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Classic Game favorites for gift idea?

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Sat, 10/17/2009 - 22:16
Shae
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Hello all,

Apologies if this is in the wrong place. Nothing seemed exactly right.

My husband and I have been making each other Christmas presents for several years now, intentionally, to make gifts more meaningful and less commercial, blah blah blah. The point is to make good gifts, too, no soap-on-a-rope crap.

The past two Christmases I made him an Interactive Fiction game and a beautiful pachisi/chausar board game, the latter of which we found boring to play with only two players, but we weren't experienced with the game. Games seem like a good choice for a masculine homemade present, and I can sew, sculpt, draw, and just about anything else that might be required.

Obviously it would be cool if I came up with an original concept for a game, which I'm in general capable of, but I'm not sure inspiration will hit before Christmas.

So the next best thing is to make a classic board game that works for two players. No chess or checkers, we have too many of those already. We also have mah jong, dominoes, go and mancala.

Does anyone have ideas for classic board games that are easy to learn, make-able and playable by two players?

Thanks!

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Sat, 10/17/2009 - 22:57
#1
scifiantihero
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What about . . .

A card game with a board, like cribbage? If you can do some basic carpentry, you can make a really nice one of those.

How about a storage solution to a preexisting game? A wooden card box could be nice. Or a set of drawstring bags with hand made logos on them for his favorite game? I would get pretty excited about a set of those for twilight imperium, if I got them.

Or customized game parts for the favorite game? "Look honey, I painted all your war of the ring miniatures/ made you dozens of sculpy animals for agricola!"

Anyway, those are my best ideas :)

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Sat, 10/17/2009 - 23:12
#2
Shae
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Good ideas, scifiantihero...

Good ideas, scifiantihero... cribbage is an especially intriguing one. Thanks!

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Sun, 10/18/2009 - 03:34
#3
scifiantihero
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If . . .

. . . you go about making a cribbage board, make sure the board has something really, really well measured and in place to be up against to drill the holes straight.

I, uh, messed that up once >.<

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Sun, 10/18/2009 - 15:31
#4
Andy K
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How about Marrakesh?

I'd second the recommendation of cribbage.

Marrakesh is another great card-game-with-board for two players. It's a fun little backgammon variant that would require a few more components (a couple decks of cards, some dice and some chips/markers). I've been wanting to make my own board for this game for a while.

Here's a photo of the components. Rules can be found here.

Great Christmas tradition, btw!

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Sun, 10/18/2009 - 22:42
#5
Nix_
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Reversi

Reversi is a fairly addicitive 2 player game. There aren't a lot of customization options, but I'm sure you could switch up the pieces or the look of the board.

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Mon, 10/19/2009 - 16:51
#6
Shae
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Thanks

Andy, that game looks cool and I was not familiar with it. I will check it out!

Nix, I had seen Reversi somewhere actually and wondered if it would be a good choice.

Thanks guys!

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Mon, 10/19/2009 - 21:06
#7
SiddGames
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Crokinole

Have you considered a fine dexterity game like Crokinole, or Carrom?

Here is the BGG entry for Crokinole: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/521

And you can see some really excellent custom boards at the Hilinski Brothers' site: http://www.hilinski.net/woodgames/

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Mon, 10/19/2009 - 21:08
#8
SiddGames
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Ooo, I just noticed the

Ooo, I just noticed the Hilinski's have a whole section on how to make a board: http://www.hilinski.net/woodgames/howto/howto.html

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Tue, 10/20/2009 - 18:41
#9
Shae
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ooh

Those boards are beautiful, Siddgames. Neat idea.

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Wed, 10/21/2009 - 00:03
#10
ilta
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What about Go?

Go is an amazingly deep game for two players, yet there are only three rules. Imagine if Chess was 100 times more awesome, and also the national sport of Japan with a history dating back 4000 years, and you have Go.

For your project, Go has the advantage of being gorgeous to look at yet fairly easy to make. You need a flat board (traditionally wooden) with a 19x19 grid, and a number of pieces ("stones") that fit on the grid intersections, in two colors (traditionally black and white). A place to keep your stones and the stones you capture from your opponent is also nice; I've seen bags and Mancala-style depressions in the board itself, but the usual approach is to use cups with depressed lids.

