You have at least one of the classic back-of-your-aunt’s-cupboard board Cluedo*, Monopoly, Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit. But you don’t want to play that game, because you’ve played it too often, or you don’t have time, or it always ends in tears, or you just want something different.
That’s where the Boardgame Remix Kit comes in.
Tweaking board games—in the form of house rules, usually—is nothing new. Wayne Schmittberger’s New Rules for Classic Games
The fine folks from game design studio Hide & Seek Productions have taken this to a new level with their Boardgame Remix Kit: using the games Clue, Monopoly, Scrabble, and Trivial Pursuit, they’ve created a list of tweaks, new games and mash-ups to breathe new life into these old games. Tweaks are house rules that may make the game faster, or more challenging, or sillier. New Games are just that—a new set of rules that uses the same bits but changes the game, like turning Monopoly into a storytelling game or Clue into a zombie apocalypse. Finally, there are Mash-ups: games that use bits from two games, like introducing bribery and bartering to Scrabble.
The kit is available as an eBook, a set of limited-edition cards, an iPhone app, and soon as a paperback book. (Note: Hide & Seek Productions is a British company, so some of the terms and descriptions of boardgames may not match up exactly to American versions, but on a quick read-through you shouldn’t have too much trouble translating it into American English.)
I haven’t gotten a chance to try out the games, but I’ll give you a more in-depth review later on. I’ll need to go borrow some games, though—of the four, I actually only own Scrabble myself.
*Clue, for us North Americans.
