GB2218647A - A board game - Google Patents

Abstract

Apparatus for playing a board game comprising a playing surface (11) marked to represent the major geographical features of a physical region, such as a country (12, 13), with a plurality of routes (16, 17, 18) across the board from one or a plurality of starting positions to a destination, the routes being regularly sub-divided into areas (16a, 17a, 18a) representing units of distance, a plurality of player tokens, and means for determining the number of distance-representative units to be moved by a player's token at each turn, including a plurality of question-and-answer cards (19) having an image on one face and instructions to the player on the other, the card determining the number of distance-representative units of a route to be displaced during a given turn for correct answering of the question. Other question-and-answer cards (20), play money (21), and dice may be used. <IMAGE>

Description

A BOARD GAME The present invention relates generally to a board game, and particularly to a board game having novel characteristics in the design and form of the board and in the other equipment or playing game.

A large number of board games exist, many of which are in the form of "progress" games which involve the progressive movement of players' pieces around a course in accordance with the rules of the game and as dictated by chance determined, for example, by a number generating device (usually a pair of dice) and with a specific target or destination as the end point of the game.

Other board games, often with a more educational intent as well as providing entertainment value, include means by which the patient's skill and/or knowledge can be tested during the course of the game and used to influence its progress.

In the main, games which are merely "progress" games involve little sophistication and almost no interaction between players, progress along the course being determined solely by the chance throw of the dice and being entirely uninfluenced by the actions of the other players. There are, of course, games such as backgammon, which are highly interactive in the sense that the options for play available to one player are strongly influenced by the moves and decisions made by the other.

The present invention seeks to provide a board game of the "progress" variety which has a high entertainment value, but which is also educational and, furthermore, has possibilities for promotional aspects to be introduced both of a regional and a commercial character.

Recently great popularity has been achieved by quiz games which are propagated by the broadcasting media and also available in the form of domestic or family board games.

The popularity of such games is seen both in terms of the opportunity for individuals to display their skill and knowledge, and also (particularly from a parent's point of view) as an opportunity to instill extra education into their offspring.

The present invention seeks, therefore, to provide a board game which combines the beneficial aspects of conventional or known quiz games with the entertainment and excitement value of progress-type games.

According to one aspect of the present invention, therefore, apparatus for playing a board game comprises a playing surface marked to represent the major geographical features of a physical region, such as a county, with a plurality of routes across the surface marked from one or a plurality of starting positions to a destination, the routes being regularly sub-divided into areas representing units of distance, a plurality of players' tokens, and means for determining the number of distance-representative units to be moved by a player's token at each turn, including a plurality of cards or other information-bearing elements marked with indicia representing instructions to the player on one face and with an image on the other, the image being related to the instructions in influencing the number of distance-representative units of a route to be displaced by the token during a given turn.

The physical region represented by the playing surface may, for example, be an individual county and the equipment for playing the game may include means for disseminating information about the features of the county. For example, not only geographical features, but artistic (namely musical, theatrical, etc) features, commercial features and the like may be incorporated into questions the answers to which determine the progress of a player's token along the selected route from a starting position towards the destination. In addition, the routes may include branches leading to intermediate destinations (and there may be other intermediate destinations along the routes other than the branches) at each of which an opportunity arises, according to the rules, to answer a question from a store thereof, for example on the cards or other indicia-bearing elements.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention there are further provided a plurality of value-representative tokens, and the rules provide for the accumulation and/or distribution of such tokens during the progress of the game. For example, the value-representative tokens may be collected by a player upon successfully answering questions whilst at an intermediate destination, the question being taken from the top card of a stack thereof for this purpose, and exchanged for the right to pass certain barriers or to gain access to other intermediate destinations at which the value of the correct answer to a question is greater than the intermediate destinations first mentioned.

The apparatus of the present invention may further include means for generating random numbers, such as a die, or may be entirely free from random influences with the players' progress being determined solely by the correctness of the answers given to questions from one of a plurality of sources individually indicated by the areas into which the routes are sub-divided. For this purpose the distance-representative areas of each route may be provided with indicia representative of the or a group of instruction cards and/or questions to be answered before allowing further progress along the route and/or decisions on alternative route branches to be made. In such an embodiment the need for random numbers influencing the progress is entirely avoided and the game may be viewed, in this respect, entirely as a game of skill and knowledge.

The nature of the questions marked on the cards is preferably related to the geographical area represented by the playing surface or board itself, and may include, among others, questions directed to the history, personalities, geographical features, and other aspects such as the music, literature and art of the region, the myths and folklore associated therewith, the present day commercial concerns influencing the development of the region, local attractions and beauty spots which a visitor may wish to enjoy and so on.

The playing surface or board, because it represents a geographical area, preferably has an irregular outline accurately, or at least closely, representing the outline of the geographical area itself. In order to avoid storage problems, however, it is preferred that the playing surface or board is provided with fold lines by which various lobes of the outline may be folded over to present a more or less regular outline or at least a shape which can be fitted into a box or casing of conveniently regular shape for storage purposes.

