Game on: treasure hunts

This one wasn’t my game – it was devised by the oldest of the junior players, on our recent holiday.  It worked really well, so I thought I’d share it with you.

(As I’m on catch up on posts, I’m writing in early April, after Easter – but putting the date as a post in March, because of the game theme. Hope that helps if the timescales don’t seem to add up.)

Hunt the single item

If you have a junior player who has any level of interest in pirates, a treasure hunt is a great idea.  But you don’t need to read too much Famous Five, or indeed other picture books, to realise that finding some form of treasure is a key part of many stories.

This makes it exciting – but it can also lead to tantrums if other junior players feel hard done by.  So it might help to have some form of treasure that everyone can share at the end.

Hunt the multiple items

This particular hunt that I observed recently was an Easter egg one – but it could work well with other smaller items.  It makes it a bit different from a treasure hunt with a single prize, but it can cut down on squabbling if everyone finds some things.

Writing about this now, I could imagine a version of this with hunt the Lego minifigure – as long as you were prepared to let the finders keep them all.  Or they might get to trade them in for a larger item?

(Clearly, you would need to know that you had planted the minifigs, rather than just coming across them in random places, as is more often the way…)

The maps

What made this so good was that each player had a different map – same landmarks, but different arrow clues to help them find the mini eggs.

This meant that everyone got some eggs, no one was competing to grab all the eggs, and everyone had to read their maps to find their bit of the treasure.

It also meant that everyone had a personalised map to keep as a souvenir afterwards.

You will have to decide if you want to hand draw the maps – if time is short, you could hand draw one, copy it, and then write in different arrows on each version.

If you really want to get into the pirate theme, you can always try ageing the paper for your map e.g. leaving it to sit in cold tea to get brownish ‘age spots’, distressing the edges of the paper, and so on.

However, the lust for chocolate eggs may be such that these extra touches are just overlooked – so don’t feel you have to.

Indoors or outdoors?

When it comes to Easter egg hunts, it’s easy to think it has to be outdoors.  Heavy rain on Easter Saturday meant that this wasn’t really an option.

However, an indoor hunt, set up before a spot of fresh air on Easter Sunday, meant that the younger junior players had something fun to do on getting home – and the grownups had time to cook tea.

If you do plan to do an outdoor one, it can be good in a garden where eggs can be tucked into flowerpots, hidden behind garden hoses, and so on.

Match the number of eggs to your junior player’s stamina – no point telling them there are 10 more to find if they’ve already had enough!

Try to remember how many eggs you planted, and where they are, in case the junior players can’t find them. I have a few wooden eggs from Eastern European craft shops, and these can be good to hide a) because they are sturdy and b) because the colours usually make them easier to spot.

Longer prep, shorter hunt

The law of treasure hunts is something like the law of lasagna – it takes a lot longer to get them ready than it does to do them (or eat the lasagna).  But, in both cases, the results are worth it, both for the hunters, and the person who’s set up the hunt.

Having occasional treasure hunts (such as Easter ones) means it’s an occasional effort – and an event that stands out in everyone’s memory too.

 

Game on: Boggle

Most of the games I’ve described are for anyone, but seem to be played most by combinations of grownups and junior players.

But on our recent holiday, the game played with most fervour was between the adults.
So here’s to Boggle – or indeed, to Ruzzle, as you’ll find it online.

Competitive word games

A note of caution here.  There are different types of word game people.  There are some
(I am one of them) who like interesting words, but are less good at using words to compete. This is why I lose at Scrabble, despite being a ‘words’ person.

There are others who may or may not see themselves as ‘words’ people, but can still spot words out of a set of letters.  If you are in the latter camp, and particularly if you can do this fast, Boggle may be just up your street.

How to play

You have a set of dice, with different letters on the sides.  Most versions of the game give you 16, laid out 4 x 4 within a holder. (You can also get 5 x 5 versions.)

You shake the dice (some sets have a lid to enable you to contain the dice as you shake them), let them land to display a set of letters, and then set a timer. (Your set may come with a small hourglass to give you a time of 3 minutes, or you can time this yourself.)

