The early bird catches the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Jackpot

Now the title does not mean that I won the lottery (unfortunately) because like the ads say, "y'all gotta play ta win." What it does refer to however, is a game the middle child nephew (2 of 3) invented. It is a ball catching game that takes at least 3 people to play (rules to follow shortly).

The player configuration for everyone to be located is with the ball thrower to be at the apex of a triangle shape with the potential catchers at the base. Before tossing the ball, he must yell out a couple of variables. First is either 'high' or 'ground,' meaning that it will be in the air or rolled along the ground (simple). Next is 'mystery box,' 'points,' or 'jackpot.' The points are essentially arbitrary, but the mystery box (which is the most often chosen) has 2 results which are not revealed unless the ball is caught which are 'mummy' and 'glue shoes.' Mummy means that for the next round you have to hold your arms straight out in front you, palms up, with your arms stuck together and have to try to catch the ball like that (which is rather hard from personal experience). Glue shoes means that your feet are stuck to the floor for the next round and you can not move from the spot where you caught the ball. Now if you catch the 'jackpot,' that means that you are now the jackpot which is what the ball thrower is called and now you toss the ball and decide what the ball value and prize is going to be.

All in all, not too bad of a game for an 8 year old to invent.

(Afterthoughts)
Stop sitting around, go grab a ball and 2 people and start playing!!!