Games in the Car – While Waiting!

Like many people, our family can be waiting for our turn, whether it is at a restaurant, the doctor’s office, or some other place.  Like many gamers, my solution is to have games available to play.  I have seen “car kits” put together by gamers to put in their automobiles, but I was never completely convinced on the solution.  I guess I was looking for something neat and tidy, and many of these kits were in plastic storage boxes; the kind I really don’t like in the car.

Then I saw someone had used a backgammon case for their car kit.  Whoa!  What a great idea!  After all, backgammon is a great game that many people can play, and our son needs to learn how to play.  I decided that was the way to go.  I grabbed our backgammon set (the full size one, not one of the two travel sets we own!) and opened it up.  The pieces and dice have their own space.  Aside from the dice cups, the playing area can hold a few items.

What to put in it?  What games should I carry?  I ended up with the following games in my car kit:

• Backgammon.  Kind of obvious, but worth mentioning if only for to make sure I count right at the end of this post!
• Chess.  I have a small Drueke chess set from around WWII that fits nicely inside.  Chess is my favorite game, how can I not have a set in the car kit?
• Brandubh.  This is sometimes referred to as Irish Chess, though that’s not entirely accurate.  The game predates chess in Ireland though, and is related to a family of tafl games that is various traced back to the Vikings, Welsh, Saxons, and Irish.  It is a print-n-play (that you print at home and make in a small amount of time), with aquarium/floral stones of different colors used as the pieces.  Printed on card stock, the board takes no room, and the 13 stones take very little.
• Zombie in my Pocket.  This game has been around for a few years as a print-n-play game.  Zombies are chasing you through a home that you have never seen before, but which you know has the talisman inside which needs to be buried in a mystical place in the back yard.  This is silly, solitaire fun that can keep me entertained for a little while.  It easily fits inside a 3x5 plastic baggie, and then into the car kit.
• Standard Playing Cards.  We are set for solitaire and two-person games, but there are three of us in the family.  A deck of cards is also a pretty obvious choice, since it’s essentially a whole bunch of games in a pocket sized packet that will work with any number of players.  With that goes a…
• Cribbage Board.  This can be played multi-player.  The only problem with this is than I am the only one who knows how to play.  That can be fixed though.  To conserve even more space, this tiny folding board fits inside the backgammon dice cups when they are placed top-to-top.  Not much else would fit in there.
• Bandits.  This game might be taken out of the car kit and go permanently into a Scouting bag of games.  The younger Scouts seem to love it, but it seems a little light.  While my wife likes lighter games, this one isn’t her style.  I will look for a replacement if I do.
• Bananagrams.  The whole family likes this game; I reviewed it a while back.  This game is a little thick to go in, but I will push it a little bit.  It might help if I took it out of the banana-shaped bag, but what’s the fun in that?

That makes eight different games that can be in this kit.  Yet, as the infomercial says, “Wait, there’s more!”  With these components there are a few more games that can be played, and that’s not counting standard deck card games:

• Liar’s Dice.  Many people who are aware of this game know it through the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie.  This is a centuries old game with many variations; my favorite is Mia. 
• Fox and Hounds.  This is really a checkers variant, but could easily be played with the chess pawns. 
• Lines of Action, Crossings – these are games published in the great book, A Gamut of Games by the late, great Sid Sackson (who also designed Acquire, another favorite of mine.)  You might have to use more of the chess pieces, or draw a checkerboard to use with the backgammon disks.  This might be a little ugly, but what the heck.

Promotional Image for Treehouse Pieces

There are other systems to include too.  There is a whole set of games surrounding Treehouse (aka Icehouse) pieces for example.

As you pack the car for your summer outings, what will be in it?  Don’t forget the games as you head out of the house!  However you pack them, in a box or in a backgammon case, having a few games along might be the difference between your time being fun in the sun or bland in the sand.

It’s Your Move!

Games While Driving - 2nd Gear!

I recently posted about a couple of great podcasts that helped me get my arms around all of these games.  Now they are joining forces as part of the same podcasting network.  Along with that, there are other podcasts in The Dice Tower network that are excellent, if a little more geeky!

Find the news here on BoardGameGeek:

http://boardgamegeek.com/article/6832277

It's Your Move!

Helping Hands

Sadly out of print (image by Patrick Carroll)

This weekend I was talking to one of my cousins about playing games with his three-year old.  They are playing the classics: Candyland and the like.  It brought back memories of Clue: Little Detective played before bed time with Daniel, my now 13 year-old.  I remember the beginning being about teaching him a basic game mechanism: draw a card, play a card.

