Mysteries

Games Authors Play

When I was 3, my big sis headed off to college. Beyond school and the occasional play date—which meant someone’s mom had to fire up the station wagon or VW Bug and drive across town—it was up to me to amuse myself…

Reading was a given, of course. But I also had a closet full of board games, most of which I could play as Player One (and Only). I had no idea at the time that those childhood classics would provide valuable lessons for Little Author Me.

My first board games: Winnie-the-Pooh and Candyland. The only real difference between them was that Winnie-the-Pooh’s ultimate destination past the 100-Acre Wood was the North Pole, and Candyland’s was Home Sweet (literally) Home. Pooh had a grab-bag of brightly-colored disc tokens. Candyland had cards with yummy pictures to draw from a deck. But both are fine examples of the Hero’s Journey, moving from point to point despite twists and setbacks (Gumdrop Pass, anyone?). Lesson for Authors: Stick to the plotting trail, and you’ll get there eventually.

Chutes and Ladders: I played this one by assigning turns to–and spinning for–my bored stuffed animals. The idea: Land on a square illustrating good behavior (doing a chore for Mom, for example), and go up the ladder. End up on a naughty square (pulling the cat’s tail, trying to reach a precarious cookie jar on a top shelf), and you’ll fly down a slide with cuts and bruises and a lot of broken dishes. Fun fact: Chutes and Ladders was based on an ancient Indian game known as Moksha Patam, which taught moral lessons about karma and destiny. The “chutes” were…writhing snakes. Apparently Milton Bradley figured kids might not like seeing scary serpents on their gameboard, so they changed the art from Snakes and Ladders to Chutes and Ladders. Wise call, Milt. Lesson for Authors: Always be nice, and keep working hard, because you never know when you’ll go flying down a chute on your way to the bestseller list.

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Operation: A game requiring nerves of steel, miraculous hand-eye coordination, decent motor skills, and a non-aversion to screeching buzzers. Did you know the patient’s name was Cavity Sam? And one of the pieces was The Writer’s Cramp (a pencil in the forearm). Fun fact: The inventor of the game’s prototype, an industrial-design student, sold his rights to a famous toy designer for $500 and the promise of a job after he graduated, which never materialized. Takeway for authors (beyond building typing dexterity): Read your contract very carefully—and watch out for pirates and plagiarists.

Finders Keepers: A memory-game like Concentration. I was never very good at this one, but I shudder to think how unfocused I’d be now if I hadn’t played this game as a kid.

Jenga didn’t come out until later for me, but I had Pick Up Sticks. Authors: These games of patience and skill are fabulous preparation for revising your ms. Add a piece, remove a piece—at your peril.

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Monopoly: Another game I wasn’t particularly good at, other than choosing my game piece and buying up everything willy-nilly on my first trip around the board. It’s impossible to play alone, or with even your most devoted stuffed animals. And it can be extra-stressful when it’s your turn to be Banker. Fun fact: The original game was called The Landlord Game, intended as a warning on greed. A better choice for writers, in my opinion? Go for Broke! It’s the exact opposite of Monopoly, with the goal of squandering the million bucks you’re dealt at the outset ASAP. Instead of a tuxedo, the Monopoly guy wears a barrel. So go ahead, Authors: Spend your big advance at the racetrack or casino, play the stock market and make those huge charitable donations. OR you can just spend zillions of dollars promoting your book. Deplete those royalties immediately! Attend every conference, and be sure to pick up everyone’s bar tab. Take zero deductions at tax time. Authors, this may be your most valuable prep of all!

Clue: As a mystery writer, this game is a must. It intrigued me long before I read Agatha Christie. Even as a kid, I knew I could live in that mansion forever. You will still find me in the library, with all the weapons. Just in case.

This past Christmas, the newest game-player in our family was gifted Candyland and Chutes and Ladders (before Santa knew about the Snakes thing). But the biggest hit for the whole family? Hungry Hungry Hippos! Takeaway for authors: Sometimes, you just have to be a hippo. Go for it, and never, ever give up. The hungrier you are, the better.

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I can’t close without a mention of Scrabble. I know, I know—we readers and authors love to string words together. But Scrabble involves counting as well, and that’s less fun for some of us. This year Santa also brought Bananagrams—and we immediately had a tournament going at the kitchen counter. The little tiles come in a bright, zip-up cloth banana, much more convenient for conference travel. And speaking of conferences, I may bring my still-unopened game of Nancy Drew at Magnolia Mansion to Malice Domestic this year. Maybe someone will play with me.

Readers, what was your favorite childhood board game?

41 thoughts on “Games Authors Play”

  2. My favorite games as a kid were Uncle Wiggly, which is a lot like Chutes and Ladders and Candy Land, and Mouse Trap. But I really enjoyed playing Scrabble with my Gram after school. She was brutal and never let me win. I had to earn it. Good life lesson. I still have the old Monopoly game that my parents bought for my older siblings back during WWII. It has metal pieces and wooden houses and hotels.
    I still love playing board games with the grandkids.
    Carol

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    1. In 7th grade our math teacher designated one day a week as “Math Lab,” where we just got to play board games. A lot of kids chose Chess, but I always went for Battleship!

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  4. I must have played Chutes & Ladders and Candyland. I did know about the Indian background. We bought both when my nephew visited last summer and our trip to Idlewild was rained out. He was okay with not taking turns, but not okay with losing. He’s young.