One embodiment of the present invention will now be more particularly described, by way of example, with reference to the single figure of the accompanying drawing which is a schematic perspective view of the apparatus of the present invention adapted for playing a board game based on a geographical representation of a county.

In the exemplary embodiment to be described herein the county taken for discussion is the County of Cornwall, but it will be understood that this introduces no limitation to the scope of the present invention and the geographical area covered by a board or playing surface formed as an embodiment of the present invention may cover any geographical area and, indeed, any geographical extent. For example, it is envisaged that playing surfaces formed as part of different embodiments of the present invention may represent a whole country, or even a whole continent or, at the other end of the scale, may represent merely the local geographical area around a village or town.Because of the strong geographical associations it is anticipated that promotional and advertising aspects of the game will be important and that sponsorship for production and distribution of such games may be obtained from local organisations who stand to benefit from an increased awareness of the facilities within a geographical area. Owners of local attractions appearing as destinations or intermediate destinations in the game, local councils seeking to benefit the residence of an area by attracting tourism and or incoming industry, owners of hotels or other organisations may all be interested in contributing towards either production of the game, or acting as distribution outlets, or may even wish to be involved in organising public competitions based on games played with the apparatus of the present invention.

Referring now specifically to the drawing, the apparatus shown comprises an irregularly shaped board the outline of which represents the County of Cornwall and a small part of the adjacent County of Devon. The board as a whole is generally indicated with the reference numeral 11 whilst the portion thereof representing the County of Cornwall is identified with the reference numeral 12 and the portion representing the County of Devon is indicated with the reference numeral 13, the boundary between the two counties being identified with the reference numeral 14.

It is well known that the County of Cornwal contains a headland which constitutes the western most tip of the mainland of England, known as "Lands End" and this region is indicated in the drawing by the reference numeral 15.

In the apparatus of the present invention the Lands End area constitutes the ultimate destination which can be reached by one of three routes starting from the area 13representing the County of Devon. These three routes are marked to follow actual routes through the county, and comprise a main or trunk route 16 running in a spinal fashion through the centre of the County and following the path of the main trunk road through the county (the A30) with a southerly route representing the path of the A38 road being indicated with the reference numeral 17 and a northerly route represented by the northern coast road being indicated by the reference numeral 18.Along these routes the positions of major towns such as Plymouth, St Austell, Truro on the southerly route 17 and Bodmin, Redruth, Camborne on the main route 16 with Wadebridge, Tintagel, Newquay, St Ives and the like being marked on the northerly route 18.

Although marked to represent a map of the County of Cornwall, the constraints exerted by the necessity for moving players' tokens over the board make it necessary for these routes to be marked on a much larger scale than the corresponding roads on a route map, and likewise for the purpose of playing the game each of the routes 16, 17, 18 is sub-divided into a number of approximately equal sized areas identified by the subscript a each of which represents one unit of distance along the individual route. Thus the distance-identifying unit areas on the southerly route 17 are identified with the reference numeral 17 and correspondingly for the areas a 16 and 18 on the central and northerly routes.Each of a a the areas 16a, 17 , 18 is marked with a symbol which a represents the action which must be taken by a player when his player's token lands on that particular area during the progress of the game.

The form of the players' tokens may be determined, in dependence on the particular geographical area represented by the board 11, and in the example illustrated the players' tokens are all selected to have some form of link or connection with the County of Cornwall, namely a Cornish pasty, a lifeboat, a Cornish tin mine (mine house and chimney) and so on. The symbols marked on the distance-unit areas 16a, 17 , 18 identify a a one of a plurality of sets of question cards (two of which are shown in the drawing and identified with the reference numerals 19, 20) together with a value to be attached to the correct answer, if such is given, to the question indicated on the question card in the stack 19, 20 thus indicated. The value represents the number of distance-unit areas traversed by the player's piece if successfully answering the question.Alternatively, of course, one or more dice may be provided for determining the number of distance-unit areas 16a, 17a, 18a traversed at each turn by the player's token with a different reward for the correct answering of a question.

Additional value may be placed on questions asked when the player's token lands on an intermediate destination such as one of the major towns in the area or one of the tourist attractions such as those referred to above, and this may be provided by value-representative tokens shown in the drawings by the stack of such tokens identified with the reference numeral 21.

