Hide - Tiny Games for Trips

This electronic edition published in 2016 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

First published in Great Britain in 2016 by Osprey Publishing,

PO Box 883, Oxford, OX1 9PL, UK

PO Box 3985, New York, NY 10185-3985, USA

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2015 Alex Fleetwood & Osprey Publishing

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Print ISBN: 978-1-4728-1594-1

PDF e-book ISBN: 978-1-4728-1595-8

EPUB e-book ISBN: 978-1-4728-1596-5

www.ospreygames.co.uk

Osprey Publishing supports the Woodland Trust, the UKs leading woodland conservation charity. Between 2014 and 2018 our donations will be spent on their Centenary Woods project in the UK.

HELLO!

THIS BOOK IS NOT DESIGNED TO BE READ IN ORDER.

Weve split the book into two sections: . Dont worry if youve got a favourite game and want to play it everywhere. Most of these games will work in any context with a little imagination.

Head to the to find a game that suits your number of players. Have fun!

INTRODUCTION

Travelling is, pretty much by definition, not something we choose to do for its own sake. Its something we put up with in order to get to a place we want to be.

Sure, there are plenty of people who really like train journeys, actually - but if you offered them the chance to teleport instead, how many of them would still drag their bags out to the train station? And there are people who like cars a lot, sure, who would drive around even if they didnt have to - but there arent many people who are just really, really into being a passenger.

Combine that with the risk of travel sickness if you read on a journey, and the fact that theres not much STUFF to distract yourself with, and its no wonder that travel games have a long, long history.

A lot of traditional travel games are about noticing things, or responding to them. Looking out for particular cars, objects, behaviours. Remembering what someones seen or said. They use the world thats passing by as part of the game.

The idea of Tiny Games has always been about looking at the world around, and finding something in it that can be used for play. Tiny Games for Trips connects to a long tradition of play as a way to maximise the fun of both the journey and the destination even if we dont have any games about poking your brother in the arm.

Holly Gramazio, Matheson Marcault

GAMES FOR BEING THERE

HEIST, HEIST, BABY
2+

ARE YOU GOING ON A WALK? CAN YOU ASSEMBLE AN ELITE CREW OF UNWILLING STRANGERS TO HELP YOU PULL OFF AN IMAGINARY HEIST?

You are each in charge of assembling a crack team of mercenaries for an upcoming heist. As you walk, look around for who you would want to join your crew. Whether youre robbing a bank, breaking into an art gallery, or infiltrating a fancy casino, you need a varied team with specific skills on your side.

Consider all the classic roles: driver; muscle; technician; safecracker; face; computer hacker, and so on. Once youve called someone, nobody else can claim them. But youre also stuck with them forever, so be careful.

Your final team will need to be exactly four people (plus yourself, naturally) so make sure youve assembled them by the time you get to where youre going. Once everyones team is complete, argue about who has the most elite squad to determine the winner.

RAINBOW RACING
2+

ARE MANY PEOPLE AROUND?

Be the first to build a rainbow by spotting and calling out the colours on things worn by passers-by.

Each player will start by spotting someone wearing red, and pointing them out to the other players. Each passer-by can only be used by one player. Then that person starts looking for someone in orange. Then someone in yellow. Then green. Blue. Purple.

No need to take turns. Spot quickly! This is Rainbow Racing, after all, not Rainbow Waiting Politely. The first player to spot and call out a whole ROYGBP rainbow wins. Why not try playing again in the dark?

ALPHABET STREET
1+

ARE YOU UP FOR A BIT OF A VAGUE WANDER?

In this game, you wander around and at every junction, walk down the street that comes first alphabetically. Point in a direction and start walking! Each time you come to a junction of two streets, take the one thats alphabetically first.

Numbers come before letters, so 2nd Avenue, for example, trumps Grand Street. If you cant see the street names, do the opposite of the last turn you made (e.g. if you went right, now go left). Stop when you find somewhere nice for a sit-down.

THE SOUND OF MUSIC
3+

ARE YOU WILLING TO SING RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW, IN FRONT OF EVERYONE?

Look out for people with headphones on. What do you think theyre listening to? Britney? Bon Jovi? Beethoven? In this game youll answer that question with singing.

The biggest exhibitionist goes first. Secretly pick a person around you whos wearing headphones. Start singing a song you think that person may be listening to. Based on your performance, everyone else must guess which person you picked.

Keep going, taking turns until you run out of people with headphones. For the advanced version, dance along instead of singing.

PICK UP THE PACE
3+

DONT DAWDLE!

In this game, your aim is to shout Im behind you! from at least ten feet behind the other players. However, you cant turn around and go back in the direction you came you can only slow down or stop. If anyone notices a player doing that, they can call out Pick up the pace! and you have to catch up with them. Can you get behind the other players before the game ends?

TWICKERS
2+

ARE THERE TWIGS AROUND?

Grab a twig. Any twig. No, not that one something with a bit of strength or flexibility to it. In this game, youre going to pair up your twigs and pull on them ... and see which breaks first. So choose wisely.

As youre wandering around, keep an eye out for twigs, and choose one each. Once you all have a twig, pair up! Hold your twigs criss-crossed with each other, so that when you pull on the ends, they pull against each other. On the count of three pull your twig towards yourself ... whichever twig breaks first loses.

Keep the winning twig and see how many others it can beat! Perhaps cover the best twig in gold leaf for your mantelpiece?

LEAFBLOWER
2+

ARE THERE ANY LEAVES LYING AROUND ON THE GROUND?