Keep those games alive!

Children are inventive, original and very messy. As they get older they start losing these nice qualities. Some manage to hold on. This is what I am trying to do with this blog. My brother - a great inventor of games - kept most of my childhood happily occupied with his original games. This blog started out as a way to keep those games alive. Do read the first few posts to enter his wonderful world. Reader contributions welcome :)

Monday, September 11, 2006

Paper Football

I felt just like a little kid who unexpectedly receives a box of chocolates, and having finished them, finds there is another layer underneath, when Bharath sent me this crazy game.

Here's his introduction to the game:

This is a paper and pencil game... a ruler or similar object with a straight edge helps a lot! Although you can play it by yourself... it's a lot more fun to argue and heckle another person as you snap your pencil to footballing glory.

Step 1:

Draw the goal post and half way line like this:


Step 2:

Each person then alternates to draw their players on the paper. Now if you want to make your field pretty, you can actually draw mini-players, or if you just want to get down to the game draw circles and colour them!

Bharath's tip: It generally helps to have one player in the goal


Step 3: THE GAME

How to kick the ball:

Use a pencil. Place it on your player closest to the half way line, with the pencil head on the player, and snap it in a quick motion towards the player you want to pass the ball to. The pencil makes a straight mark on the paper. Here, Bharath says:
The motion has to be a snapping motion... otherwise you can control the direction a little too well...


Next, use a ruler to determine if the ball makes it to the other player. If the mark is curved, settle it with a nice fight ;-)

If the ball doesn't make it, the opponent's player closest to all this action gets the ball.

So basically you keep passing until you decide to "take a shot" at the goal and evade the goalkeeper. If you do then you score.... Player with the most # of goals wins. :)

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And the layer underneath? The paper cricket game! But that, dear children is for another day. Or, if you're curious, just peek into the first comment of the previous post!