Yesterday I presented a set of cork chess pieces that I had carved a number of years ago. Cork is easy to carve. To make it easier I even now have a lathe for it, but that's another post!

Today's game is the first card game I ever made: The Game of Bones. (Yes, this was a play off Game of Thrones. No, it's not filthy). This was made for Halloween a few years back, and was inspired by a coffin-shaped box I had found somewhere. The box called out for a deck of cards to be put into it. So that's just what I did.

I forget exactly how the rules of the game came about, but I do remember having fun putting the cards together. I've since gotten better at it and built another deck of cards in this shape but with 3D rendered skeletons instead. That will also be another post.

I still have the vector graphics files that I used to print the cards. Nothing fancy, here. I'd love to find a manufacturer that will print this shape of playing card for something less than $500, but I can't, so I need to do it all by hand. Very, very time consuming.

And finally, the rules of the game:

The Game of Bones

Contents of Game

1 Deck of 52 playing cards, comprised of the following

8 bone cards with each of the following values

Number of Cards	Value of Cards
8	1
8	2
8	3
8	4
8	5

12 target cards in the following denominations

Number of Cards	Value of Cards
3	7
2	8
2	9
3	10
1	15
1	20

Number of Players: 2-4

Game Mechanics

In Game of Bones, each player takes the part of a wizard building an army of skeletons. Each player has a pool of bones (the bone cards) that they take turns to use to add to in-complete skeletons, each of which requires a specific number of bones to become a “complete” skeleton, identified by the target cards. When the skeleton is complete it is removed from play and placed into the army of the player who completed it. The player with the most skeletons at the end of the game wins.

Game Setup

Separate the cards into their two decks:

Bone Cards
- Target Skeleton Cards
- Shuffle both decks and place them, face down, between the players.
Deal 5 bone cards to each player.
Place 5 target skeleton cards, face up, between the players.

Game Play

Decide who goes first. Each turn consists of the following events:

Play a bone card onto a Skeleton card.
1. Claim the target skeleton if complete.
Pick up a new bone card from the bone pile.
If necessary, place a new skeleton card in play.

Completing a Skeleton

A Skeleton card is completed when the sum of bone cards played on it are equal to or greater than the amount of bones required. For example, a target skeleton card that needs 10 bones is complete when there are a minimum of 10 bones from bone cards played on it.

Winning the Game

The game is finished when either all target skeleton cards have been claimed or there are no more bone cards to play. The wizard who has claimed the most target skeleton cards wins.

About Me

Amateur photographer. Wannabe author. Game designer. I dabble a little in a lot. General all around problem-solver and creative type.

Founder of Photo 52 weekly photography competition.

Expert generalist. Jack of all Trades.

Dad.

Tags I Use


Photography
#photo52	#pinhole	#altphoto	#crappycameraphotos
Lego
#spaceforce3

gPCasciUWmEwHnsXKML7xF4NE4zxEVyvENsPKp9LmDaFv4rFd4GjFSqgd6wMshaM2pPRU1cWcAYkTseXCjw1g3BNnem5AUvQeBfzWLo7u4wsnAfDTcRud5oKf95t64GFLoYqWHVrK4QM5aggDC.png

3jpR3paJ37V8JxyWvtbhvcm5k3roJwHBR4WTALx7XaoRovtrdY6hpB9DwvnK1CGqBZsP6rw2AVPXxC5BYEBagf3avrokm8Uc1CrWKk94WppMibYNPLgXnLDkyCJoryipDM6Yn.png

Sort:

Trending

[-]

johneyreacko (62) 4 years ago

Sounds really interesting, and you've clearly put a lot of work and thought into it. Have you been able to play it with anyone?

$0.00

1 vote

wwwiebe (73)PHC - GOLD MEMBER 4 years ago

Thank you! I've played it with my boys and got the very generic "Yeah, it's fun" response from them. Not necessarily the most helpful, but I haven't intended this particular game for wide distribution.