Corralling Family

This is a new lawn game inspired by the legend trial about Oliver Souza and also croquet. Two teams of three take turns rolling human "balls" through human "wickets" to claim or prevent the opposing team from claiming family crests which are scattered around a field. The team with the most crests wins.

Players: 6, ages 6+

Material: 9 paper printouts of your family's crest.

Setup: As a group, distribute the crests around a large field. Make sure there's at least about 8 feet of distance between crests. Divide up into 2 teams of 3. Each team decides who on their team will roll (1 person who can do somersaults) and who will goal (2 people). All players agree upon a starting location and which team will go first. On your mark - get set - go!

Playing: On each turn, a team can do up to 3 actions: place goal, roll, and score or block. To place goal, the 2 goalers move to one of the remaining crests on the field, face each other, and lock hands to create a "wicket" over the crest. Goalers cannot goal over a crest that is currently being goaled by the opposing team. To roll, the 1 roller can make 1, 2, or 3, somersaults (but no more) to move from his or her current location on the field towards a goal. If the roller makes it through his or her team's goal, their team scores and the goalers collect the crest to keep track of their score. During a team's turn, goalers do not have to move, and rollers do not have to roll, but if both are done, goal first and roll second. The twist is that rollers do not have to roll through their own team's goal. If a roller rolls through an opposing team's goal, he or she blocks the opposing team. No crests are scored, but the opposing goalers must relocate to start and the blocker's team gets to complete the block by relocating their goalers to the crest, should they so desire.

Documentation: Take photos or video during the setup. Rollers can use a shoe or scarf to mark their location during the opposing team's turn so that they can take photos of the action. If you have someone with you not playing, they can document the game. Regardless, be sure to document the before and after. Post your documentation somewhere like youtube or flickr with the tag "lgfl" where Taylor and I can access it (or send it to me via email if you do not participate in those sites).

Evaluation: Answer the following questions: (1) was the game fun? why/why not? (2) was the game fair? why/why not? (3) what did players and spectators think about the game? (4) what sensations did you experience when you were playing the game? Rewrite the rules and game description to make it (1) more clear and (2) more suited for the afterlife.

Receiving your loyalty points and the challenge piece: To redeem your loyalty points, send your documentation (as links or attachments) and your evaluation to me (anna dot ravelo at g mail dot com). The depth and quality of your documentation and evaluation do not impact the loyalty award. Loyalty does not judge. But do bear in mind that your documentation and evaluation will be seen by the public at large in the afterlife.

To play this game, you must dedicate TOUGH points, on a sliding scale based on your family's standing in the extended family (1st place: 80, 2nd place: 60, 3rd place: 45, 4th place: 20). When you complete playing, documenting, and evaluating the game, your family will earn 75 LOYALTY points.

1st place family: 80

1st place family: 50