I’m always looking for both game and
craft ideas appropriate for my four year-old “Little Guy” who
often needs a more active diversion from the television (even if it’s
stuck on PBS Kids...). So I was momentarily excited to receive an
e-mail from one of the arts and craft stores I frequent with the
subject line, “Family Winter Games Night - DIY
Style!”
I’ve often wondered when “big box”
arts and crafts stores would start customizing website content,
project ideas, and events toward kids seeking to create their own
games using supplies from the aforementioned stores. I naively
thought this event might be a step in that direction...and was
promptly disappointed to find out it wasn’t about making family
games in winter, but gathering the family to celebrate the “winter
games,” otherwise known to the rest of the world as the winter
olympics. (No doubt the craft store lawyers were just being careful
by not using what some might argue is a proprietary, trademarked
legal nightmare....) The crafts in question included making an
olympic torch out of a paper tube and colored tissue paper, creating
“team uniforms” with t-shirts, and painting wooden disks tied
with ribbons for award medals. These were nice, creative activities
on their own, but not quite what I as a gamer parent was looking for.
Like office supply stores, crafts
stores serve as vast toy stores for gaming adults. Whether you play
board games, miniature wargames, or even roleplaying games, craft
stores offer a fantastic variety of materials for gamers: model
trees, flocking, and foam for building terrain; wooden bits for
creating different kinds of game pieces; cheap paints and brushes for
painting miniatures; felt for simulating base battlefield terrain;
wooden and cardboard boxes for game storage or in-game props; even
corner rounder punches for giving print-and-play cards a more
professional look (as demonstrated by Cheapass Games’ amazing James Earnest).
I’ll offer two resources for craft
game ideas, both of which can send you off to the craft store for
supplies and additional ideas.
The first I’ve discussed before: R.C.
Bell’s Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations (1969).
The book remains one of several core references on historical games I
keep in my office. It offers overviews of numerous board games
throughout history and across cultures, including diagrams and
photographs of game components, historical notes, rules (some
extrapolated from sketchy sources, but still playable), and numerous
variants in painstaking detail. Bell also categorizes games into
various types, many of which focus on common components and themes.
An all-too-brief chapter, “Making Boards and Pieces,” discusses
using different materials to create game components based on the
historical descriptions provided. (I’d also recommend David
Partlett’s The Oxford History of Board Games [1999], which
draws on Bell’s work, provides far more commentary on some games,
and may be more available.)
I’d also recommend a website I
recently discovered – Aunt Annie’s Crafts – specifically the
website’s “Craft Project Index.” Scroll down to “Games To
Make” and you’ll find instructions for making boards and pieces
for several games from around the world, including instructions for
playing and brief histories. Most include PDFs of game boards for use
as patterns, but they might easily serve as print-and-play
components. These projects come framed as family craft projects and
include a host of tips for using different materials for boards,
pieces, and other elements easily suited to a variety of visual
tastes.
These options focus more on classic
games from history, but a trip to the craft store can prove
inspirational for original board games, miniature wargames, and
roleplaying games. What do I look for at craft stores to satisfy my
gaming needs? The woodcraft department offers a host of toys: wood
and cardboard boxes for games and props, glues, craft “popsicle”
sticks, and, of course, wooden pieces for games, from cubes and tiles
to pawns and specialty shapes. The floral department usually stocks
colored glass and real stones for playing pieces as well as foam
pieces for crafting into wargaming terrain and buildings; floral tape
and reindeer moss found there can help turn some wire into a tree for
the gaming table. Many stores stock school diorama supplies including
pre-painted plastic figures, trees (like my favorite to horde...palm
trees), stone and grass flocking, and model trees; some even carry
models and plastic toy soldiers from various eras with various gaming
applications.
Other odds and ends I’ll check or
purchase include three-foot-square sections of felt for small
wargames or roleplaying game miniatures; pens, brushes, and paper
(parchment paper is great for medieval roleplaying game props);
tracing paper; peel-and-stick laminate sheets for protecting props,
reference sheets, and home-made cards; and a host of paper crafting
materials.
Some day, I suppose, craft stores might
catch on and offer at least some encouragement – in the form of
website content project ideas and some in-store promotions – for
kids seeking to create their own games with craft-store materials.
Until then I continue visiting craft stores when I can to provide a
host of supplies for my numerous hobby gaming activities.
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