The notion is to make words of 3 or more letters.  The letters have to be touching ie horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.  The trick is to make as many words as you can, out of the set of letters showing, in the 3 minutes.

You can’t use one letter more than once in the same word.  If there’s an ‘s’ in your set, you can form plurals e.g. act, acts.

You’ll need pencils and paper for each player, so you can note down your words.

Scoring

Once time is up, you take it in turns to read out the words you have found.  If two or more people have the same word, you cross it out, and it doesn’t count for anyone’s score.

Once everyone has read out all their words, count up to see how many you have on your list that no one else had.  (Some turns, you may not have any.)

If you do, you score points: 1 point for each 3 letter word, 2 points for each 4 letter word, and so on. (Check the set you have – some sets may have different scoring systems e.g. 3 points for a 4 letter word.)

The person with the most points wins the round.  You can essentially play as many rounds as you want, but setting a limit (e.g. 5 or 10) can help keep everyone focused.

Online versions of Boggle

Although the gaming started off with Boggle, those with smartphones moved on to playing Ruzzle, later in the holiday.  In this set up, you play as twos e.g. you have to invite someone else to play with you.

Playing online tends to have a shorter timespan – 2 minutes instead of 3 – and fewer rounds – 3 seems to be the standard for most games.

Playing it on a phone means there’s an inbuilt dictionary, which can help.  If the phone has a touchscreen, it’s very easy to drag the letters to form words, rather than writing them down, so you can go faster.

As the one adult without a smartphone, I didn’t try this out myself, but could see that the games went fast. The scoring is done for you, which also helps.

If you like your word games fast and furious, rather than deliberative and tactical (like Scrabble), Boggle could be for you.  But if you discover that your hostess has been playing Boggle since her own childhood…just don’t expect to win. Much. At all.

Game on: Labyrinth

This isn’t a nod to the mid 80s film, but a board game that I got the chance to play while on holiday.

In German it’s Das Verrueckte Labyrinth (or the crazy/mad labyrinth). I was playing it in Italy, and didn’t think to check what it said on the side of the box – I was too keen to play it again.

To be honest, we have a set at home, so I should get it out and play some more, instead of just revisiting it every once in a  while.

But when you are playing with at least one other player who rather likes legends and stories, and leads a discussion on which picture you like best in the labyrinth, that is further reason to sit down and play. Without. Further. Ado.

The game

Labyrinth is a Ravensburger game – which is an indication of quality as far as I’m concerned.

Ravensburger is a German company, and I started trying out their games when doing school exchanges to Germany. (Another great one is their sleuthing game, set in London, with more than a nod to Sherlock Holmes.)

Anyway, let’s get my enthusing down to a manageable level. As the name suggests, you are making your way through a labyrinth – less minotaur, more castle dungeon, if that helps you picture it.

The labyrinth has a mixture of directional tiles, if you will – some are straight paths, some are T-junctions, and some are elbow junctions (ie they look like the shape of an elbow joint).

Your task is to move through the labyrinth, following the path that makes most sense to you, to look for treasure.

Visuals

The point where the discussion started earlier was relating to the visuals.  The stone walls denoting the dungeon bit are easy to imagine, but there’s around 25 tiles with pictures on too.

Some of the pictures are on fixed tiles; others are on moveable tiles.

If you ever played Dungeons and Dragons games, or can think back to any kind of quest story, you can probably imagine some of the pictures.  They include pictures of jewels, goblets, swords.

They have also have a mixtures of characters: princess, wizard, goblin, ghost and so on. Finally, you’ll find animals: moth, frog etc.

Despite the D&D reference, this is drawn in a friendly, rather than frightening, style.

Object of the game

This is a game where you each have a piece to move around the board – but no dice are required (which can help if your junior player has had enough of counting on dice for one day).

Each piece has a starting point, in the four corners of the (square) board.

At the start of the game, everyone is dealt a number of cards to show you what you need to collect on your quest – these match the tiles on the board.  You move around the board, ‘collecting’ these in the order you have them in your hand.

Once you’ve visited a picture, you declare it (by turning your card face up). The person who visits/collects all their cards, and gets back to their starting position, is the winner.

