Tuesday, August 13, 2002
Beyond Calvin Ball
I've been meditating on the implications of trying to make 1KBWC into a family game. The author of 1KBWC attributes the evolution of the game to a combination of influences, namely, the games of Cripple Mr. Onion and Calvin Ball. He explains:
"1KBWC (as the Oxford, UK players call it) is not without antecedents. Much of the year leading up to the game's creation, many of those café regulars and I played monstrous, multiple deck games of Hearts and Uno, setting the stage for free-form rules modification and probably laying the groundwork for much of the ad hominem, profane, and otherwise juvenile slant of many (read, most) of the cards.
"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.
"Another potential antecedent is the perpetual games of 'Calvinball' played in Bill Watterson's defunct comic strip, 'Calvin and Hobbes'. The average game of Calvinball was played much like rugby meets BWC, with radical rule shifts and redefinitions of game structure, play, and goals.
"In the end, though, I think BWC's real appeal may lie in its similarity to the way in which many of us initially conceive our thoughts: fast, sketchy, often black and white; full of lewd desires and snappy retorts. The card structure provides four walls beyond which one generally does not color, but within which anything goes. So, I think, would we all like to live our lives."
Hence my conclusion that, with some minor modifications, 1KWBC would make a perfect family game. My guess is that the youngest kids would almost always win.
"1KBWC (as the Oxford, UK players call it) is not without antecedents. Much of the year leading up to the game's creation, many of those café regulars and I played monstrous, multiple deck games of Hearts and Uno, setting the stage for free-form rules modification and probably laying the groundwork for much of the ad hominem, profane, and otherwise juvenile slant of many (read, most) of the cards.
"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.
"Another potential antecedent is the perpetual games of 'Calvinball' played in Bill Watterson's defunct comic strip, 'Calvin and Hobbes'. The average game of Calvinball was played much like rugby meets BWC, with radical rule shifts and redefinitions of game structure, play, and goals.
"In the end, though, I think BWC's real appeal may lie in its similarity to the way in which many of us initially conceive our thoughts: fast, sketchy, often black and white; full of lewd desires and snappy retorts. The card structure provides four walls beyond which one generally does not color, but within which anything goes. So, I think, would we all like to live our lives."
Hence my conclusion that, with some minor modifications, 1KWBC would make a perfect family game. My guess is that the youngest kids would almost always win.
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