March 15, 2011

Walk in the Rain Board Game


We're in the middle of the rainy season in San Francisco. I find myself walking home during the rain at least once a week. I walk, because traffic slows to a halt and taking the bus would take an hour or more.

Walking in the rain is interesting, but ultimately not pleasant. I was curious if I could make a Board game based on the experience. What emerged is the board game linked below. It's not broad or deep enough for a full game, more like a quick, 20 minute experience that plays with a mechanic.

The mechanic is good and bad karma, basically, how the choices you make when trying to get home impact others as well as yourself.

I think the concept is fun and the mechanic is entertaining. I want to take it further and make something bigger out of it. For now, here is Walk in the Rain. You can see the simple game board at this link here.

I want to thank my playtesters Mike P., Andrew deB., and Beth W.

Copyright 2011 Grant Rodiek

2 comments:

Juan said...

An interesting small game. Some of the Good Things seem more like Neutral things but that's just quibbling.

Grant said...

@Juan Yes, there's a bit of ambiguity. I thought it was amusing how you could do something that seemed good, but was really a shade of gray. Also, how you could use good cards in very bad ways. That was deliberate.

What isn't so great is how the Good vs. Neutral vs. Bad can get confusing. If I call it Good, but it's clearly not, it can be a bit odd.