Moving around the board

The board has a mixture of fixed tiles and spaces. You have an extra amount of moveable tiles that you fit into the spaces to fill up the board. And – one more.

Having one spare tile means that you can insert it at the edge of the board, into a row which is made of moveable tiles. (You obviously can’t move the fixed tiles, though you will find yourself wishing you could, at at least one point in the game.)

Being able to move a row of tiles means that you can adjust the configuration of the labyrinth. This means you need to look ahead – what row can you move that will make the tiles line up better for you?

Strategy

You can play with just two players. We played as a foursome – this can make it more fun and more complicated, as one person’s ‘good move’ of tiles can undo the planning work of another.

One thing you’re not allowed to do is ‘undo’ the go of the person before you ie you can’t just move the row back to where it was. Other than that, you can move any row you want to – you have to move a row before moving a piece.

Occasionally, the labyrinth is lining up well for you, and you don’t need to move a row – but you still have to move something.  So as well as planning your route, it’s good to work out which row you can move that doesn’t affect where you want to go.

One move I should add in, which I particularly like, is where you have your piece at the edge of the board, in a moveable position. You can use the spare tile to move that row so that your piece comes off the edge of the board – it then goes back on the opposite side of the board.

This can be great if you are getting stuck in your section of the labyrinth – and speeds up getting to where you want to go.

Length of game

The game can take time, particularly if there are several of you playing, and complicating each other’s moves through the labyrinth. I anticipate you could play it with fewer cards to collect/visit, which would speed up the game.

My visual ability decreased the more I chatted during the game, and I ended up having to ask the two (not so) junior players where I needed to go to finish up.  They were rather more interested in beating each other than I was.

Lest you think that this game is out of reach, I’m pretty sure we found ours at a reasonable price on Amazon. Don’t worry about language either – the box has instructions in multiple languages.  And the cards themselves are just pictures, so they’re easy to use.

So if you have a reasonable stretch of time ahead, a coffee just made, a wet day outside, and some agreeable companions for questing with – go forth into the labyrinth.

Game on: Lego Minotaurus

I am not the builder of the family. My skills in 3D are limited (although I’m good at packing), and I leave the Lego work to the others.

But even I can manage the world of Lego when it’s combined with being a game, and with a story background. And you don’t need to study Classics to know about the minotaur – but it’s a great excuse to find some books of Greek myths afterwards.

The concept

I’ll leave you to look up the proper story of the Minotaur – it’s not entirely child-friendly. Think instead of a maze, underground. Somewhere, in its heart, is a beast – bull on the top half, human on the bottom half.

Now consider that, as a game, you can see into the maze from above – so you get to see which way to go.  The minotaur is there to ‘get’ you, but nothing more serious. You are there to outwit it, and show off your cunning.

You, and other players, are trying to get to the centre of the maze – the Minotaur is there to stop you. If it does, you lose a (Lego) figure, but you have three, so you have more chances.

The first person to get all three of their figures (or at least, the most figures) to the centre of the maze wins.

Lego games

For the building enthusiasts among you, part of the fun is that you effectively build the game before you play it.  So imagine a square base board as the starting point – you build up the maze onto this with Lego pieces.

In the case of this game, the building is fairly straight forward – you are building low walls around the sides of the board, and some walls inside the board, which form the maze itself.

Part of the cleverness of the game is that you can also move sections of the walls about – adjusting the walls of the maze slightly so that they can be jumped over, instead of having to go round them.

And if anyone knocks a bit of wall, in their haste to move to the centre? You can just put it back again. Once built, the game stays made up, and goes back in the box as such, so it’s ready to go next time.

Starting the game

The centre has a raised area – this is where the Minotaur figure is at the start of the game, and where you want to get to.  The game will allow up to 4 players – each starts from a different corner – but it works fine with just 2.

You roll a dice to determine how far you can move – up to 6 spaces.  The one bit that can be a little trickier is keeping track of where you started and where you get up to, as the base board just has the usual Lego pegs, rather than individual squares.

The figures you move through the game are small, so this can be a little fiddly, but is fine once you get going.

Moving the Minotaur

The dice has the numbers 3-6. The faces of the dice that would normally have 1 and 2 have grey instead. If you roll grey, you get to play Minotaur, and chase or block the other figures.

