The A-Z of Playfulness

This cow is brought to you courtesy of BePlayful.org. It lives on a page devoted to the A to Z of Playfulness. Here is a taste of this significantly playful pith:

angels, n. ordinary people
creativity, n. being yourself
danger, n. boredom, blind habit, addiction, workaholism
happiness, n. gratitude for being alive
laughter, n. the noise of a person fully alive
magic, n. reality

This most playworthy site is written by David.

"David is a part-time student, part-time freelance writer, part-time peace activist, and full-time play maker.

"He is married to a beautiful lady called Siona, hasn’t eaten meat for three years (except for one minor disaster in a kebab shop), and rides a folding bicycle.

"David can be followed on Twitter, Stumbled on Stumbleupon, Dugg on Digg, and photographed on Flickr."

David is also hereby and forthwith granted the right to be known as: "Defender of the Playful"

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Pounce

Pounce is about reaction time and perception and perceptiveness, with a wee bit of strategy and a lot of funny fun. There are five kinds of room cards, and five sets of cat cards. Each set of cat cards contains one cat that kind of matches each one of the rooms shown in the room cards. Kind of - because the cat cards don't look exactly like the rooms - they match in color, but they show the rooms from the cats' perspective. So, the room card that has the bird in a cage matches the cat card that has the bird's eye view of the cat. And the room card that has the gold fish bowl matches the fish-eye view. And the room card that shows the bubble bath matches the bubble-covered cat. So just a tad of extra thinking is necessary for successful match-making. Just the right tad.

Players (there are enough cards for 5 players) all pick a cat card from their hand, place it face down on the table, and, when everyone is finished, all, simultaneously yell "pounce", turn their cat card over, and put their paws on the room that matches their chosen cat. The first player to successfully identify the correct room gets that room card.

There's also one card showing Bruno the Dog. The player who holds that card (a different player gets it each round) can, once all cat cards are placed, put Bruno on any room, taking that room out of play for that round. Once a room card is won, it is placed, face-up in front of the winning player. The first to collect four of the same room card, or four different room cards, wins.

Designed by Roberto Fraga for Gamewright, this simple game is surprisingly deep for a kids' game. Easy to learn. Fun to play. But to win, you have to do a lot of second-guessing - basing your strategies on what room cards each player has already collected and which cards are easiest for that player to reach. This second-guessing strategy is especially true for the holder of the Bruno card, but at every play it definitely helps to try for the room card that the other players are least likely to go after. Speed, however, generally trumps strategy. Nevertheless, the older the children are who play the game, the more likely they are to play strategically. The presence of this modicum of strategic depth keeps the game interesting and eminently playworthy.

The art by Dave Clegg is the perfect complement to the game play, adding whimsy and reinforcing the fantasy, cleverly cartoonish without being too childish. Major FUN.

Purveryor of Playfulness

She calls herself Danna Bananas. Clicking through her online store, also called Danna Bananas, is an adventure in whimsy. She has assembled a collection of some of the most novel novelties I've ever encountered on one site - page after page of wacky, funny, laugh-provoking, and often genuinely playworthy tchotchkes.

Take, for example, Airfork One, "made of sleek stainless steel encased in food-grade, dishwasher-safe silicone. Just the thing to bring those mashed potatoes and peas in for a safe landing...Packed in a recyclable clear PET box." It's a fun thing. It's a functional thing. It is sensitive to the realities of child-rearing - embodying a game that hundreds of thousands of parents have played with their babies as they often desperately try to get them to finish their food.

It is for these reasons, and others manifesting themselves throughout her website, that Ms. Bananas joins the ranks of the select few, to be known now and forever more (or less) as a Defender of the Playful.

Danna Bananas, DotP, has managed to share with us her gift of playfulness. She offers us and the rest of the known universe access to silly, sometimes remarkably inexpensive (c.f. Finger Twister), sometimes the semi-miraculous (c.f. the bouncing-on-water Waboba Ball), and often the actually somewhat practical (c. also f. the Banana Handle. Again I quote: "...very appealing non-slip handle grip! You’ve never seen a chimpanzee burn himself on a hot pan, have you? Of course not! That's because Banana Handle's heat-resistant silicone construction protects hands, both human and primate. Slide the ripe yellow peel onto any pan handle and you are fully protected, hands down.") - inviting laughter, paving the way for play. And US residents don't pay tax! What more, I ask you, could you ask?

Tweet her on Twitter.

Ninja vs Ninja

There are two ways to take a good concept for a strategic game and turn it into a game that actually makes people laugh: add a little luck, and a little more fantasy. Ninja vs Ninja is a near perfect example of those principles in action.

The design is saturated with fantasy. The pieces are the embodiment of sword-carrying Ninja-like silliness (they look very much like the picture on the box). There are six black Ninjas, six red Ninjas, two Ninja Masters and two Shadow Ninjas. The areas in which the pieces are first placed are called "dōjō"s. Once a Ninja enters the neutral area separating the dōjōs it is said to be on a "mission." It must penetrate the enemy dōjō and then return in order to win honor (a point) for its master.

