Do-it-Yourself Fun

Thanks to Dana at Principled Discovery for her post “A makeshift education” for the inspiration to finally post the following. Really, I’ve been meaning to for months.

I truly believe that the best kind of fun anyone can have is the fun you make yourself. Whether that’s writing a story, making your own costumes for a play or making up your own games. We’ve all heard the adage that kids will almost always have more fun with the box the toy came in than the toy itself.

I was one of those kids. Thankfully I never outgrew it and passed on my affection for the handmade to my kids. Recently (okay about 6 months ago) we started working on a board game for Daughter and her friends to play. After a few beta tests, some tweaking of the rules and touch ups to the board, it’s finally done.

I thought I’d share the process for anyone interested in trying this with their kids. The materials required are very basic and the game itself can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it. Ours is pretty complicated and takes well over an hour to play but you can certainly scale it down to suit your needs.

How to Make Your Own BoardGame

Materials: Piece of cardboard big enough for your play area, some modelling clay or plasticine, some blank business cards, a black felt tip pen or marker and (not shown) several coloured markers or pencil crayons.

Main Objective: Board games are actually quite simple in their construct – start with an objective and then add situations that both impede and assist in attaining it. So, keeping in mind the ages of the children most likely to play the game and what their interests are, start with the main objective.

Examples:

Noah’s Ark, players are animals who have to make their way to the Ark.

Jungle Adventure, players are explorers who have to get through the Jungle.

At the Palace, players are courtiers trying to win the King’s crown. (This is the one we did.)

Player Objects – This is what the clay or plasticine is for. Make little player objects that are in keeping with the theme of the game…or not. Really, it’s totally an issue of creativity. If Susie wants to make a rocket ship to play a medieval game, who cares. Just have fun with it. If you are using clay, you can paint them once they’re dry.

Movement – For the sake of keeping this fun and not obnoxiously complicated, I suggest using dice to move around the board. You can manage without them and if you are so inclined to be that creative, more power to you. Also, for older kids you might consider including other movement options (ie: spaces on the board and action cards) for variety.

Currency – Almost all boards games have some form of currency, and it’s not just money. Currency is any resource or materials that can be used and/or traded to advance your play. Use the business cards for this.

Examples:

Noah’s Ark – Players collect food to trade with other players. (Herbivores can trade meat for grass with Carnivores)

Jungle Adventure – Players collect ropes and tools to help them through the jungle.

At the Palace – Players collect favours and soldiers to advance their standing at court.

Actions – There are two ways to do introduce actions into play, spaces on the board and action cards (for which we used the business cards). Actions should consist of both positive and negative situations that will either hinder or help the player.

Examples:

Noah’s Ark – A rhino kindly offers you a lift, move ahead two spaces. / A lion chases you up a tree, miss a turn.

Jungle Adventure – A gorilla steals your lunch, go back to camp. / Wandering in a cave you find a rope and a torch.

At the Palace – You are overheard gossiping about the King, lose a favour. / You defend the palace from an invading army, gain two soldiers.

The Board – Honestly, this is the trickiest part and the one that requires the most planning. I suggest working it out on paper first. I had delusions of creative grandeur when we started we ended up with a complicated board that has levels and such. Though it worked out, I probably could have saved myself a lot of aggravation had we gone a little simpler.

If you want to go simple, begin with a starting square in one corner of the board and a finish square in the opposite corner. From there draw a simply patterned path from one to the other. Remember, do this on paper FIRST.

Once the layout is done and you’ve decorated your board with markers or pencil crayons, it’s time to mark your spaces with actions. You can either mark the action right on the space or use the business cards to write them out and just mark the space ACTION or with a corresponding colour code or graphic.

The Rules: Make them up as you play. I’m serious. Don’t go thinking that the rules will just come to you before the die is cast. They won’t. Oh sure, you’ll have some basic ideas but until you actually sit down with the kids and play it, they will be very vague and the kids will no doubt point out the various holes in them.

Well, I guess that’s it. Though it is time consuming (imo, in the best possible way) I found it to be one of the best projects we’ve ever done together. And we can play with the results for years to come.

Please let me know if you try this, I’d love to know how it goes.