Games with Funny Names
Shall We Play A Game? How about this one?
Up Against the Wall Motherfucker: This game took as its subject the student riots at Columbia University and was originally published in the 11 March 1969 number of the Connection, a supplement to the Columbia Daily Spectator, near the date of the first anniversary of the riots. Jim Dunnigan, then aged 25 and described in the game's "designer's notes" as a history major in the School of General Studies, had already designed 1914 and Confrontation and was at the time working on Origins of World War II, but was asked to take time out to work on this design.The game is for two players, Radicals and Administration. The map features eleven tracks for each of the political subgroups in the game (e.g. Black Students, Moderate Strikers, Alumni, Harlem Community). The objective for the players is to have the most influence, determined by the positions of markers on these tracks, for their side by the end of the twelfth turn. During a turn, players deploy abstracted units representing their political leverage onto the tracks to 'attack' the other player's units (as tokens, Dunnigan suggests small pieces of paper coloured red or marijuana seeds for the Radicals, and blue bits of paper or capsules of Seconal for the Administration) and so move the markers towards their 'end' of the tracks. The 24 Contingency Cards add some randomness by taking or giving units of wherewithal to one player or another.
Or the ever so pleasant nuclear war?
Nuclear War: A comical cataclysmic card game for 2-6 players of all ages. A humorous confrontation between touchy world powers as each player attempts to sway his opponents' populations with diplomacy, propaganda, and finally nuclear weaponry. Little old ladies defect in electric cars and the dread SUPERGERM spreads devastation! Takes about 10 minutes to learn and about 30 minutes to play. Invented by Doug Malewicki in 1965, this game has remained popular for over 20 years. Anyone who ever had to participate in a "civil defense drill" by hiding under his or her desk in grade school, or ever had a bomb shelter in the back yard should play this game. One of the few games where it is possible to have no winners (often everybody loses!). You have to play it to believe it. This game's a blast!
And this post wouldn't be complete without the token crazy economist game: Fuck Your Buddy:
Shall We Play A Game? How about this one?
Up Against the Wall Motherfucker: This game took as its subject the student riots at Columbia University and was originally published in the 11 March 1969 number of the Connection, a supplement to the Columbia Daily Spectator, near the date of the first anniversary of the riots. Jim Dunnigan, then aged 25 and described in the game's "designer's notes" as a history major in the School of General Studies, had already designed 1914 and Confrontation and was at the time working on Origins of World War II, but was asked to take time out to work on this design.The game is for two players, Radicals and Administration. The map features eleven tracks for each of the political subgroups in the game (e.g. Black Students, Moderate Strikers, Alumni, Harlem Community). The objective for the players is to have the most influence, determined by the positions of markers on these tracks, for their side by the end of the twelfth turn. During a turn, players deploy abstracted units representing their political leverage onto the tracks to 'attack' the other player's units (as tokens, Dunnigan suggests small pieces of paper coloured red or marijuana seeds for the Radicals, and blue bits of paper or capsules of Seconal for the Administration) and so move the markers towards their 'end' of the tracks. The 24 Contingency Cards add some randomness by taking or giving units of wherewithal to one player or another.
Or the ever so pleasant nuclear war?
Nuclear War: A comical cataclysmic card game for 2-6 players of all ages. A humorous confrontation between touchy world powers as each player attempts to sway his opponents' populations with diplomacy, propaganda, and finally nuclear weaponry. Little old ladies defect in electric cars and the dread SUPERGERM spreads devastation! Takes about 10 minutes to learn and about 30 minutes to play. Invented by Doug Malewicki in 1965, this game has remained popular for over 20 years. Anyone who ever had to participate in a "civil defense drill" by hiding under his or her desk in grade school, or ever had a bomb shelter in the back yard should play this game. One of the few games where it is possible to have no winners (often everybody loses!). You have to play it to believe it. This game's a blast!
And this post wouldn't be complete without the token crazy economist game: Fuck Your Buddy:
Here's a description from another site:
One interesting tidbit from the book by Sylvia Nasar, A Beautiful Mind, is from when Nash was a graduate student at Princeton in 1950. Students Nash, Shapely, Shubik, and McCarthy, along with another student named Mel Hauser, invented a game involving coalitions and double-crosses. Nash called the game-which was later published under the name ["So Long, Sucker"]-Fuck Your Buddy. The game is played with a pile of different-colored poker chips. Nash and the others crafted a complicated set of rules designed to force players to join forces with one another to advance, but ultimately to double-cross one another in order to win. The point of the game was to produce psychological mayhem, and apparently it often did. McCarthy remembers losing his temper after Nash cold-bloodedly dumped him on the second-to-last round, and Nash was absolutely astonished that McCarthy could get so emotional. "But I didn't need you anymore," Nash kept saying, over and over.
And finally, if you REALLY want to be popular, try the Dollar Auction (by Shubik, one of the guys mentioned above) Also has information on Fuck your Buddy
One interesting tidbit from the book by Sylvia Nasar, A Beautiful Mind, is from when Nash was a graduate student at Princeton in 1950. Students Nash, Shapely, Shubik, and McCarthy, along with another student named Mel Hauser, invented a game involving coalitions and double-crosses. Nash called the game-which was later published under the name ["So Long, Sucker"]-Fuck Your Buddy. The game is played with a pile of different-colored poker chips. Nash and the others crafted a complicated set of rules designed to force players to join forces with one another to advance, but ultimately to double-cross one another in order to win. The point of the game was to produce psychological mayhem, and apparently it often did. McCarthy remembers losing his temper after Nash cold-bloodedly dumped him on the second-to-last round, and Nash was absolutely astonished that McCarthy could get so emotional. "But I didn't need you anymore," Nash kept saying, over and over.
And finally, if you REALLY want to be popular, try the Dollar Auction (by Shubik, one of the guys mentioned above) Also has information on Fuck your Buddy
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