If my travels around the Internet have taught me anything, it's that I'm much better at reading blogs than I'll ever be at actually keeping one up.  Good grief...Labor Day?

Ah well, new year, fresh start and all that.  So what better way to get going than horning in amongst some much better bloggers?  You know, the sort with readers and pretty pages and...well, actual content (which might explain the readers).

I came across Shamus Young's contribution to the January round table at Man Bytes Blog, and like a silly ape, thought, Hey, that sounds interesting.  I think I could do something with that.

Then I got out from behind the firewall at work and had a chance to read some of the other entries. Boy, am I on the shallow end of this little pool. Still, I brought my trunks and I'm darn well getting in.

What first came to mind and stubbornly refuses to leave wasn't one specific work but a series of shorts: P.G. Wodehouse's Drones Club stories. To those who might cry, "You call that literature?" I say, "Look, over there! Isn't that Cormac McCarthy?"

Are they gone? Good.

Wodehouse was an entertainer and entirely unpretentious about it. He didn't write to make any profound statements about the human condition, he wrote to make his readers laugh - and he was very, very good at it. I've been reading his work for about fifteen years now, and it never fails to raise a smile. Maybe that's why Wodehouse is one of my favorites. I see reading as something best done for pleasure, not for some vague notion of reading the "right" books.

A set of comic short stories starring a band of British upper-class twits in the 1920s doesn't strike me as a good fit for a video game, so I'm taking this to the tabletop. Behold: "The Drones Club," a fast-paced card game for three to six players.

The game consists of two decks and a six-sided die. The goal is to be the last Drone caught with a steady job and a fiancee. The main deck, which the players will draw from, includes such cards as Fiancees, Jobs, Romantic Rivals, Aunts, Modern Dress and of course, one Jeeves. The second deck consists of Cunning Plan cards, which will come into play a bit later.

Each player draws 4 cards to start. Players roll for first play, with the highest roll winning and play proceeding clockwise. At the beginning of each turn, the player must replace any cards they have played, keeping their hand at 4. After drawing, the player may do one of the following: play a Job, Fiancee, Modern Dress or Aunt card on another player; play a Romantic Rival to remove a Fiancee which has been played on them; draw a Cunning Plan card to remove a Job or Fiancee which has been played on them; or do nothing. If no cards are played from the hand, the player must discard one.

Once a player has received both a Job and a Fiancee card, they have 3 rounds to remove one or the other from play, else they are out of the game. The last player to remain unmarried and jobless wins the game.

Aunts - Nothing strikes fear into the heart of a Drone more quickly than a visit from a busybody aunt. When an Aunt card is played, any player may immediately play a Job or Fiancee on the target. The Aunt is moved to the discard pile.

Cunning Plans - A player may attempt to clear a Fiancee or Job card by drawing from the Cunning Plan deck and rolling the die to see if the plan succeeds. Since the Drones aren't a very bright lot, unless the player has Jeeves in play the plan fails on a roll of 1 to 4. If they succeed the cleared card is moved to the discard pile; if not, they may attempt another plan on their next turn. Either way the Cunning Plan card is returned to the bottom of that deck.

Jeeves - A player who draws Jeeves may put him into play immediately or keep him in hand until he becomes needed. As long as the player has Jeeves in play, any Cunning Plan they attempt will only fail on a roll of 1. Further, any successful Cunning Plan will clear both a Job and Fiancee at once. Note, however, Jeeves is a very conservative gentleman's gentleman. A player may remove Jeeves from play by playing a Modern Dress card. Jeeves will immediately be shuffled back into the main deck, and the Modern Dress moved to the discard pile.

There you have it. It may not expand your mind, deepen your soul or get you invited to the really cool parties, but I bet you'll crack a smile. And if you're not playing games to have a good time then...well, that sounds an awful lot like work to me.

Posted by: Steve Miller at 23:42 | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 855 words, total size 5 kb.