Board: The Game

PLAYERS: 3+

COMPONENTS: Anything from any board games. Mix and match. Go nuts. A
board and a set of pieces are recommended, but not essential. These
form the component set. You will also need a set of 8 scoring tokens
unique to each player, and a slip of paper for each player. These are
used to keep score and are considered “outside” of the component set.
Poker chips, differently colored game money, or colored cards all work
well.

SETUP: Arrange the component set in an agreeable fashion among the
players. You can also decide at this point to use any meta-rules (see
below.)

Then, everyone writes down a rule for moving or placing pieces based
on the component set. You may not make a rule that refers to anything
outside of the component set, like rules that reference specific
players or to the scoring tokens.

EXAMPLE: Let’s say you’ve decided to use a chess set and a Monopoly
board. Some sample rules could be: move a pawn onto a community chest
square, move a knight exactly three spaces forward, or remove a piece
from any square containing two or more pieces.

Once everyone has written a rule, play begins. Play starts with the
player who has played the most board games. If all players have not
fully catalogued the number of board games they have played, then the
players must mutually decide who goes first based on some method
appropriate to the component set.

FIRST TURN: On the first turn, players must make a move that follows their rule.

SUBSEQUENT TURNS: Each turn, a player makes any kind of move that they
wish involving the component set. Once a move is made, each other
player sees if the move made follows the rule that he has written
down. If it does, the player whose rule matched hands the player who
made the move one of his scoring tokens. Once all players have either
handed him a token or said that the move doesn’t match the rule, the
next player goes.

EXAMPLE TURN: Using the chess set and Monopoly board, Dave has written
the rule that a queen is moved two spaces or more. John on his turn
decides to move a queen from Boardwalk to Reading Railroad. Since that
move followed Dave’s rule, he would give John one of his scoring
tokens. If the move also happens to match any of the other players,
they would also hand John a chip, or shake their head “no” to indicate
it didn’t match.

ENDING THE GAME: The game ends when a player gives away his last
scoring token. Each player then scores as follows: the number of
tokens a player has received from other players PLUS the number of
scoring tokens you have given to the player with the most of your
scoring tokens MINUS the number of scoring tokens you have given to
the player with the least of your scoring tokens.

EXAMPLE SCORING: Daves gives away his last chip to John. He has
recieved 2 tokens from John and 3 tokens from Jake. He has given 5 of
his tokens to John and 3 of his tokens to Jake. He receives a total of
7 points: 5 for the chips that he has gotten from other players, plus
5 (the number of tokens given to the player with the most chips of
Dave’s, John in this case) minus 3 (the number of token given to the
player with the least chips of Dave’s, Jake in this case.)

META-RULES: Groups may find that they wish to limit certain behaviors
or add rules depending on the component set they have chosen and what
sort of game they want to play. Meta-rules must be agreed upon by all
players when setting up the component set. Suggested meta-rules
include:
-On his turn, before his move, the player must roll a die.
-A player may not move the same piece twice in a row.
-A player may not make the same move twice in a row.
-A player must make a move that makes some perceptible change to the board.
-Each player gets less scoring tokens for a quicker game, or more
scoring tokens for a longer game.