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ladyofastolatLittle do inhabitants of the Mainland know that they are missing out on one of the most exciting games known to man. Until now, it has been a closely guarded secret, known only to us Isle of Wighters, whether native or adopted. But now the secret can be revealed. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you "Catch that ferry!".
Who can play? 1 - 5 players (or more, in a large car). It works best with 2. Any age can play, but one player needs to be at least 17, possessing of a driver's licence.
Equipment One car
Setting up This game has a long set-up. It is not one that can be played on impulse at midnight after an evening of wine. Never ever try to play it under those circumstances. At least a day before you want to play the game, book a ferry ticket - a return* - to the Mainland. It doesn't matter what your Mainland destination is. Novice players tend to choose somewhere they have visited before, but the game works best if you choose somewhere new. Hard-core players pluck a name out of a hat randomly, and might end up visiting a tiny hamlet in Scotland, for no other purpose than to play the game on the way back.
(* These rules are written on the assumption that you live on the Isle of Wight, but visitors can play it, too, when travelling to the Isle of Wight.)
Once you have chosen your destination, you need to work out which ferry to book for your outward and return journeys. It doesn't matter how you decide this. The only important thing for the game is which ferry you choose to book for your return journey. Once you have done this, you calculate your departure time (Departure Time). If you have opted for the easy version, and gone to visit somewhere on the Mainland that you have visited before, and thus know the journey well, this is easier than if you have opted for the hamlet in Scotland.
To set your Departure Time bear in mind that the ferry company ask you to arrive half an hour before the ferry leaves. Being good Isle of Wighters, you know that this only applies to tourists, and you can show your native credentials by swanning up with only 30 seconds spare. However, being English, you know that you ought to do what you are told, and give yourself the pleasure of 30 minutes in a queue, and you also know that the person who arrives last, native or not, will be the last off, which is bad. You then need to guess how long your homeward journey might take, factoring in wild guesses about the state of traffic that day/season/time/state of weather, add in a bit "just in case" and announce your Departure Time.
Playing the game: Decide who will be the Driver, and who will be the Navigator(s). Both roles are in a position to influence the outcome of the game, but game-play is very different for each one. The game starts when your Departure Time has been reached, and you Depart. Lengthy goodbyes and last-minute dithers are good tactics, if they delay the Departure Time by a few minutes. You then commence your journey home.
At some point, when s/he judges it best, one player will kick off the game proper by observing, "you know, I think we have a chance of arriving in time to catch the ferry one hour earlier than the one we're booked on."
The aim of the basic game is to arrive in time to catch the earlier ferry, while simultaneously convincing all other players that this result is not going to be achieved (but see the note on the Secret Mission Add-On, below.) After play has been commenced, the game is very free-form. Like Mornington Crescent and poker, which is closely resembles, it is a game of psychological warfare and bluff.
Example for newbies: A sample exchange in the game (two-player version) might be:
Player A: (points at road sign) "43 miles to Southampton, and we've got 41 minutes to do it."
Player B: "We're doing a steady 80. We should be okay"
Player A; "But the last five miles are in the city and there are lots of traffic lights. We need at least fifteen minutes for that."
Player B: "But it is Sunday afternoon."
Player A: "Yes, but it's half term, and it will be just around the time that the shops shut."
Player B: "Which means everyone will be leaving the city, not going in."
Player A: "But there's a lorry ahead. We're going to get stuck for a bit. And there are sometimes queues near junction 9. And it's the end of half term, so the ferry's probably full anyway, so even if we do arrive in time for the earlier one, we won't fit on. No, it's best to give up hope completely. We'll never do it."
Player B (after a short while): "I think we still have a hope."
Player A: "We could have made it, perhaps, if we hadn't spent ages saying goodbye/paid a last visit to the toilet/stopped to help a blind cat cross the road. We should have made it, but now we won't."
Player B: "It now says 29 miles to Southampton, and we've got 29 minutes. We've made up time."
Player A: "But is that clock right? My watch says 3.32, while the car clocks says 3.31. Which is right? And the mileage road signs are contradictory, anyway. It's probably more like 30 miles, especially once you consider the one way system in Southampton that sends you all over the place. No, we're never going to make it."
Note that player A is possibly playing a better game than Player B. (It is, however, possible that Player B is playing the "Secret Mission Add-On", by which all players draw a secret mission card before the journey starts. "Stay hopelessly optimistic throughout, despite all evidence to the contrary" one mission might read, or "deny all hope.")
Hard-core variant: The hard-core variant is to deliberately start the journey with a half-empty tank of petrol. That way, the additional question of "do we have enough petrol to reach the ferry, anyway?" will be brought into the game. Stopping for petrol might be a quick win to this aspect of the game, but will lose players vital time and make it less likely that they win the main game.
Quite apart from that game, we had a lovely weekend, eating game, and playing games. "Risk" was epic, despite us frequently resolving rule disputes by saying, "let's use the rules that will give us a shorter game." It was proved that whisks and bracelets make a far more fascinating baby toy than anything designed for babies. Villages are hotbeds of intrigue. Much earnest discussion was had on things that were frequently bizarre and strange - Oh, how I've missed that sort of conversation since leaving Oxford! I met lots of people for the first time (though the epic "Risk" meant that I didn't meet some of them much at all), and have resolved to actually go to things in future, and meet such people again. Many thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wellinghall and Creatrix for the hospitality and food.
