Kevin's Watch

So... given how very little free time I have right now, and how much of that I'm spending on things other than what I SHOULD be spending it on (Acropolis, Borderlands costuming, Rogue Trader, Valley of Blood, etc.), I had a maybe interesting idea for a silly throw-away game.

We've all, I hope, read the comic strip Calvin & Hobbes, by Bill Waterman. Sometimes, they'd play a game where they would make the rules up on the fly, as they played the game. Every throw, they'd put something more absurd in, until the other player could no longer possibly win.

So, instead of a really detailed turn-based deity game, or a table-top RPG with multiple books of rules to learn (not that I'm not enjoying them... but I'm a junkie and enjoying the rules is what worries me), how do we feel about something simple. Simple at first. After several turns, maybe it won't be so simple.

And yeah... just sitting here typing this, I have no clue how it would turn out. Dread Pirate Jethro jumps in with "Turn submissions must be in haiku", and things get ugly for the rest of us. So then, I guess we declare him the winner and start another round.

Submit in haiku...
Would I give you Hobson's choice,
Take it or leave it?

Appropriate to
Involve Hobbes in Calvinball
Hobson, not so much

I'd say that anything goes, really.

Though, to keep one game from being a repeat of previous ones, maybe we should say that rules submitted in previous games can't be submitted again.

(Hrm. I can imagine this turning into a LOT of homework, after a while. One would need to know which rules apply to the current game, as well as which rules cannot be applied again.)

I've only ever read a couple of the C&H strips but I knew about the game they have because a student wrote it into her paper in first semester

Your game idea could be quite fun, but it sounds like the sort of thing which would work best in the Mallory forum. If you can think of a style which means that the game is only played through written submissions, you may have something!

So, I was thinking that it would be, as Fist will certainly point out, Tabula Rasa... the world is a blank slate. Early turn submissions will be wide open. "There is a field." "There is a house on the field." "There is a man in front of the house." etc.

Eventually, there will become multiple people, whatever.

Honestly, I feel like I'm already limiting the scope of play simply by describing this. But... maybe in future iterations, people will break from the mold of what I'm saying here?

So, I was thinking that there would be a few meta-rules that exist across all the iterations. One of which would be that non-meta-rules would not be allowed to repeat across multiple iterations. Guess if we're getting really particular, we could include things like maximum time between turns, the fact that all turns are done via forum posts, etc.

No Haiku!
(Tigers don't count syllables...we just don't.)

every post must contain the word pink in a logical, correct usage.

"Look! a pink bird!" as I kick the ball towards the goal.

Before the ball goes through the posts, I declare "The pink bird *IS* the goal. You gotta hit it with the ball." Then I throw the ball back towards the bird.

Hobbes points out that all tigers ought to take to heart what Hobbes has to say in Calvin's signature cartoon, lest they find themselves not in the pink.

I shout, "you have to carry the pink bird after the ball has knocked it down!" as i suit actions to words, flinging the ball to knock the bird out of the air, catch the bird mid-air, and run to the goal.

I watch Seven run through the goal with the pink bird under her arm.

"That's one point for you. This goal is now asleep for the rest of the game. No more goals can be scored here."

Hah! Awesome! Calvinball takes over a Pantheon thread.

Calvinball rules!

(Hobbes has the ball, and we're waiting for him to do something pink with it.)

Hey, Hobbes. Did you notice that KW has emoticons for us? We're famous!

Indeed we are. Since we are famous, we ought to stroll down the red carpet...but it faded during our hiatus, so it is now a Pink carpet.

(There, now it is a legal in-game post!)

toss pink bird up in the air, catch it, grab ball, and run through the goal backwards..."Now it's awake again!"

Since Seven ran through the goal backwards, I grab the pinking shears and trim the seven-month-old point from Seven's total on the score sheet.

Must use two paws. Damn my lack of opposable thumbs!

I produce my own pinking shears, which themselves require two hands as a sign of solidarity for my Tiger brothers around the world, and cut the ball in half. I then throw both halves back through the goal from the other side, giving myself two points.

My end-zone dance is both glorious and sublime.

Hate to interrupt you dancing with citrus fruit on your head, but don't you need the pink bird in order to score?

Throwing the ball back through the goal is like a rebound. It's grandfathered off of Seven's use of the pink bird in the first pass through the goal.

I suppose I could instead have used that to un-score Seven's point, but since you just deleted his previous point, I didn't want to be mean.

Also:
Calvin - 2
Seven - 1
Hobbes - 0

Maybe you should quit trying to quibble rules and start trying to score some goals, el tigre stupide.

Glad you don't want to be mean. Would not want to imagine what names you'd be calling your best friend and constant companion if you were irked enough to choose meanness.

How smart do you expect me to be anyway? Only you know I am more than just a mangy stuffed toy!

Besides, goals are not the goal, and points are not the point. We're out here for fresh air, exercise, and fun. A little pink in the cheeks...