The inscrutable forces of fortune are represented by two, 4-sided dice. The dice look like bricks that have been magically skewered, the long-way, by a Ninja sword.

The Master and Shadow Ninjas are above the fray, used, as most masters are used, only to keep score. The Shadow Ninjas track the potential score. The Master Ninjas the actual.

The idea of Potential Score is in itself somewhat mystical. The further a Ninja penetrates into the enemy dōjō, the higher its potential score. However, no score can be granted until that Ninja safely returns to its own dōjō.

In the spirit of Ninjahood, though a Ninja can in fact eliminate another Ninja, no points are scored for Ninja killing. Only those who penetrate the depths of the enemy dōjō and return unscathed earn honor for their master. Unless, of course, all the opposing Ninjas are eliminated. In which case, after the requisite moment of insincere grieving, significant victory is granted to the living, whilst ceremonies of in-your-face glee ensue.

The game has genuine strategic depth. After a throw, you can move any one Ninja in a straight or L-shaped line the number of spaces indicated by the total of the dice. Deciding which Ninja to move along which path in which shaped line, deciding whether to eliminate an opponent's Ninja (o, so tempting, and yet, o, so unscoring), or to move one of your Ninjas further into the enemy dōjō or to race back cross neutral territory to gain whatever points you can - these are all significant, contemplation-worthy complexities.

The two-player game takes perhaps 15 minutes to learn and 15-30 minutes to play (depending on how strategic the players want to get). Kids who are old enough to play checkers and play Ninja will appreciate every aspect of the game, and ofttimes resort to speaking in odd accents and exchanging Ninja-like wisdom. Designed by Tushar Gheewala and published by the frequently Major Fun award-winning Out of the Box, if you're a Ninja-loving, light-hearted strategic game player, Ninja vs Ninja will prove most genuinely Major FUN.

Dvonn

Dvonn is an abstract strategy game for two players. It takes about 15 minutes to play, and, despite the relatively few rules, about a half-hour to learn. That's because there are a few concepts in the game that are, well, different. But it's well worth the comparatively minor effort. It's an elegant game. Absorbing. Challenging. Inviting.

The game begins with players taking turns placing their pleasantly plastic ring-pieces on the board - lovely, thick, clickity plastic ring-pieces. It's highly likely that the first time you play it you'll have no idea why you're placing what, where. As long as the other player you're playing with has as little understanding of the game as you do, then you can think of this part of the game as a pleasant opening ritual. Later, you'll realize that each placement is pretty much a matter of life or death.

After all the pieces are positioned and all the spaces filled, the next and far more lethal of the game begins. You can move any of your pieces to cover any adjacent piece. Once you do that, you have a stack of two pieces. If you want to move that piece, you must move the entire stack. And that stack can only move in a straight line, and must move exactly two spaces. As the game progresses, the stacks get higher and higher until it becomes impossible to move them (too many pieces, too few spaces). There are also three red pieces on the board. Every piece has to be connected to one of these pieces. They can be adjacent to the red piece or adjacent to a piece that is adjacent to a red piece, or adjacent to a piece that is adjacent to a piece that is adjacent to....etc. As soon as this adjacency is disturbed, all the pieces that are no longer connected to a red piece are removed from play. This is a satisfyingly dramatic, and potentially distressing (in a good way) moment.

You can only move a piece, or a stack of pieces, of your own color. The stack may have may have any piece within it. As long as your color is on top, it's yours. Which means that there could very well be a red piece in that stack. Which also means that if it's your stack, you have the power to disconnect.

As you can imagine, though there are relatively few rules, it takes a while to understand to understand all the deliciously intricate implications. Which is why it takes so long to learn them. And once you do, the game takes on a clarity and subtlety that will make you want to play it again and again, as long as you can find someone to play with who knows the game as well as you do. You can accelerate your learning by playing the game online.

Designed by Kris Burm, and published by Rio Grande Games, Dvonn is the kind of game that will be especially welcome by people who like to play games like chess. It is one in a series of 6 abstract strategy games in Project Gipf. This one is clearly Major FUN.

PDQ earns KEEPER award

Every now and a Major Fun game proves to be the kind of game we want to keep in our permanent collection - something exemplary. PDQ is one of those games. Originally reviewed here, PDQ has proven itself to be just that kind of game: fun, flexible, easy to learn and teach, one of those games you just wouldn't want to be without. Here is the review again:

PDQ is a sweet little word game - easy to learn, quick (Pretty Darn Quick) as a matter of fact - a game you can play by yourself or with maybe one, or several or even many other people?

You get a deck of 78 letter cards - nice looking, good stock, big, easy-to-read letter cards. You deal out three at a time, face-up. And then you see who can make a word first, or, in case of a tie, who can come up with a longer word. TLP, for example. Tulip. Sure. Or perhaps Platitude. Platitude. Of course. Longer than Tulip. (Did I mention that you can use the letters backwards or forwards?) (Did I also mention that you can use any number of letters before, between or after the three letters that you draw?) (And, of course, the letters have to be in the same order?)

