5 Games You Can Play With Only Pen and Paper


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Image Gallery: Toys & Games


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5 Games You Can Play With Only Pen and Paper




You can play this simple game on any type of paper, from a Post-it to a napkin.


5: Tic-tac-toe

Tic-tac-toe is an old standby in the pen-and-paper game category -- make that a really, really old standby. It was actually played in ancient Egypt around 1300 B.C., and the Romans played a version as well. Instead of paper and pen, each player had three game pieces they would move around the game board for an attempt at 3 in a row.

Which, you might know, is the goal of tic-tac-toe (or noughts-and-crosses, as it's known in the UK). To play, draw a grid on your paper of two vertical lines dissecting two horizontal lines. Player one puts an X in a box; player two proceeds to put Os. The point of the game is to try to get three of your marks in a row or to block your opponent from doing so. But beware, the clash of two experienced tic-tac-toe players will often result in a stalemate.

Technology is such that you can now play the game online for free or print off grids to save your wrist the trouble of making them yourself.

4: Battleship

Yup, it's true. The board game actually began as a pen-and-paper game for two. It's quite similar to the game you've probably played with a board and pieces; the object is to "hit" your opponent's ships on their grid by making strategic guesses as to where they are.

If you're desperately trying to entertain the kids on a road trip, give them both two grids each that are sectioned out 11 by 11; the top row marked 1-10, the side reading A-J. (The left-hand corner square will be blank.) Each player gets the following:

  • 1 carrier (5 squares)
  • 2 battleships (4 squares each)
  • 3 destroyers (2 squares each)
  • 2 cruisers (3 squares each)
  • 1 submarine (3 squares)

Have the kids outline all their own ships on one grid and then let them go crazy guessing the other's coordinates (marking down their guesses on the other grid). When one hits all the squares of the ship, it's been sunk. Let 'em at it until someone hits all the ships in the sea; it's a lot better than hitting each other.

It's not looking too good for this guy.

Image source/Thinkstock

3: Hangman

Hangman comes from the vicious time in late-19th century Britain called the Victorian era. (Ok, it's more known for its obsessive decorum and rather uptight mores, but maybe a game where the loser is represented by a man hanging from a gallows was a way to let loose.) It's easy enough: One player thinks of a word (or phrase) and writes blanks for every letter below an ominous-looking gallows with a rope. The other player guesses letters until the word or phrase can be sussed out. The only wrinkle is that for each wrong guess, another body part is added to the swinging rope. (Six body parts are standard: head, torso, two arms and two legs.) You have to fill in the blanks before the man is drawn in completely or you lose (not to mention confronted with your own precarious mortality).

If you're looking for an extremely hard word or you just can't think of anything, there are Web sites (complete with algorithms) that will give you suggestions for the most challenging Hangman words. Interestingly, short words seem to dominate, along with words that have repeated letters. Thus, "jazz" comes out as a top head-scratcher.

2: Consequences

While we usually think of games as point-oriented and perhaps even cutthroat, you might want to do something a little more creative with your pen and paper. If you're interested in harnessing your artistic side -- or just love a good game of Mad Libs -- Consequences might be a good choice for you.

The object of the game is to fill in a template story with your own characters, descriptions and actions. You do that by taking turns with one or more people to choose a word or phrase to complete the story. Fold over the paper after each word or phrase is written so nobody knows how the story is shaping up.

Although there are lots of variations on the story, it usually follows a pattern like this:

  • Adjective for a person
  • Name of a person
  • Met (in a standard game, two characters always meet but you could adjust this to another verb)
  • Adjective for a person
  • Name of person
  • Where they met
  • First person wore
  • Second person wore
  • First said to second
  • Second replied
  • The consequence was... (a description of what happened after)
  • What the world said

For younger players, you can even do a drawing version where each kid draws a head, passes it to the next person to add more of the body and so on until you have a completed "monster" or fantasy creature from each kid's initial drawing.

1: M.A.S.H.





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