The "emergency" animator suitcase


    Now there are corporate parties where we work. Some kind of jamb often happens on them: either there will be more people than planned, then the lights will be turned off, then - the most dramatic - the alcohol will not be delivered on time. Or vice versa, the soundmen will get drunk and lock themselves in their room. Therefore, the animators carry with them "emergency" suitcases - pieces where games are very compactly packed that can help out in any company in any situation. Plus they know a bunch of entertainments that you can play just like that, without anything.

    I collected something similar, but where, much more compact, when I was going to Greenland. Well, in fact, now I will show how we use board games component-wise, without, in fact, the game.

    At the end there is a minimal set of pictures with games in order to save to your phone for you. Therefore, the post is a touch of preparation for the new year.

    So, the first basis for good compression is that many things require the same set of random number generators and timers. So, you can do, for example, one d20 cube and one hourglass. Or even a phone, if you need to achieve lossy compression.

    Regular set


    In Moscow, Sergey Melimuk, our main corporate person (the guy from the TV who drove the Crocodile on MUZ-TV for several years) uses this hefty suitcase:



    Here's what you can put into it from one side:



    Here, as you can see, 1-2 large game boxes for up to 10 people. On the other hand, what is more common for companies, for example, like this:



    That is, side A is for the main business, side B is for the situation when something went wrong. Side A can be filled with other things - the form of the animator, prizes, all sorts of small things for tournaments creeps in there. For example, to travel to a big tournament in Crocodile. Here it must be said that the task of compression is not for him and the Moscow team. The task is not to hollow out the props, not to forget anything important and not to break something along the way. Therefore, a suitcase with hard walls was chosen, which can be shaken and beat. It’s very difficult to slam it (which regularly attendees of expensive events try to do) - too bright and noticeable. It is assembled in advance, contains the precached side B. Actually, it is there that all the most interesting.

    Side B - emergency kit


    We begin the compression. The animator’s first rule is “To hell with the rule.” It is executed both figuratively and literally. He opened the box and hid the rules in the lid. Then he fastened the lid to the bottom from the bottom to get one piece - otherwise, by the end of the library, the lid would simply not be found.

    Accordingly, for a suitcase we get rid of all the rules and all the boxes.

    Further field. The paradoxical thing is that the box most often has a size of three factors:

    • Under the playing field
    • And large enough so that people do not think that they are buying something small for 1000-1500 rubles.
    • Plus, people are used to the fact that gifts have a certain large size.

    As a result of natural evolution, all the little boxes died out. Or they adapted - they grew the playing field, the size of which the box is done.

    With minimal shifts in game mechanics, almost any company-wide field game can be transformed into a fieldless game. Yes, people like to move chips and look at a beautiful thing on the table, but by and large, it is not needed. Since the gamemechanical field most often acts as a complex counter, we can:

    1. Just count glasses on a piece of paper (but that's not cool) - or a blackboard
    2. Use twenty-sided cubes as counters, setting them to the desired face (there are even special spindown models where the randomness is reduced, but the numbers follow in a spiral, so it’s very, very convenient to consider a cube).
    3. Or, if the game allows it - to accumulate some objects from the players - for example, give them cards from quizzes with questions that they answered correctly. At the end of the game, these cards are simply counted.

    Therefore, the fields also immediately fuck. And everything else that is connected with them. It remains, in fact, the very essence of the game. Here's what happens, for example:



    Play Activity only with cards - but how to do nefig. The field is necessary only for the mechanics of “what happens if my chip steps on someone else’s chip”, visual observation of progress and the generation of random numbers. The last (which task to pull) replaces another generator - D6, that is, our cube.

    Ultimate Compression Kit




    That's what I was going on the road somehow.

    Two white decks on top are pieces of the Minute game. There you have to go around the field and perform strange tasks, or answer the quiz questions. The most interesting part is dueling. These are mini-games like arm wrestling, blind man's buff and other things for 30-50 seconds for two.

    The first deck is a minute duel. They can be pulled as forfeits in the right situation. The second deck is a Quiz Minute: on each card there are two questions - one with answer options, the second one is free. The correct answer is given in bold for them - one player reads, the rest respond:



    Everything, already one game is ready - you can just cut into a quiz at least in the minibus. Actually, we did just that once while driving to the Neuronomicon from Moscow to the Tula region. You can still pre-select the most urgent questions - “What mountain was the highest before the discovery of Everest? “Everest!”

    Next, the cards with the yellow border are the base cards of the Bet. There is green cloth, a bunch of components, washable boards, chips - in general, a quiz more similar in wealth to a whole casino. Actually, that’s why it’s very popular in the USA - it got into the cultural code there very much. On each card questions where the answer - a specific number ( How a cat's toes? ; What is the average interval between heists in Russia (in minutes) for 2012? ).

    In the original, you need to record the answer on a small erasable tablet, then bet on other answers - and then compare who got closer. On the road - just write on paper and compare who got better - minus half the mechanics of bets. If you want to have fun - here's another post with questions from this thing.

    Then a deck from "Ruff". These are tasks that in the original must be performed or drunk. Yes, you can just play Ruff without alcohol (this is very, very cruel), but we do it a little differently. In animator kits, this thing is needed as complex tear-offs, and it integrates like a fine into other mechanics. Quiz - answered the question, went further, did not answer - do the task from this deck. And tasks from simple ones like “turn around its axis 10 times in 2 minutes” to “Send SMS“ I have two strips, what should I do? ”To the number that other players call”. One of the most striking entertainments of New Year's corporate parties is to play “Do not rock the boat” (a game with a bunch of penguins, which must be put on a very unstable deck of the ship) on the tasks of Ruff. Drop the penguins - do it. It goes well with wooden towers on the same principle.

