Outdoor games - what, why, where and how?

Almost everyone is familiar with the idea of ​​increasing the size of the playing field and dice, transferring the board game from the living room to the garden or city park. More commonly seen examples are chess , dominoes and checkers , as well as various interpretations of the classic " Circus ". But this is only a small part of the "big picture" when it comes to outdoor games, and these ideas are not as modern as they might seem. Lewis Carroll wrote "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" as early as 1865, showing that a card can be a disguised player, but the history of board games shows that a large number of classic games are suitable for playing in less than pleasant weather.

Three things, good things. Outdoor games can be conditionally divided into three categories:

• outdoor games (“ Croquet ”, “ Spin ladder ”, “ Spikeball ” (Roundnet),
• board games that are easy to play outside and easy to take with you (“Hive”, “ Castles of Burgundy ”, “ Tsuro ”, “ Patchwork Doodle ”)
• and board games that can be created (or purchased) for outdoor use, such as Throw Throw Burrito or Dobble Waterproof and Dobble XXL.

Each of these categories is more or less suitable for how much you plan to move and what kind of weather is expected. In rainy weather, it is certainly not very convenient to lay out " Twister " in the grass, in windy weather you may lose part of the " Uno " grip, while snow cones can only be played in winter.

From another point of view, the age and number of players is of course also important.

• Skill games like “ Crazy Eggz ”, various word guessing and communication games are great fun to play with friends or family. For example, the game " Black stories " is both easy to take with you and easy to teach.
• For playing in a company with a wide range of ages, games are useful, where you can introduce additional rules to make them more interesting by asking more difficult tasks for adults. For example, in the game " Safari Animal Giant Dominoes ", the smaller players can enthusiastically search for matching animals, while the big ones can earn points for the team by naming facts or answering the game leader's questions.
• Games that can be played in teams while still moving around, such as Ring Toss and Kubb , are a good idea for camp games. Deckscape can be useful for team building and is easy to hold. On the other hand, " Sonar Family " can be an alternative for those who want to sit by the fire for longer in the evening. If there is time and the opportunity to invest time in preparation, it is sure to be fun to play outdoor " Rich Racha " - explore the original game, draw a field on the asphalt with different colored crayons or prepare plastic/wooden circles (more expensive in terms of time and money), for teams of players, becoming dice, you will need the same handkerchiefs and it is recommended to use oversized dice.

Creative solutions for real gaming enthusiasts.

Larping (from the English language: larping, LARP - Live Action Role-playing Game ) is often associated with acting out movies, books or historical scenes. This somewhat peculiar form of entertainment was created around 1970, but began to gain more popularity about ten years later. But if you're an enthusiast of a role-playing, strategy or political game and know the rules as well as if you made them yourself, you won't have a hard time imagining that your favorite board game could also be implemented as a LARP event . It will take time and preparation, as well as thinking about which elements of the game to adjust. When studying your image, you should think about how the image treats other images and what is its value system, so more attention should be paid to biographies. Depending on your taste and how much time you want to spend in the game, there is also quite a wide selection here, such as “ Game of Thrones ”, “ Star Wars Imperial Assault ”, “ Grimm Masquerade ”.

Some useful facts.

Looking back at what has already been mentioned, it is worth emphasizing insights that will be useful when evaluating other games not mentioned here.

• Wooden and plastic parts will not be damaged by rain, and they are also often heavier, so they can be used for playing outside in windy weather.
• Games whose dice are magnetized are also harder to lose and less susceptible to wind.
• Guessing games, story-telling and fact-finding games can easily be played in the field if one of you is ready to take the role of game leader, holding the playing cards.
• Simple games can be supplemented with their own rules to be interesting for both young and old.
• Remember that game pieces can be creatively replaced with ones more suitable for outdoor play.
• Players can also take on the role of dice in the game.
• Dice-based games take up relatively little space, are weatherproof and easy to adapt or add to.

We also offer to watch a video about what to do outside.