Who can play? 1 - 5 players (or more, in a large car). It works best with 2. Any age can play, but one player needs to be at least 17, possessing of a driver's licence.
Equipment One car
Setting up This game has a long set-up. It is not one that can be played on impulse at midnight after an evening of wine. Never ever try to play it under those circumstances. At least a day before you want to play the game, book a ferry ticket - a return* - to the Mainland. It doesn't matter what your Mainland destination is. Novice players tend to choose somewhere they have visited before, but the game works best if you choose somewhere new. Hard-core players pluck a name out of a hat randomly, and might end up visiting a tiny hamlet in Scotland, for no other purpose than to play the game on the way back.
(* These rules are written on the assumption that you live on the Isle of Wight, but visitors can play it, too, when travelling to the Isle of Wight.)
Once you have chosen your destination, you need to work out which ferry to book for your outward and return journeys. It doesn't matter how you decide this. The only important thing for the game is which ferry you choose to book for your return journey. Once you have done this, you calculate your departure time (Departure Time). If you have opted for the easy version, and gone to visit somewhere on the Mainland that you have visited before, and thus know the journey well, this is easier than if you have opted for the hamlet in Scotland.
To set your Departure Time bear in mind that the ferry company ask you to arrive half an hour before the ferry leaves. Being good Isle of Wighters, you know that this only applies to tourists, and you can show your native credentials by swanning up with only 30 seconds spare. However, being English, you know that you ought to do what you are told, and give yourself the pleasure of 30 minutes in a queue, and you also know that the person who arrives last, native or not, will be the last off, which is bad. You then need to guess how long your homeward journey might take, factoring in wild guesses about the state of traffic that day/season/time/state of weather, add in a bit "just in case" and announce your Departure Time.
Playing the game: Decide who will be the Driver, and who will be the Navigator(s). Both roles are in a position to influence the outcome of the game, but game-play is very different for each one. The game starts when your Departure Time has been reached, and you Depart. Lengthy goodbyes and last-minute dithers are good tactics, if they delay the Departure Time by a few minutes. You then commence your journey home.
At some point, when s/he judges it best, one player will kick off the game proper by observing, "you know, I think we have a chance of arriving in time to catch the ferry one hour earlier than the one we're booked on."
The aim of the basic game is to arrive in time to catch the earlier ferry, while simultaneously convincing all other players that this result is not going to be achieved (but see the note on the Secret Mission Add-On, below.) After play has been commenced, the game is very free-form. Like Mornington Crescent and poker, which is closely resembles, it is a game of psychological warfare and bluff.
Example for newbies: A sample exchange in the game (two-player version) might be:
Player A: (points at road sign) "43 miles to Southampton, and we've got 41 minutes to do it."
Player B: "We're doing a steady 80. We should be okay"
Player A; "But the last five miles are in the city and there are lots of traffic lights. We need at least fifteen minutes for that."
Player B: "But it is Sunday afternoon."
Player A: "Yes, but it's half term, and it will be just around the time that the shops shut."
Player B: "Which means everyone will be leaving the city, not going in."
Player A: "But there's a lorry ahead. We're going to get stuck for a bit. And there are sometimes queues near junction 9. And it's the end of half term, so the ferry's probably full anyway, so even if we do arrive in time for the earlier one, we won't fit on. No, it's best to give up hope completely. We'll never do it."
Player B (after a short while): "I think we still have a hope."
Player A: "We could have made it, perhaps, if we hadn't spent ages saying goodbye/paid a last visit to the toilet/stopped to help a blind cat cross the road. We should have made it, but now we won't."
Player B: "It now says 29 miles to Southampton, and we've got 29 minutes. We've made up time."
Player A: "But is that clock right? My watch says 3.32, while the car clocks says 3.31. Which is right? And the mileage road signs are contradictory, anyway. It's probably more like 30 miles, especially once you consider the one way system in Southampton that sends you all over the place. No, we're never going to make it."
Note that player A is possibly playing a better game than Player B. (It is, however, possible that Player B is playing the "Secret Mission Add-On", by which all players draw a secret mission card before the journey starts. "Stay hopelessly optimistic throughout, despite all evidence to the contrary" one mission might read, or "deny all hope.")
Hard-core variant: The hard-core variant is to deliberately start the journey with a half-empty tank of petrol. That way, the additional question of "do we have enough petrol to reach the ferry, anyway?" will be brought into the game. Stopping for petrol might be a quick win to this aspect of the game, but will lose players vital time and make it less likely that they win the main game.
Quite apart from that game, we had a lovely weekend, eating game, and playing games. "Risk" was epic, despite us frequently resolving rule disputes by saying, "let's use the rules that will give us a shorter game." It was proved that whisks and bracelets make a far more fascinating baby toy than anything designed for babies. Villages are hotbeds of intrigue. Much earnest discussion was had on things that were frequently bizarre and strange - Oh, how I've missed that sort of conversation since leaving Oxford! I met lots of people for the first time (though the epic "Risk" meant that I didn't meet some of them much at all), and have resolved to actually go to things in future, and meet such people again. Many thanks to
wellinghall and Creatrix for the hospitality and food.
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Date: 2006-10-30 07:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-30 07:19 pm (UTC)http://boardgames.about.com/od/riskrules/
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Date: 2006-10-30 08:03 pm (UTC)