    I played a lot of Monopoly and usually went bankrupt. Loved Clue. Hated Scrabble – the numbers turned me off. I played a lot of Trivial Pursuit with my dad. Occasionally played Risk, but it wasn’t one of my favorites.

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  5. What a fun post! Must share! My favorites were Clue and Monopoly, and later, Scrabble. I’ve never even heard of Candyland and in Canada we called it Snakes & Ladders!

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  6. Hestia here
    Lisa,
    this post is amazing! What thoughts you put into this! You tricked us into thinking and learning and analyzing!.
    Good job.
    My favorite game besides clue? Parcheesi. I liked knocking people back home. My in-laws play it every night, but their version is called Marbles. What author lesson does this one provide?
    And I’d be down to playing Nancy Drew with you. I have it too, and it’s never been opened. Ooh, I’m going to create a charity basket from Dawn’s authors. Maybe I’ll put my copy in there!

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    1. Thanks for the kind words, Hestia! If you bring your copy, too, we could have a tournament. The package looks very pretty on my bookshelf, though. I bet it would make a lovely basket addition. And ah yes, Parcheesi. Getting knocked back is the worst. But perfect author prep, don’t you think? Onward, colorful tokens!

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  7. I was one lucky kid! My Dad worked for Parker Brothers Games in Salem, so I had my pick of all of them. As a little kid I remember the pick up sticks one and something I think was called Henny Penny. But I grew to love playing Camelot–a cross between chess and checkers–and also loved Sorry. I still have my Authors game. Somebody should re-issue that one with contemporary writers on the cards! I ‘ve also played some marathon Monopoly games that lasted for days!

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    1. Wow! Your dad’s job was the best. Were you ever a test player? And by Authors, do you mean the card game? The only female author I remember in that one was Louisa May Alcott. My dad used to play it with me all the time. I must admit, the grim faces of some of those famous but very dry and stern authors made me never want to read their books. Nathaniel Hawthorne, lookin’ at you!

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    1. I’m not sure I’ve ever played Sorry–but I know it’s super popular. I think my kids played it. I have it in our games cupboard. Maybe I should pull it out and line up my stuffed animals again.

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    1. Deborah, lots of greats here! My parents had a 40s/50s version of a Mystery Date game (maybe it belonged to my older sis?) which fascinated me. Assemble the right outfit and match with your dream date! My middle daughter absolutely adored it–so I bought an “updated” version at the Goodwill. It’s in our games cupboard. Not exactly (ahem) PC, but it should impress upon future generations that we’ve come a long way, baby (or have we?). Avoiding the Dud just never gets old.

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  10. I don’t know that I had a favorite board game as a kid. I played and enjoyed lots of these.

    Hungry Hungry Hippos use to come with real marbles, but the last version of it I saw had plastic marbles with obvious seams that meant they didn’t roll as well.

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    1. I didn’t own Operation, either, Leslie. Maybe I would have been better at it if I’d gotten more practice. (Unlikely, but a nice thought. The latest interactive version is really annoying, by the way.)

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    2. Leslie, my brother and I loved playing The Man From U.N.C.L.E. — though I confess I don’t recall watching the TV show (I was 5 when it went off the air). But I recall when I was 4, my big brother and I got lucky at a nearby carnival where this board game was one of the prizes that could be won. We put our one and only quarter down on #15 (because the apartment we lived in was on the 15th floor), and the carnie spun the wheel and it landed on #15. (The wheel went up to 20 or 21.) We even named all the characters depicted on the cards.

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    2. I don’t remember where we got it, but when my kids were teens we got The Game Of Real Life. It’s hilarious and has actual pitfalls and wins. Way more fun than the original. And honestly? Lots of good discussion.

      My older bro and younger sis and I would play epic games of Monopoly that would last all summer. Continuously set up in the basement. We’d print up tons of extra money, and you’d be able to stack up as many hotels as you could on a property so rent would be astronomical. Capitalism at its finest!

      And it might not surprise you to find out we played Made Up Word Scrabble with the kids. As long as you could pronounce it, use conventional spelling, and give a valid definition, it was a word.

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  13. We played all those, except maybe chutes and ladders. I had two older sisters, and a mother who loved card games, so we were a big game family. Clue was a favorite of mine, no surprise. I was accused of cheating by my sisters when I would take a glance at someone’s not very well concealed tally of weapons, settings, and suspects they had ruled out. My defense? “I’m supposed to be a detective!”

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  14. This is FABULOUS, Lisa! And I’m suddenly reminded of my ill-conceived idea to buy Monopoly Cheaters’ Edition for my kids. (Record time to ruin Christmas.)

    I was a big fan of Operation, as well, but my true favorite is/was Uno. The takeaway: big reversals can happen at any time!

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    1. Uno, another favorite of my kids! And wait, there’s a Cheaters’ Edition of Monopoly? Gamechanger! *Scurrying to Interwebs*

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  15. Lisa, I’ve always thought board game night at Malice would be a great idea! (even better: make it pajama dress code).

    I LOVED Go Fo Broke! My sister and I played it all the time. Much more difficult for her to cheat 🙂

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  17. In the 1950s, I played Uncle Wiggly, Candyland, Parcheesi, chess, checkers, Chinese Checkers, Go to the Head of the Class, Clue, Monopoly, Cooties, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, Scrabble, Old Maids, Canasta with my grandmother, and later in my thirties, Trivial Pursuit to name a few were the games I played.

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