Here's the BGG page:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/188

Make sure to check out the gallery.

You can, of course, put anything you like under the grid, although in keeping with Japanese aesthetics it's traditionally left blank. However, I have a Go board that I bought in Japan that features boldly printed anime characters (there's actually a wildly popular children's television show about Go, that's how big it is over there). Seeing their action poses, go stones in hand -- Go is Serious Business to these characters -- always gets a giggle from anyone I play it with. You might want to go with a landscape, something abstract, or a (subtle) picture of the two of you, though.

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Wed, 10/21/2009 - 08:49
#11
Dralius
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what does he like?

ilta wrote:
Imagine if Chess was 100 times more awesome.

and 100 time harder to master.

Go or even Chess are not for everyone.

Let’s start at the beginning. What are your husband’s three favorite games traditional or otherwise? And what if any games does he hate?

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Wed, 10/21/2009 - 09:38
#12
InvisibleJon
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Consider various free print-and-play options?

Shae wrote:
The past two Christmases I made him an Interactive Fiction game and a beautiful pachisi/chausar board game, the latter of which we found boring to play with only two players, but we weren't experienced with the game. Games seem like a good choice for a masculine homemade present, and I can sew, sculpt, draw, and just about anything else that might be required.

Obviously it would be cool if I came up with an original concept for a game, which I'm in general capable of, but I'm not sure inspiration will hit before Christmas.

So the next best thing is to make a classic board game that works for two players. No chess or checkers, we have too many of those already. We also have mah jong, dominoes, go and mancala.

Does anyone have ideas for classic board games that are easy to learn, make-able and playable by two players?


Since you're interested in original games, I wonder if a nice version of a free print-and-play game could be a good answer? There are a lot of free print-and-play games that you could make nice sets for. Given the information you provide, and that you made a pachisi set last year, I suggest a game I made called Runaround. Runaround is a parchisi-like game specifically designed for two players, so it shouldn't be boring with two. The primary "gimmick" of the game is if you land in a space adjacent to an opponent's piece, you swap places with that piece. Since the track loops back on itself several times and the players move in opposite directions on the board, this lets you leap ahead while pushing your opponent back. It's available at http://www.invisible-city.com/play/461/runaround – I've also designed a board for four players for it, so if you decide to make it and you'd like the four-player board, please let me know.

Other games I've designed that might work for your situation:

Duplexity: A game of temporo-spatial manipulation in the past, present, and future for you and your evil twin. http://www.invisible-city.com/play/511/duplexity
Blam!: Looking for someone to shove? Strategize in Blam! with two to four elbow-room seekers. http://www.invisible-city.com/play/29/blam
Rocketball!: A no-hands, no-feet, no-touching game of soccer for two players and a screaming-hot ball. http://www.invisible-city.com/play/62/rocketball
Manic Minelayers: Litter the playing field with mines to trap your pitiable opponent in this two-player strategy game. Triumphant laughter is optional. http://www.invisible-city.com/play/26/manic-minelayers

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Wed, 10/21/2009 - 12:52
#13
ilta
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Dralius wrote:ilta

Dralius wrote:
ilta wrote:
Imagine if Chess was 100 times more awesome.

and 100 time harder to master.

Go or even Chess are not for everyone.

Let’s start at the beginning. What are your husband’s three favorite games traditional or otherwise? And what if any games does he hate?

I agree that those are absolutely the questions to ask. No sense in making a game that he'll hate. However, I have to take issue with what you said about Go. While it's true that Go is incredibly difficult to master, and significantly more difficult than Chess, it is easier to learn, which I think is more relevant here. As I said, there are only three rules.

Go may not be for everyone, but I believe that everyone should at least try it.

A nicely carved chess set, by the way, also makes a good gift but the OP said she had plenty of those already.

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Fri, 10/23/2009 - 14:13
#14
Shae
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Wow, thanks for all the responses!

>>and 100 time harder to master.
Go or even Chess are not for everyone.<<

Actually, we have a Go board, so I'd like to go with something else. No pun intended. :)

>>Let’s start at the beginning. What are your husband’s three favorite games traditional or otherwise? And what if any games does he hate?<<

Great question. Let's see. He loves Chess, Stratego, Risk, and Carcassone. So we can already see a pattern there. He also loves Scrabble, though.

