How much of a cultural icon is Stephen King? I notice his name appears quite frequently these days as a game question. Playing EYE TO EYE tonight, where players try to write the same answers as other players to a given subject. We all cringed when the category was, "Stephen King books." Humm, so many. Which ones would my friends choose? Knowing so many was suddenly a problem.
King has also been a Jeopardy category.
Makes me wonder. . . what board game best lends itself to a "Stephen King" edition?
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OR, even better: THE SHINING Game. This one's for real!
THE SHINING GAME
"The Shining" is a game based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. One player controls the evil and sentient Overlook hotel, the other the Torrence family, winter caretakers of the haunted estate. Using ambient hedge animals, terrifying phantoms and possibly human possession, the hotel tried to claim young, psychically gifted Danny as it's own - by killing him. But Danny and his family will not go gentle into the dark night.
This game was designed with the knowledge and assistance of Stephen King, who was one of the first play-testers. It is available for free download at http://micro.brainiac.com/contest-games.html.
Winner of the first Microgame Design Contest, in 1998.
This is from the review of THE SHINING game, discussing the game play itself:
The game starts just as a huge approaching winter storm front has been announced on the news. The forecast is for several inches accumulation each hour over the next 12 hours. Wendy has to tell the family to prepare for the storm. That's the moment that the ghosts give up all pretense to lurking and the hunt is on!
One person is the Torrence family player while the other plays the House. There are numerous ways to win, but victory boils down to driving the enemy from the field of battle. To me, that seems a bit strange for a game about a haunted house. Think of it as a light wargame.The game covers just the battle of Overlook Hotel so there's really no exploration of a haunted house involved. That's not really a detriment as it makes the game short and action-packed, almost cinematic (if everyone gets in the spirit of things).
Players alternate turns hunting each other's units, or trimming the hedge. The Torrence family can either mentally combat the ghosts or physically attack the topiary outside. Those possessed hedge sculptures can actually do some damage if you don't cut them down to size early on. Ghosts can attack either mentally (possession) or physically (poltergeist). Decoys just look scary, once they're revealed they are removed. All units go down in ability as they take hits (kept track of on a separate record sheet provided). So a unit's values on its counter represent only the unit's conditions at the start of the game. Combat is different for each type of being doing the attacking (human, ghost or topiary). That takes a little getting used to and means that the numbers on the counters cannot be easily compared.
Implements of destruction and the snowmobile are located in the garage. There's a knife in the kitchen. Certain other rooms must contain a haunt. Otherwise the rooms are pretty much the same. Except that the elevator is the only way to get from floor to floor, and it's never where you want it to be.
It took us a couple of false starts before we got the hang of playing THE SHINING. Jack should get the axe from the garage and start trimming the hedges (and stay away from ghosts). Danny should dispatch the haunt in the playground and then head inside to terminate ghosts (and avoid topiary). And poor Wendy has to race downstairs to monitor Boiler pressure. We soon learned that the major concern of the Torrence family was not the ghosts, but the Boiler! Without almost constant supervision, the Boiler pressure will build until it explodes and the whole hotel burns down. This has happened in every game I've played. Sounds like an insurance con to me...
Can everybody flee the hotel in time? Will they turn into depraved fiends due to the mental corruption of the ghosts? Will Hallorann get here in time (summoned by Danny's "Shining") to save the day?
THE SHINING packs a goodly few surprises and fun. And it's free. Of course, you'll want to add a few "house" rules of your own to season to taste.The full review is at: boardgamegeek.com
Eric Walkuski at joblo.com explains, "THE SHINING was turned into a board game back in 1998, apparently with the assistance of Stephen King himself. And it's not a board game you go out and buy - you can actually print it out and play it ASAP! One player controls the evil and sentient Overlook hotel, the other the Torrence family, winter caretakers of the haunted estate. How awesome is that?"
Just for fun, check out Emily Temple's article, "10 Literary Board Games for Book Nerds," because you know you reading Animal Farm isn't enough -- you've got to play it.
RELATED: Stephen King Video Games
is there actually a Stephen king monopoly, and how would I get a copy for a Christmas gift
ReplyDeleteSorry, not that I know of.
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