    Then my love is the Boom deck . “Boom”, aka “Papers”, aka “Hat”, aka “Hat” - this is the coolest game for a company where people can think. It is for this reason that he goes for other word games on the hit list. More precisely - because you can’t play it in a fun way. Even slightly. And this factor is a watershed in company games. In the game, 40 characters must be explained in words, then in the second round of the same ones - only with gestures (this is simple, because the list is already remembered in the first round), and then in general with one word. Apart from the deck, nothing is needed - cards are here as a means of hiding information. You can play without it - here I wrote for the last new year, how - and there is also a very playable list of scientists to play at home on holidays.

    Next - white cards. This is our standard prototyping tool. Be sure to have a pencil for them, a small one, or a pen. I always have a pair in my travel bag to fill out questionnaires at the border, so they are not included in the kit. Cards are needed in order to quickly make the game in place. As developers, we know how to assemble the right mechanics for the company. You can simply write on them, often it is more important to have 100 pieces of paper with the same shirt.

    The last - a box of data in a compact edition(You cannot buy them in this form, but there are many ordinary sets). If I want to take the company, but not play it myself, I just give them a box in my hands and leave. About two hours - a muffler. They are good to play in the car, even with a driver. The next day, players usually begin to read not superzakyrysyty stories from this set, but to bring their danets - it turns out very cool.

    What is not included - Evolution , I take it when a small company is planned. There are only two decks like here in size. Very cool thing for the road due to replayability, and suitable for children. It’s hard to explain.

    Further chips and dice. Chips - they are the same in all games. We cut half of them together with the field. The remaining ones serve as counters, and a strong variety is not needed. But I usually take a few so-called "counters" - simple identical chips - with me. Painted wooden cubes would fit better, but these things are transparent, that is, they allow you to see what's under them. Therefore, I drive them.

    Timer- everything is simple, only an hourglass comes from the Middle Kingdom. I have a whole compartment in my development kit, it’s not a problem to get it. You will most likely not have them - or they will be too long, large and scary from the pharmacy. Need 30 second. Instead, the timer on the phone copes well, although the timer on the phone is the last thing I would like to see in a board game, for example, on a swinging sun deck. Very knocked out of the atmosphere.

    Because of the timer, one of the best companionable pieces falls out of the set, which always just suits - “Answer in 5 seconds”. But there is a complicated timer with a spiral release of balls and a steep gurgling sound:



    In theory, you can count on your fingers instead, but I did not take it to Greenland - the figovina is too long.

    Total - here is a set for the company. A boom for situations where there are a lot of people is unrealistic, Ruff - forfeits or big companies, “Wait a Minute” and “Bet” - just play quizzes with different complexity.

    If there is still room, I take these things:



    Here are the sets “Road Games”, “Home Games” and “Yard Games” - these are cards with the rules of different games from Tsarist Russia through the USSR to the present day. Everything an animator needs to occupy any company. Since I remember half of these games, sets are taken only for situations when someone will help me to give a card to him. Although the child once helped out, when at someone else's event, because of the breakdown of the bus, 35 children had to be entertained for 60 minutes. It was terrible.

    Top yellow garbage - this is a card from the "Lies, travels, beard" on the show "Friday". There is a fact about the journey and the answer, is it or not. Very, the infection, large - there is a beard painted on the back side to take a selfie with her. You can carry inside the city, but no further.

    The red box is Kompariti of the USSR, a game about comparing prices for old Soviet goods. A sort of bubble sorting: you need to lay out cards in a row, trying to get to where this product lies at a price. I did not believe it - you can open two adjacent cards and see the prices. They opened it in vain - drag the fantasies from Ruff ... There is the same Kompariti about the years of release of films and all sorts of things under a different name, but the same mechanics about the size and age of animals. I like the USSR version because it tunes in a certain way - a lot of stories are associated with each item, and on the road it’s the same.

    I don’t take the Crocodile Road, it is replaced by the Boom deck with interest. But judging by the demand this year, the thing turned out to be very successful. Even on the road, you can hook “7 by 9”, the Hive (he even has a bag for compacting), very cool, but complex “Agents” and “Golovonogov” for children. Well and further - ordinary compact editions, we have a selection here .

    He looked into Sergey Melimuk’s suitcase, he was driving Udarnik, Erundopel, Friday with the head guards to the next corporate party (these are Inglourious Basterds, I make them from empty cards), the same Lie Travel-Beard, mafia cards , big dunetki, imaginarium deck without a field, road crocodile, Tick-tack-boom without a box (only bomb and cards), deck and timer "Answer in 5 seconds".

    If you decide to buy - keep in mind that collecting such components costs 15 thousand rubles, so I would stop at Boom, Ruff and some of the quizzes. If you take a moment just for the road - Ruff is not needed, it has its own tasks, but not so tear-off ones.

    So that you do not leave the post empty-handed, I will teach you five simple games


    Here are 5 of the 33 Road Games cards. We are interested in those who will go to the cottage, at home, and so on:











    Also, take these pictures to the phone, they will come in handy for playing in the car, for example:










    Yes, he was that old troll

    like that. So, again: you can take the most delicious of different games and cross the mechanics. For example, doing assignments with fines for not answering questions or destroying a wooden tower, using cards of different games in others (for example, the Boom deck for playing with pieces of paper on the forehead), and so on. Most evening games use similar mechanics, so the component base is the same.

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