Games that he hates? Neither of us are crazy about Monopoly I guess. He hated the card game "Set" -- thought it was too much like work. Generally though he can have a good time with just about any sort of game.

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Fri, 10/23/2009 - 14:16
#15
Shae
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InvisibleJon wrote: Since

InvisibleJon wrote:

Since you're interested in original games, I wonder if a nice version of a free print-and-play game could be a good answer?

This is certainly an idea, Jon! I will definitely check out your games!

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Fri, 10/23/2009 - 14:37
#16
Dralius
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Me Too

Shae wrote:
InvisibleJon wrote:

Since you're interested in original games, I wonder if a nice version of a free print-and-play game could be a good answer?

This is certainly an idea, Jon! I will definitely check out your games!

Oh ya, you could make a nice set of one of my free games too :)

http://www.pyromythgames.com/offerings/freegames/freegames.html

I would recommend Depth Charge & Festival Climbers since most the others are played using standard decks of cards, checker sets etc…

Another option for free games is making a Piece Pack for him. http://www.piecepack.org/ there are all sorts of game that can be played with that.

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Fri, 10/23/2009 - 18:01
#17
InvisibleJon
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Wish I'd thought to mention this...

Dralius wrote:
Another option for free games is making a Piece Pack for him. http://www.piecepack.org/ there are all sorts of game that can be played with that.

Also a very good call.

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Sat, 10/24/2009 - 19:33
#18
Shae
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So many great ideas. I will

So many great ideas. I will investigate them all, and keep you all posted on what I decide to do!

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Sat, 10/24/2009 - 19:35
#19
Shae
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My husband is a big fan of

My husband is a big fan of public domain / open source sorts of stuff. At a glance, the piece pack looks super cool.

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Sun, 10/25/2009 - 09:21
#20
Shae
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Best Piece Pack Games?

I'm thinking about printing out the piece pack and playing around with it to see if I like it enough to make a more permanent set.

Does anyone have recommendations for favorite piece pack games that I should check out first?

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Mon, 10/26/2009 - 17:22
#21
SiddGames
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Check BGG

I haven't played a piecepack game myself, but try hitting this page on BGG: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/136

Under "Linked Items" are all the games linked to that system in the database. You can sort by rank or rating and take a look at the ones that are most popular, relatively speaking.

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Tue, 10/27/2009 - 16:10
#22
Shae
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thanks

Awesome Sidd, thanks! Now I can be sure I'm checking out some of the more popular ones.

I saw several references to the "7 original rule sets" in some of the documentation out there on the Interwebz, but couldn't actually find these mythical rule sets. I don't suppose anyone knows what they are?

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Tue, 10/27/2009 - 16:36
#23
Shae
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Anyone play piece pack?

I have to admit I'm pretty excited about the piece pack concept, because it means I can give him more than one game for my effort. Plus it's a nice looking set of pieces.

However the highest rated game on the previous link is 7.64, and many of the ratings are lukewarm. Some of the games appear to require more than one piece pack, or even Icehouse pieces.

I'm starting to wonder if this is a better idea on paper than on reality... does anyone really play piece pack games? Anyone actually enjoy them?

I'll check around on other boards too, to see what people think.

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Tue, 11/03/2009 - 20:03
#24
Shae
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Oh.

I'll take the ringing silence as a "no".

Guess it's time to reconsider the print and play games, cribbage and reversi.

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Sun, 01/03/2010 - 18:34
#25
Shae
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Thanks!

Hello all!

Just wanted to say thanks for the advice I got here! I settled on making the piecepack after all, after finding some highly-regarded rule sets at the piecepack mailing list. Thus far we've played Evade and Froggy Bottom, and both have proved fun and very replayable.

I will more than likely be revisiting the other ideas in this thread next year when it's time to make the next Christmas gift -- there were so many good ones!

I can't figure out how to post photos here, so follow the link to my (mostly neglected) blog at http://recoveringredneck.wordpress.com/2010/01/03/piecepack to see my creation.

Thanks again.

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Sun, 01/03/2010 - 21:18
#26
sedjtroll
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This thread is awesome

I guess I missed it the first time, but I just wanted to say that this entire thread is awesome. I love everything from the initial question, to the great responses, right down to the finished product!

Happy New Year everyone!

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