Although the primary object of the game is to displace a player's token along one of the major routes 16, 17, 18 from the "Devon" area 13 to the "Lands End" area 15, the rules of the game provide that entry into the Lands End area requires the player to exchange or give up a certain number of value-representative tokens 21 and since no such tokens are distributed to the players at the beginning of the game it is necessary for them to acquire and collect such tokens during their progress.The rules of the game may provide, for example, that such value-representative tokens 21 may only be acquired by a player successfully answering a question whilst at an intermediate destination off the main route between the starting point and the destination as represented by the branch routes illustrated in the drawing in the Roseland Peninsular and The Lizard and represented by the reference numerals 22, 23. Other such branch routes may of course be provided but have not been represented for simplicity. The two stacks 19, 20 of question cards are different in kind in that the cards on the stack 19 have on one face pictures or images related in some way to the question which is posed in writing on that face with the answer on the other face, together with a map identifying its location and a brief note of the history or other matters of interest. Because the players' knowledge of the area may be limited some of the questions may be posed in the multiple choice format now often used for school examinations. For example, the image face may show a picture of a church or famous place within the geographical area represented by the board 11 whilst the wording may pose a question such as "What is this monument?' or "To whom was this monument erected?" or "By whom was this monument erected?" or any other such relevant question intended to elicit information which might be expected to form part of the general knowledge about the area. Questions relating to the history of the area or other aspects thereof may be supplemented, in the manner outlined above, by images which may form part of the question or may form clues to the answers.The question cards in the stack 20, on the other hand, are entirely different in having no images on one face but being marked with a grid of squares in the manner of a crossword the clues to which are marked on the reverse and the answers to which determine the progress of the player during the current or the next turn and/or the accumulation by that player of value representative tokens 21.

Because the outline of the board 11 represents the county of Cornwall its shape is inconvenient for storage in a box or other such container, for which purpose the board is formed with fold lines 24, 25, 26 enabling it to be folded into a rectangular area represented by the broken outline rectangle 27 (although not filling this area) for placement in a box or other container of this shape.

Other embodiments are envisaged in which the playing surface is formed as a number of pieces which fit together in the manner of a jigsaw. The number of pieces may vary as desired from, for example, six upwards, and provision may be made for interconnecting adjacent geographical areas to enlarge the playing surface if desired.

As the players travel along the routes towards the intended destination they must always seek to accumulate sufficient value representative tokens to gain entrance to the ultimate destination at Lands End. Of course, in addition to opportunities for accumulating value representative tokens there may also be penalties and forfeits resulting, for example, from a failure to answer questions correctly or for other misfortunes of travel, for example landing on distance-unit areas 16a, 17 18a, thus marked. In embodiments of the invention utilising dice as random number generators it will be possible to overshoot the Lands End destination, in which case the player is assumed to have travelled onto the Scilly Isles, and must then throw the right number to make the return journey by boat or helicopter to Lands End.In addition to the accumulation of value representative tokens 21 other means of evaluating a player's score may be provided in the form of a score sheet 28 and marking instrument 29 which, as outlined above, may bear an advertising message either promoting the area or a tourist attraction within the area. Other challenges could be in the form of amusing "dares" or forfeits providing interest apart from the activity on the board itself. Some or all of these diversions may provide means of accumulating value representative tokens 21- in readiness for arrival at the ultimate Lands End destination.

The images on the cards 19 may include more than just the question and its points value; for example the image may constitute a map on an enlarged scale to show the location of the view on the front of the card and/or a short caption outlining its interest to the tourist. In this way the game may provide a challenge, entertainment, inspiration and interest in the area represented by the board 11. In addition to occupying the players it would also act tastefully to promote the area without obvious vulgar commercialisation.

Claims (10)

1. Apparatus for playing a board game comprising a playing surface marked to represent the major geographical features of a physical region, such as a County, with a plurality of routes across the board from one or a plurality of starting positions to a destination, the routes being regularly sub-divided into areas representing units of distance, a plurality of player tokens, and means for determining the number of distance-representative units to be moved by a player's token at each turn, including a plurality of cards having an image on one face and instructions to the player on the other, the image being related to the instructions in determining the number -of distance-representative units of a route to be displaced during a given turn.

2. Apparatus for playing a board game as claimed in Claim 1, in which there are further provided a plurality of value-representative tokens and the rules provide for the accumulation and/or distribution of such tokens during the progress of the same.

3. Apparatus for playing a board game as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2, in which the board is further marked with diversionary intermediate destinations, arrival at and departure from which involves the acquisition and/or exchange up of value-representative tokens.

4. Apparatus for playing a board game as claimed in any preceding Claim, in which means for determining the number of distance-representative units to be moved includes a random number generating device.

5. Apparatus for playing a board game as claimed in any preceding Claim, in which the distance-representative areas of each route are provided with indicia representative of the or a group of instruction cards and/or questions to be answered before allowing further progress along the route and/or decisions on alternative route branches to be made.

6. Apparatus for playing a board game as claimed in any preceding Claim, in which instruction cards include crossword puzzles or other cryptic information the solution to which indicates an intermediate destination constituting the player's position at the end of a turn.

7. Apparatus for playing a board game as claimed in any preceding Claim, in which the instruction cards are grouped according to the nature of the instruction and rules provide for a player to select the group from which an instruction card is drawn during his/her turn.

8. Apparatus for playing a board game as claimed in any preceding Claim, in which the playing surface has an irregular outline simulating the border of the region represented thereby.

9. Apparatus for playing a board game as claimed in any preceding Claim, in which the playing surface has fold lines formed therein enabling it to be folded into a regular outline (eg rectangular).

10. Apparatus for playing a board game substantially as described herein with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.