G is for Game #atozchallenge
Creativity is a lifestyle for me, not an action. This month I'm exploring twenty-six quirky ways I keep my creativity flowing.
I've wanted to invent my own board game for a while now but once I committed myself to the task I realized I had no clue how to proceed. So I did the first thing I would do when beginning a new book:
I got out a paper and pen and began brainstorming. I thought about things I enjoy in life: Cooking. Books. Traveling. And then I stopped because I already had an idea forming. I crossed out cooking and started focusing on the books and traveling. The game could be in the medieval ages and people would travel around trading books to build up their library!
As much as I liked that idea, there were several conflicts that presented themselves and so as I proceeded, I tweaked the idea a bit. Eventually Book Quest was born and it takes place in modern times instead of the medieval ages, but the goal is still build up a personal library.
The game consists of 177 "Books" (blue cards), 31 Quests (brown cards), and 27 Plot Twist (green cards), 15 "Bookshelf" and "Library" cards, 144 "coins" in denominations of 5, 10, 20, 25, and 30, 1 board, 1 dice, and 4 game pieces.
Everyone starts out with 10 Books and 2 Quests and 15 coins. The goal of the game is to gather as many Books as you can through buying, trading, and earning. The Quests tell you which Books to try and collect. Some examples of the Quests are: Collect 15 books who's author's name begins with "J" or Collect 12 Classics or Collect 5 books that have 3 words in the title.
There are also Plot Twists which are always good for the person who owns them, but not necessarily for the other game players (they might have to give up one of their Books). Players can earn, buy, or land on a Plot Twist.
Players rolls twice each turn and different numbers mean different things. For instance, if you roll a 1 and then a 3 you ignore the second roll and move forward 1 space on the board, but if you roll a 1 twice in a row, then you receive a Plot Twist instead of moving forward.
If you land on a square that requires you to buy something or pay a fine and you don't have the money, you have to sell Books until you can pay. Each book costs 10 coins from the bank and when you sell them back to the bank, you only get half of that money back... Unless you're selling a Classic, then you do an auction to see how much they're worth. You roll the dice and receive 5 coins for each dot on the dice, so if you roll a 5 you get 25 coins.
I'm not quite done with figuring out the point system, but my brother and I played the game and got most of the kinks worked out, then my sister and I tried it and had fun as well.
Of course I needed to have game pieces, so I took some of my bakeable clay and fashioned little books. I also laminated all of the game cards and money so that they'd endure longer. It took a fair amount of time to figure out and create the game, but it was well worth it. The problem solving and brainstorming really made my brain switch channels and work at coming up with new ways of being creative and I thoroughly enjoyed the process.
Now I'm thinking maybe I should do this more often...
* * *
Have you ever created a board game? Does it sound like fun to you? And what about Book Quest? Does it sound like a game you'd like to play?
I've wanted to invent my own board game for a while now but once I committed myself to the task I realized I had no clue how to proceed. So I did the first thing I would do when beginning a new book:
I got out a paper and pen and began brainstorming. I thought about things I enjoy in life: Cooking. Books. Traveling. And then I stopped because I already had an idea forming. I crossed out cooking and started focusing on the books and traveling. The game could be in the medieval ages and people would travel around trading books to build up their library!
As much as I liked that idea, there were several conflicts that presented themselves and so as I proceeded, I tweaked the idea a bit. Eventually Book Quest was born and it takes place in modern times instead of the medieval ages, but the goal is still build up a personal library.
The game consists of 177 "Books" (blue cards), 31 Quests (brown cards), and 27 Plot Twist (green cards), 15 "Bookshelf" and "Library" cards, 144 "coins" in denominations of 5, 10, 20, 25, and 30, 1 board, 1 dice, and 4 game pieces.
Everyone starts out with 10 Books and 2 Quests and 15 coins. The goal of the game is to gather as many Books as you can through buying, trading, and earning. The Quests tell you which Books to try and collect. Some examples of the Quests are: Collect 15 books who's author's name begins with "J" or Collect 12 Classics or Collect 5 books that have 3 words in the title.
There are also Plot Twists which are always good for the person who owns them, but not necessarily for the other game players (they might have to give up one of their Books). Players can earn, buy, or land on a Plot Twist.
Players rolls twice each turn and different numbers mean different things. For instance, if you roll a 1 and then a 3 you ignore the second roll and move forward 1 space on the board, but if you roll a 1 twice in a row, then you receive a Plot Twist instead of moving forward.
If you land on a square that requires you to buy something or pay a fine and you don't have the money, you have to sell Books until you can pay. Each book costs 10 coins from the bank and when you sell them back to the bank, you only get half of that money back... Unless you're selling a Classic, then you do an auction to see how much they're worth. You roll the dice and receive 5 coins for each dot on the dice, so if you roll a 5 you get 25 coins.
I'm not quite done with figuring out the point system, but my brother and I played the game and got most of the kinks worked out, then my sister and I tried it and had fun as well.
Of course I needed to have game pieces, so I took some of my bakeable clay and fashioned little books. I also laminated all of the game cards and money so that they'd endure longer. It took a fair amount of time to figure out and create the game, but it was well worth it. The problem solving and brainstorming really made my brain switch channels and work at coming up with new ways of being creative and I thoroughly enjoyed the process.
Now I'm thinking maybe I should do this more often...
* * *
Have you ever created a board game? Does it sound like fun to you? And what about Book Quest? Does it sound like a game you'd like to play?
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