Learn How To Infuse Your Favorite Fandoms With Classic Games
No game design experience required!
Imagine a world where you can buy iconic TV 📺 and movie 🎞 franchises, test your knowledge 🧠 with challenging trivia, and also experience unexpected twists and turns 🌀 just like your favorite storyworlds. We have created this guide on creating a game that merges your favorite fandoms with the best elements of classic board games. Do you struggle to decide between a strategic game versus trivia on game night? Who says you have to? It’s time to create a game that is a perfect blend!
Disclaimer: Here at rmrk*st we are known for creating new games, but we don’t intend to make this game playable. It’s purely for entertainment purposes.
1. Choose the classic games & fandom of your choice
We decided to go with the classics of Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, and Chutes & Ladders. At rmrk*st, we celebrate all fandoms in every genre so we stuck to that theme in this game and called it Binge-A-Thon. On our game board, you can purchase the streaming licenses of your favorite franchises and make bank while also answering trivia questions from all of the different franchises featured. For an additional fun element, we decided a sliding 🛝 action like you find in Chutes & Ladders 🪜 could alter the play just enough to keep things really interesting.
Other game options that we were tempted to use were Scrabble, Clue, and Risk. Can you imagine trying to dominate all of Stars Hollow with different colors of ribbon? 🎀 Or finally solving the murder of Rich Bloomenfeld? Our best guess would be Kirk in the Read, White and Black Movie Theatre 📽 with the popcorn. 🍿
2. Design the board
You can go about designing your board game two different ways. If you have design software like Adobe Illustrator or Affinity Designer, you can go the digital route. But also getting out the construction paper and scissors ✂️, you could design the board by actually using the classic board games themselves. Maybe you just found use for that second Monopoly game that you were gifted years ago!
In our game, Binge-A-Thon, we altered every square on the board to match our theme of binging television. Franchises are separated into genres, such as comedy 🍌, drama 🥀 and sci-fi 👽. You may roll an unlucky combination and land in Ad Hell, but you could also get that amazing Free Trial which is essentially free money. There are added trivia pathways from made-up streaming services to make your route around the board more interesting, but be careful because you can get caught in a binging slide. We all know how a show with 15+ seasons can be a real time suck.
Utilizing AI for help naming your squares, game, or creating the images is a smart way to design your game board to be one of a kind. It’s also a great way to brainstorm if you are stuck.
3. Make additional game assets
You’ve got the board, but you still need the additional game assets like cards, dice, and game pieces. Depending on what classic games you chose to go with will determine your needs. You can also take pieces from other games and create new ways for using them - maybe you want to use the spinner from LIFE, the game pieces from Sorry! and the cards of UNO. You could also make your own game pieces with a 3D printer or modeling clay. You can also go digital to create all the assets that you need, or use old fashioned paper and pen/marker/crayons. 🖍 The possibilities are endless!
For ours, we knew that we needed to create the franchise cards, paper money 💵 (or KRNL, as we call it), trivia cards, and a special 8-sided dice 🎲 to determine what trivia category you would have to answer. We’ll also utilize two normal dice and standard game pawns.
4. Write the rules down
Finally, make sure you write the rules down so you can explain to your friends and family just how they are going to play your perfect amalgamation of a board game.
Some special rules for Binge-A-Thon are:
To get out of Ad Hell, you must play a round of trivia. If you can get at least 4 out of 8 questions correct on one card, you are free. The person reading the trivia can read the questions in any order. If you don’t get 4 correct, you must pay 250 KRNL.
If you get caught on a binge slide, you must answer a trivia question for that genre before you can purchase the franchise. If the franchise is already owned, if you answer the trivia question correctly, you don’t have to pay the owner that round.
Landing on a watch party sends you directly to trivia, and you’ll roll the special 8-sided dice to see what question you answer. If you answer correctly, you can move to the center of the board and take another turn. If you don’t know the answer, another player can steal, move to the center of the board, and take an extra turn.
Winning Binge-A-Thon is quite simple - own as many franchises and KRNL as you possibly can. It’s fun that can last all night!
And there you have it! A customizable game you can create yourself. Got your own ideas for creating new board games? Go for it! There are few better pastimes than a good old fashioned game night with friends and family!
Want more fandom and game content? Head over to our Discord where you’ll find tons of other fans there in our forums chatting about the TV shows, movies, music and books we all love! You can find our watch party schedule on our app! Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, tumblr, and Spotify for more fandom content—and hit that subscribe button so you never miss a thing at rmrk*st!