Designed by Jay Thompson to be played by kids as well as adults (kids use just two cards at a time, word game experts can try playing with four), PDQ is pretty darn close to everything you would want in a word game - 5-30 minutes of engaging, challenging, and frequently laugh-producing fun.

Trango

Trango is a strategic pattern game, with just enough chance in it to keep it as fun as it is challenging. It's a tile game, played with interlocking triangular tiles. The object is to get points by building high-scoring configurations of your tiles.

The game can be played by up to 4 players of strategic-game-playing-age. It takes less than 10 minutes to learn, which is made easier by having the rules printed on the box for easy review by all players, as well as on an included pamphlet.

A great deal of loving attention has gone into the game. And deservedly so. The game takes about 20 minutes to play, and every minute of it is engaging. The triangular box, the 4 triangular compartments for each of 4 different color tiles, the interlocking triangular tiles - all add a welcome touch to the play experience. The interlocking tiles are especially innovative. Because pieces are not just placed next to each other, but actually joined together, the whole, growing configuration of tiles can be easily moved and repositioned so that each player can look at all sides of the constantly changing board.

The single die is designed so that it is much more likely that you'll throw a one, slightly less likely that you'll throw a two, and the least likely that you'll throw a three. What you throw determines how many tiles you can play on a turn. Because you never know how many tiles you or your opponents will play, there's always hope that your attempt at creating one of the four scoring patterns will succeed. Naturally, the larger the pattern that you attempt to create, the higher the score potential, and the more likely it is that you will be blocked. Playing to reduce someone else's chances to win is as crucial to your success as playing to increase your own.

Recognizing possible configurations requires visual as well as strategic thinking. You need to envision how each tile, in each position, can be used in the creation of a winning pattern. And, once you manage to score, it is: a) more likely that you'll be able to score again by adding to that scoring pattern, and b) equally more likely that you'll be blocked.

Because of the random factor imposed by the die, playing with two players is as engaging as playing with three or four.

All in all, Trango is thoroughly satisfying. It makes you think. It makes you laugh. It is indubitably Major FUN, and, from time to time, surprisingly so.

Turtlemania

Turtlemania is a physical embodiment of the very popular solitaire version of a Mahjong game which is not Mahjong at all, but a game played with Mahjong tiles.

It's a beautifully made game, using 136 colorfully embossed black plastic tiles that are pure pleasure to touch and click together and shuffle around on the table top. The tiles are packed in two layers in a special tray. This is then housed in a tight-fitting plastic sleeve. Turn the tray over, place it on the table, and carefully slide the tray out of the plastic sleeve, and you wind-up with something very much like a computer Mahjong array.

The manufacturers suggest that kids as young as 6 can play this game. We've found that though younger kids may be conceptually able to do so, the amount of control and dexterity required to set the game up and play with the wonderfully slippery, thick plastic tiles makes the game much more appropriate for kids older than 10. For these kids, it is wonderfully appropriate. Since they've played the game on the computer, they immediately understand how the game is played.

It is almost a purely visual game, the object being to find pairs of exactly matching shapes. Note the word "exactly" - for therein lies much of the excitement of this puzzle. Some of the tiles are subtly different from each other. Careful observation is required. Additional care must be taken to observe which tiles are available for play.

The physical set turns out to be actually more fun than its computer cousin. The feel, the ease of seeing the layout, the appeal of having all those tiles to play with. And playing with two or more people (as opposed to by yourself) is still more fun. Major, oddly enough, FUN.

Scrabble Slam

Scrabble Slam is an easy-to-learn, quick-to-play word game for 2 to maybe 6 players of equal word-game-playing skill, and, yes, it's Major FUN.

OK, it's not Scrabble. It's more like a Word Ladder puzzle, only without the rungs. And played with cards, rather than paper and pencil. Two-sided cards, actually. 55 of them.

Players decide on a four-letter word, then find the 4 cards with the letters needed to spell that word. These cards are laid face-up on the table to spell the word. The rest of the deck is then distributed as evenly as possible between the rest of the players (in case you're concerned: since there are 55 cards, and 4 are played out, you can only get an even distribution with 3 players). If you want to make the game feel more fair, the stronger player should get the extra card. If you're playing as a family, the youngest player should get the fewest cards.

Once the target word is laid out, players race to change the word, one letter at a time, trying to be the first to use up all the cards in their hand. So, for example, if the chosen word were PLAY, and you had a card with an N on it, you could cover the Y and make PLAN. If you had an F you could make PLAN into FLAN. If you had a T you could make FLAN into FLAT. And so on, and so on, until someone has no more cards to play.

You don't take turns, so you are under significant pressure, especially if you're playing with equally-skilled players. This makes the game short, and very sweet - especially for the winner. Since the cards have two sides (the letters on the opposite side of a card are indicated by small letters in the corners), there's what one might consider a challenge to one's dexterity - not a big challenge, just big enough to add to the tension and provoke laughter.

And yes. There are blank cards, that act just like the blanks in Scrabble. On the other hand, Scrabble it is not. On yet another hand, fun it most definitely is.