Lately it seems like a number of people have been talking about what are referred to as fairy chess pieces. These pieces aren't used in conventional games, but were heavily incorporated into chess problems for quite some time. Since computer software can play so many different variants of chess without the need to acquire additional pieces, players can be treated to numerous different pieces they might not otherwise have an opportunity to play with.
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The unicorn could be one of the more useful fairy pieces, but it might take a moment to fully grasp how this piece works. Unicorns make any number of knight moves in a single direction. If a player moves as a regular knight forward up from b2 to c4, they could then move to d6 or even e8 on the same move. If that one sitting on b2 moved to a4, however, its turn would be over.
Grasshoppers are also relatively popular and fortunately just as useful as unicorns. A grasshopper moves along diagonals as well as ranks and files in the manner of a queen, but can only do so when it hops over another piece.
The piece can be located at any distance from a square adjacent to where the grasshopper is sitting. It generally doesn't matter to which side the hopped over piece belonged to. Most variants only worry about location in that respect.
A general moves much like a combination of a queen and a knight. Any more that's legal for a queen or a knight from the position that a general sits on is fair game. That makes this particular unorthodox piece seem extremely powerful.
Any time the endgame consists of nothing more than a king and a general against an opposing king, it's essentially a forced mate. This makes it extremely important for players to protect their general during game play.
Of course its rather common for games involving generals to feature an exchange where a player captures the opposing general with their own only to have a lower piece on the other side take that one. This might be why the more balanced chameleon has become a little more popular recently. Each time a chameleon moves it changes its rule set. First it moves like a queen, then like a knight, a bishop and a rook before moving like a queen again. This makes it far less likely that it will end up being exchanged for an opposing chameleon.