Pencil and paper games
A pencil and a sheet
of paper can give you hours of fun. And although it's lovely to play at a table
out of doors in the sun, these games are excellent for whiling away a wet
afternoon; you don't need much space to play in either!
Our first pencil and paper game is one that many of you have
probably played at some time or another.
Battleships This is a game for two people, in which each of you draws up
a secret plan of attack. You will both need two sheets of squared paper, as
illustrated on the right. Mark off nine squares along the top, leaving the
first blank and then numbering the rest from one to eight. Now letter the
squares running down, leaving the first one blank and lettering the remainder
from a to i. Do this on both your sheets of paper. One of these sheets is for
you to keep a record of the shots you fire at your enemy; on the other you are
going to mark in the squares where you have deployed your fleet. This consists
of the following ships: one battleship (four squares), three cruisers (three
squares each), three torpedo boats (two squares each), four submarines (one
square each). Also on this sheet of paper you are going to mark in shots fired
by the enemy at you. You are free to position your fleet as you please, but you
must leave one square free between each ship and its neighbor.
When the four sheets are ruled up and filled in, you are
ready to start. The first player to attack names a square, for instance
"D3" and draws a cross on his "record of attack" sheet. His
opponent must state truthfully where the shot has landed, either by saying
"Water" or by saying "Hit - cruiser" (or whatever his
damaged ship may be); he also marks in with a cross his opponent's shot, but he
marks this on the sheet showing his fleet's positions. Now it is the other
player's turn to attack, and so you proceed one turn each until one or other of
you has managed to sink all his opponent's ships, thus winning the game.
Incidentally, it is not good enough to sink part of a ship; you must knock it
all out.
This is a basic formula for Battleships; once you are used
to the game you can build in your own variations. You might have fun enlarging
the sea and supplementing your fleets with mine-sweepers, aircraft carriers or
any other vessels you care to add to your armada.
Line drawing Another game for two people. On squared paper, mark in
sixteen points as illustrated above. The player who starts draws a line between
any two adjacent points. The other player must now continue that line to
another point — he can draw horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Take turns
to continue the line until you come to a position where one of you cannot link
up the chain — whoever fails to link up the chain is the loser.
Motor racing To play this you need a long sheet of squared paper. The
first thing to do is to draw in the track, starting at the top of the paper and
running down in a series of sharp bends to the finish line at the foot of the
paper. Draw the sides of the track parallel to one another and at least as many
squares wide as you have competitors.
Any number of you can play; each one needs a different
colored pen or crayon to chart their progress in the race. Take it in turns to
move. The first and second moves are the same for everyone: on your first move,
you advance one square; on your second move, two squares. After this, you can
choose whether to advance the same number of squares as your previous turn, or
one less (ie braking) or one more (ie accelerating). You cannot stand still on
your turn. As well as moving in a straight line, you can go diagonally up or
down to go around the corners.
If your bad driving leads you into a collision, or if you
fly off the track, you are disqualified. First one over the finishing line gets
the winner's flag!
Hangman One player thinks up a word — the more complicated the
better! His opponent now has to guess the word without being
"hanged"! He is allowed to know the number of letters in the word,
the first letter and the last letter, and if either of these occurs elsewhere
in the word. So, if the secret word is OCCUPATION, the guesser would be given
this information to work from: O_ _ _ _ _ ON. He now suggests letters of the
alphabet at random that might be part of the word. Each correct one is filled
in, but for each mistake a new line is drawn on his picture of the gallows. The
drawing shows a completed gallows on which the guesser was hanged; if you count
the lines that compose the gallows and body, you will find 13 errors! To make
the game harder for the guesser, don't give the first or last letter.
Boxing Only two can play — each boxer has his "ring"
which a square is divided into 16 equal sections as in our illustration above,
where red lines mark the sections. Each boxer must now fill up his ring, in
secret. Start by writing S in one of the four outside corners, then numbering
the remaining squares 1 to 15 in any order you like. Once you are both ready
for the fray, you should reveal your cards on the table.
The starter draws a pencil line from his corner marked S to
any one of the adjacent numbers. Now it is his opponent's turn to work on his
own sheet. If he is to win this round, he must draw his line from his corner S
to a higher number than his opponent has chosen. And so the game precedes — the
winner of each round clocking up a point against his name. You can connect to
any adjacent number provided you have not already made that connection
previously in the game — it's easy to see from the pencil lines whether you
have or not.
The game is over either when one of you has put himself in
an inextricable position, or when you have connected up every number to all its
neighbors. The winner is the boxer with the most rounds to his credit at the
end of an agreed time. Jotto
Only two can play this fascinating word game. Both players
draw up two sheets into 35 squares, leaving the top left-hand square blank,
numbering the squares to the right from 1 to 4, and lettering the squares
downwards from a to f, as on our illustration above. Each player fills in the
blank squares on one sheet with letters of the alphabet, excluding the letters
x and y, and selects a four-letter word, for instance bird, which he keeps
secret from the other player.
In turn, each player calls out a letter and a number, for
instance B3. Their opponent has to tell them what the ' corresponding letter of
the alphabet they have written in that square is unless it is a letter of their
secret word in which case they say "Jotto" keeping the letter secret
from their opponent.
By filling in the letters as you discover them from your
opponent on the blank squared sheet, by a process of elimination you will soon
build up an indication of the other's secret word; the first player to make a
correct guess is, of course, the winner. Experiment with more squares and
longer words. |