Jim Gladstone - Gladstones Games to Go: Verbal Volleys, Coin Contests, Dot Deuls, and Other Games for Boredom-Free Days

Dear Reader,

I dont believe in boredom.

So I dont rely on boards.

Since I was a kid, playing games has been one of my favorite ways to stave off the doldrums of the occasional idle hour. On birthdays and holidays, I collected box after box of cardboard and plastic diversions, from Monopoly and Stratego to Mousetrap and Ker-Plunk. But the games that proved most engagingand the ones Ive continued to play long after my last Cootie antenna disappeared into the nooks and crannies of a long-gone sofawere the games that didnt require any special equipment, just a friend or two and some spare time. Games like I Went to Grandmothers House, Geography, and Ghost, which my Mom and Dad taught my brothers and me on long drives to the beach. (All three are updated and included in this book.)

Part of the reason games like these have become longstanding favorites has to do with the way my lifes pace has picked up in adulthood. Im less likely to have idle hours than idle minutes, and instead of occurring at home with a closetful of toys nearby, they hit me in sneak attacks while Im sitting on trains, waiting for flights, or sitting in a hotel lobby. I tend not to carry a Scrabble set with me. Sure, Ive usually got a laptop and a PDA handy, but since most of my working hours are spent alone staring at pixellated text and images, computer games have never cut it for me. So now Im the crazy guy who leans over to my traveling companionsor even to a stranger in the SkyLoungeand says Wanna play a game with me?

The boardless games featured in this book are terrific icebreakers, enjoyable pastimes, andin many casesthoroughly absorbing entertainment. The likes of Ex Post Facto, Bongo, and Meta-Boxes can be played in twenty minutes or less, but they can also lead to endless hours of strategic thinking and the invention of new variations.

Its that playful impulse to invent, imagine, and adapt that ultimately made the book so much fun to write and will hopefully add to the pleasure you take from it. Yes, every game Ive included has clearly presented rulesbut rules are meant to be broken, transformed, and rewritten. After fiddling with the rules of old-fashioned Grandmothers House, I came up with new-fangled Chain Reaction, which quickly became a caf favorite of my word-loving friends. Bongo was born when I began musing over a way to combine Boggle and Bingo.

When set free of pre-printed boards and boxes, games are like folksongs; theyre yours to reinvent and pass along. So, please, after you try these games, spin off your own variations and hybrids. Permit your mind to go wild. Think off the board and out of the box.

Let my book be your plaything!

Yours in good fun,

Jim Gladstone