Of course, that's fine with Clue: Little Detective, since you aren't holding a full hand of cards. Managing a hand of cards becomes one of the first game playing skills a child learns.  Small hands have a tough time though, particularly with standard sized cards.

Enter the card holder.  They come in two main variations.

Promotional image from Gamewright Games.

Most card holders commonly found in teacher's store and the like are a variation on a theme: two disks fastened together so that cards slide between them.  Sometimes they are just a half circle, sometimes they have evolved into having a handle attached such as the ones from Gamewright Games above.  These work great.  The best part is that the cards are displayed in the natural fan of an adult holding cards, so the rest of the card handing habits are formed.

Sunnywood rack promotional image

The second type is more like a tile rack.   This type isn't held in the hand, but rather set on the table.  This isn't so great for little ones, since it doesn't allow for teaching things like holding your hand where it can't be seen, and laying it down face-down when its time to go potty. Where it has it's advantages is at the other end of the age spectrum, where holding anything in the fingers for very long might cause arthritis pain.  Cards are self standing and fully on display to the player.

As it is, we have a set of the first type (literally two disks fastened together), and I am about to purchase two of the second type.  No, I don't have arthritis, but there are games where having the cards up where I can see them while my two hands are doing other things would be very convenient.  This is particularly true in games where the cards have a lot of text on them.  The first game that comes to mind is War of the Ring, but historical card driven war games like For the People (the American Civil War) or political games like 1960: The Making of the President would be helped too.  On a more casual game level, I can see using them for themed variants of Risk, like the copy of Risk: Star Wars - Clone War Edition we have.

We need more Star Wars movies so we can have more great games like these! (Photo by Rich Chamberlain)

Getting some type of card holder is almost essential if you have little ones running around your house, either as parents or grandparents.  The opportunity for family bonding is something to start early, and those before-bed game sessions, short though they be, have the same effect as reading to a child.  The biggest difference is that you can involve more of the family.

It's Your Move!

Playing with Your Money – The Value of Games

A walk through your local game store, or even browsing an online store, can give you a bit of sticker shock. It’s very easy to find a game that retails for $50.00, and games for the hardcore hobbyist can run to $100.00 pretty quickly. While a gamer like me can justify (at least to myself) spending $50.00 on a game, how can that work for the casual gamer on a family budget? Is this a joke, spending that kind of money on cardboard and plastic? Really? Yes, really. There is far more value in buying a game than is obvious; I will show you how the cost is reasonable, and the additional value that doesn’t have a dollar figure.

Photo by Mikko Saari

A quick look online shows that a movie in my area goes for $10.00 per ticket. Settlers of Catan, a revolutionary hobby game that is crossing over to the mainstream, sells at Target for $45.00. So a family of four can go to the movies for roughly the same price as buying a copy of Settlers. Each will last about an hour and a half. Should the family like the game, (and it is an excellent, excellent game,) they will have it to play again. It has more variety than a movie, since the board is modular and never the same twice. Our copy has been played 25 times (yes, I count these things) and the “per hour” entertainment cost is well below a dollar. 

Photo by Angus the Bull

Even War of the Ring, which recently was in the list of games I’ve played that shows in the left margin, was worth the purchase. At the time I bought it, it was listing at $80.00 a copy. This is a hard core “gamer’s” game, taking about three hours to play. My son and I have played it only three times, but it is still worth the money. The “per hour” cost for both of us works out to be $9.00, or $4.50 per person, which is still below the cost of a movie. (Plus, I bought it used on eBay for half the price!) Again, there is more variety. No matter how many times I watch the movie, Lord of the Ring, Isildur still wants to keep the Ring. You would think by now he would know to throw it into the flames! In contrast, the last play of War of the Ring resulted in Aragorn relieving the siege at Minas Tirith with the Osgiliath garrison, only to be taken when Minas Tirith fell to another host of orcs. Gandalf died. Legolas died. The Ring was taken, and Middle Earth conquered by my son, the Dark Lord. The plot changes every time.

Beyond the money, there are other reasons games have value. First of all, watching a movie, or even free broadcast TV, doesn’t stimulate the brain the way a game will. Games encourage problem solving and creative thinking. This improves our minds for the other facets of life, whether we are facing algebra or Alzheimer’s. Furthermore, it’s done together, interactively. All of the game-play encourages deeper relationships within families and friends, and that doesn’t have a price.
Next time you are planning Family Night, plan on a buying a game. (Don’t worry; I will help you know which game to buy.) The fun will last beyond one night, and your family will thank you!

Roll On!