You've got board games filling up your closet. After you've played them several time, they can get boring. The "Create It" board game lets you make the rules.
The game comes with a small, portable whiteboard that lets you draw your own game board. The game also comes with clay (Playdo type) that allows players to create their game pieces - any shape a player wants. Blank cards are also shipped with the game so you can create your trivia cards, draw cards, or whatever you need to play the game you will create. Different color markers are included so you can get creative with the design.
The RULES CARD is the most important part of the game. Before game play can begin, the elected "Game Creator" writes down the rules for the newly invented game. This allows all players try to understand the rules before game play begins. In the event that a situation comes up that the "Game Creator" did not think of, all players vote on a resolution; If there is an even number of players, a die is rolled to select the resolution.
Household objects can be integrated if the "Game Creator" desires. Any game is possible... you are limited only by your imagination, and the willingness of other players to do your biding.-- flynn, Jan 14 2007 (?) 1000 Blank White Cards http://www.geocitie...nner23/bwcards.html [imaginality, Jan 15 2007] 1000 Blank White Cards http://en.wikipedia...0_Blank_White_Cards [imaginality, Jan 15 2007] Wikipedia: Nomic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NomicExtreme case of the kind of game [pertinax] describes. [jutta, Jan 15 2007] Fluxx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FluxxA favorite of mine, Fluxx is user-created, in that the rules governing gameplay are decided by which cards are played. [nick_n_uit, Jan 15 2007] Making games is hard! It's a lot more like writing a book than like reading a book. (+) Still, with the right group of creative people, this could be great.-- jutta, Jan 14 2007 I agree, only people with personality could play this game. The uncreative would become immobilized.-- flynn, Jan 14 2007 I think I'd spend all my time designing the game and then never play it.-- phundug, Jan 14 2007 Me too, but that's because I have no friends.-- Texticle, Jan 14 2007 '1000 Blank White Cards' is a card game that comes close to this (if you'd enjoy this, you'd enjoy that), but adding in your board game element could also be fun. [+]-- imaginality, Jan 15 2007 [imaginality] 1000 blank white cards is interesting, indeed.-- flynn, Jan 15 2007 [boysparks] I've never seen those make-a-game kits before, so it looks like the general idea is baked. This idea differs in the the players make their own games pieces and board. In the link you posted, a whole bunch of pieces are part of the kit, and the game designer picks from the available pieces which ones he/she would like to use in the game.
Similar idea, the main difference being that this idea has a more flexible game design.-- flynn, Jan 15 2007 I once played a game a bit like this, except that, instead of waiting for an unforeseen situation to arise, each player, on their turn, could propose a rule change. There were a limited number of meta-rules, which were harder to change. I don't think we finished the game.-- pertinax, Jan 15 2007 From the former webpage of the creator of 1KBWC:
"Some years before that, several friends and I had played a game called 'Cripple Mister Onion' (name comes from a short reference in one of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels), which involved the total dissassembly of five or six different card and board games, and the dynamic synthesis of a new game from the assorted cards, pieces and boards. That game included pieces from Clue, Waterworks, Set, Uno, and Pit, and during the gameplay, the Conservatory card from Clue was forever rechristened the Kierkegaard Card. This was the true origin of the Blank White Cards aesthetic, and freeform gameplay."
Sounds like a good idea, too - speed up the design (not to mention work around people's graphical shortcomings) by reinterpreting and recombining pieces from existing games, rather than doing everything from scratch.-- jutta, Jan 15 2007 Thank you for that link, [jutta]; I think what I was playing was based on the Hofstadter/Suber idea mentioned in the link.-- pertinax, Jan 15 2007 I vaguely remember a very free form game like this, every turn a player could change or remove an existing, or create a new rule. Subsequent players would then have to vote on whether that rule would be instated or not. At the outset, the only rules of the game defined how turns and voting would operate.
The object of the game was to somhow become the winner, how was left completely up to how the rules developed in the game. It was really quite interesting. Sadly, I forget (and Google can't find) what it was called - but since the initial rules just lay out the structure for voting (which would of course would be ammended over the course of the game), it should be fairly easy to replicate.
As for the idea, it would be cool if there was some kind of 'generic game engine' that could be programmed to follow a given set of rules. LCD paper could be used both for the board, and the cards, to allow for customisation, and the cards etc contain little RFID tags so that the game could administrate the state of play (perhaps with little instructions appearing on the board) If you can imagine Monopoly, but with arrows pointing to who's go it is, and telling the players, depending on where they land to take a chance card etc. Anyway, Go directly to Halfbakery St, if you pass GO, collect this bun.-- zen_tom, Jan 15 2007 Yes, zen_tom, the game you refer to is indeed the Nomic game (as per Jutta's link). Invented by Peter Suber, and first published in a column by Douglas Hofstadter (of Godel, Escher, Bach fame) - later made famous by its inclusion in that book.-- the_jxc, Jan 15 2007 Adding a bone, BTW. Sorry.
Why? If you've ever tried to create a game from scratch, you'll know how damned difficult it is. There are many games that seemed like "a good idea" (tm) and that make it to final production, boxed, with graphics and nice fancy pieces. Despite having been play-tested and refined, many of those commercial games still suck.
The idea that the supplied materials described could be easily converted to a playable game is about as realistic as the idea that those same people could take a pile of scrap metal and random machine parts, and produce a car they could take for a jaunt in the countryside.
There are doubtless far more neurosurgeons in the world than exist good game designers. Creating games isn't a game that just anybody can play.-- the_jxc, Jan 15 2007 It's a bit arbitrary too isn't it? It's essentially a box with some paper and pens in it, bit of a whiteboard, some clay and the words, "Do it yourself," written on the lid. [-]-- theleopard, Jan 15 2007 [21Quest] What's D&D?-- flynn, Jan 15 2007 Dungeons & Dragons.-- zen_tom, Jan 15 2007 //those same people could take a pile of scrap metal and random machine parts, and produce a car//
Don't forget, we are talking about half-bakers here. Some of us probably could, and the rest of us could offer occasionally amusing comments while they did.
For large values of 'pile', anyway.
In fact, if four half-bakers were ever locked in a shed for a few hours, I'm fairly confident that, on bursting out, they would be able to awe their erstwhile captors with the strange monopoly variant which they had constructed from the materials found in that shed.-- pertinax, Jan 16 2007 Its like Calvin Ball but for board games. Actually when we would play Monopoly we would change the rules quite extensively as long as everyone was in agreement with the change.-- MoreCowbell, Jan 17 2007 // produce a car they could take for a jaunt//
You've not seen Scrapheap Challenge then.
This idea reminds me of the game "Mornington Crescent" of radio four fame.-- webfishrune, Jan 18 2007 Oooh, tough one...
East Finchley.-- theleopard, Jan 18 2007 Covent Garden (backwards)-- webfishrune, Jan 18 2007 It has taken me over a year, but I think I'm safe with Old Kent Road.
(We are playing Finsbury Rules right?)-- theleopard, Feb 21 2008 Mornington Crescent! Unlucky, theleopard. With all that preparation, too...-- lostdog, Feb 21 2008 Hang on hang on, you can't take a reverse draw from South of the River! That's an invalid move due to the "pigeon reflex" rule instigated in 1973. Ha! You'll be saying Notting Hill Gate next.-- theleopard, Feb 21 2008 No, he performed a traverse using Marylebone High Street. Finsbury rules, remember?-- hippo, Feb 21 2008 Yeah yeah whatever. Stupid game anyway...-- theleopard, Feb 21 2008 random, halfbakery