate' it as a move. And if all
pieces had a sane and an insane side, you could get some good effects.
Maybe a shop steward could change the state of another piece.
The 204B thing is fair - the stress of having a real supervisor from
another office watching is enough to detonate many a 204B.
About here, I realized that most of these 'pieces' should be confined.
Just to keep this short, a final thought:
 Should the sides be Blue and Brown?

Well, now I'm starting to wonder who it is who really should be confined. 
Hey, maybe we could put some cops into the game; they could move any one if
solo, any two if in pairs, any three if three adjacent--strength in
numbers.  Do some ride-alongs (maybe he'll let us shoot his gun at
something!); Cop could be the one who finally takes out WELOJDGWAAK--the
others just stop him.  It's got potential.
I still like the Elk loose in the mailroom; Franker can aim the
congressional mail at 'im an' let 'er rip, yee-haw!
So who's gonna do the preset for it? I'll play it.....

My son does a lot of the computer work for me, and when I asked him to help
with more new pieces, he said he might as well make every crazy piece he
could think of, figuring I'd use them sooner or later. He suggested
making a 'Ferris Wheel' piece. Different [or maybe the same] pieces
could be in each 'seat' of the Ferris wheel, and , each time the wheel
moves, a different piece would rotate to the 'top'. The Ferris wheel
would move as that piece next turn. Number of 'seats' in the wheels
would range from maybe 2 to 5. Players might start with a predetermined
set of wheels, or they could each get a kit with empty wheels and a set of
pieces to fill them. 
This carries the general concept of the elk piece another step.
Interestingly, the game Walter Labetti has just brought to our attention,
'chess to the second power', is another version of Elk chess, in which
every piece is doubled and the 2nd piece is hidden until the first is
captured. Of course, his is patented, unlike ours. Hmmm...
James, no matter who designs the pieces and rules, you will undoubtedly be
co-opted to do the board and piece icons for postal chess. :-) Figured I'd
warn you ahead of time. [Probably not much of a surprise, though.] But I'm
sure you'd make awesome little blue and brown pieces. The board needs
buildings that will be important game features, too. Clearly, some kind of
terrain is required to fight over. 
After all, it's all about pickups and deliveries and mayhem over
specified physical areas.

Postal Chess?  Piece icons, no problemo; board, no problemo.  Drawing I can
do, presets I can't.  I'd advance on my end of it if someone'll
volunteer the other parts so it could be posted and played.
We're working on how to convert (many) piece icons to CVP format to fill
out some of the collections that players like but that are missing a lot
of the funner pieces.  Like the Pepperoni for Pizza Chess that we all know
and love so well, and the Pied-bill Snaihu for--uh, what was that for
again, Jeremy? *cackle!*

Hi, James. Been away for several days or I would have answered sooner. I'd
be happy to take a stab [so to speak] at the pieces. I see short, medium
and long range pieces in the game, with some pieces restricted to small to
medium areas of the board. Clerks in buildings are like guards in XiangQi,
but carriers and drivers may be 'restricted' to much larger areas of the
board. I'd think the board would need buildings; possibly streets,
possibly just colored lines representing 'routes'; certainly pick-up and
delivery 'points'; maybe 'hazards', like bars or speed traps. We should
probably continue the actual work by email, just posting good results, like
some of our subjects. Now, is there anyone else who would actually do
anything? 
Send me a postcard, drop me a line, stating point of view...

Hey, Joe (where you goin' wit' dat guninyourhand?
Da-dum-da-dum-dum..nyuk-nyuk!)  Sounds like it's gonna need a pretty big
board, with all those details.  I like it well enough to fiddle with it a
bit, maybe it'll go somewhere.  Email me, and we'll show it off if we
get somewhere, howzat?

thanks Walter Labetti