When the Minotaur is in play, you get to move 8 spaces – so you’re moving faster than the other pieces, effectively.  You move from the central section, and can move towards any of the figures which may be approaching.

As the Minotaur, you capture another figure by moving so that your go would include going over the space that the figure is on.  When another player throws grey, they can take over being Minotaur, and move it from where it stopped on the board (rather than having to start from the centre again).

Moving your players

As with other games with multiple pieces, you can decide how many pieces to have in play at a time.  It’s possible to get each individual figures to the centre, one by one, but you may find that it works well to start one off, then move a second one out a bit, and so on.

Having more pieces in play means that it’s easier to ‘distract’ the Minotaur – if you only have one piece, the person playing the Minotaur will logically pursue that piece only.

Moving the walls

One of the best bits of the game is the opportunity to move Lego blocks about in the game.  Junior Player was very pleased at this, and the opportunity to configure the maze differently if wanted.

You can also move a wall to block an opponent – so if someone is getting close to the centre, and you can put across a piece that stops them moving on, then they take longer to get the centre.  This can increase your chances of getting there first – unless they do it back to you!

Adjustable rules

Another factor Junior Player really liked was the permission to make up your own rules. If you want to adjust it so that e.g. throwing a 6 two times in a row gets you further, or gives you a penalty, for example, you can – or really whatever you fancy.

You might also want to institute rules about moving walls – but you’ll probably be keeping to the main notion of getting all your pieces to the middle of the board.

Conclusion

I stayed out of the building of the board (see above for why), but could tell that the builders of the family enjoyed this part. The concepts of the game are quite straight forward, but there’s lots of flexibility to adjust how easy it is to get through the maze.

We also appreciated the encouragement to experiment with the game, and make it our own – not many games directly invite you to do that.

Realistically, you could use the same maze setup with a different Lego baddie – Darth Vader instead of the minotaur, anyone? Parents will also appreciate the potential to put the lid on at the end, and know that all the Lego is in one plate (unlike most other household Lego).

However you play it, whoever you have as your baddie – it’s a lot of fun to play.
Natural builder or not.

Game on: noughts and crosses

Where does strategy in game playing begin? I’d say with something like noughts and crosses.

It’s probably one of those early games where you learn that thinking out your next move will help you win – or at least block your opponent from winning.

Call it noughts and crosses, or tic-tac-toe, or even three in a row, you are still out to win. It’s the transition from chance to strategy.

The board

We play with a wooden board, with little peg shapes cut into the base.  We have circles or cross shapes that, when placed, fit into the peg shapes, so it’s fairly easy to use.

Others may play with circles or Xs in black and white, or even magnetic boards for when you’re on the move.

The concept

Three in a row can mean three horizontally, vertically or diagonally.  This is the same concept for larger-scale games like Connect 4.

These kind of games work well if you have good spatial awareness, and can spot visual patterns, but with noughts and crosses, the smaller number of pieces makes it easier to identify where to move.

The trick

Junior Player has learned from Dan that the trick is a) start first and b) occupy the peg in the middle of the middle row. From here, it’s easiest to make a row in any direction – and you limit the other player to only being able to get a row on the edge of the board.

If your opponent can only win by going in particular patterns, these are easier to spot too, and to block.

Without knowing the trick, there is a bit more flexibility between the players.  When you do know it, you can win every time – good for you in some ways, but you may find you get fewer goes overall, if your opponent has had enough.

Strategy: the skill

Part of what games help us to do is to learn strategy – whether it’s a small system or a big one. Many of the board games we can play as we get older require strategy – but luck is still part of it too.

I’m not the greatest at strategy.  Pit someone with strategy against someone who doesn’t really get it, and the strategist always wins.  (This does not encourage the Sore Loser to move on.)

It is a balance, too, with junior players. So yes, you may help them learn some strategies, but you probably find some ways to level the playing field a little in the meantime.

This is why games with a chance element have worked well for us – because junior players have as good an opportunity as any, and because chance can undermine the strategist too.

And part of why we play, in any case, is because we don’t know the outcome – so it becomes worth our while to try, and to influence that outcome if we can.