WEEKEND FUN FOR THE INTELLIGENTSIA

From the UK comes 1KBWC or One Thousand Blank White Cards . The inspiration for the game came from an accidental misreading of stationery. It requires a great deal of artistic or at least right-brain talent. The cards are partly borrowed from previous games played by the players and by others around the world who have played, and partly made up on the fly. They are dealt out and ‘played’ on the remaining players. Serendipitous scoring is involved. If you understand the rules to Hermann Hesse’s Der Glasperlenspiel (the Glass Bead Game), you’ll be able to take it from there. Thanks to Caterina.net .

From California comes The Go Game , a kind of wireless variant of a car rallye and scavenger hunt. Each game involves teams of 4-6 players attempting to complete a series of interesting and/or silly ‘missions’. Wireless clues and instructions are transmitted to the teams at key points in the game. One player from each team videos the completion of each of that team’s missions. Teams then meet all together at a predesignated bar or other treffpunkt, caption and edit their videos via a laptop editor, and then each team in turn displays their video on a large screen. The winner is the team voted by all to have the best video.

Oh, and before I forget, Vive la révolution anti-WordBurst de Oulipo!