New game: Piecepack Playset

[Ron Hale-Evans <rwhe@...>]

PIECEPACK PLAYSET

Rules

1. Give a wooden piecepack to a small child or children.

2. Sit back and enjoy.

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I visited my friend Lion Kimbro yesterday and gave him a new Mesomorph
piecepack as a holiday present.  His 2-3/4-year-old daughter Sakura
was present, and since her mother was away, she stuck close to Lion.
As soon as Lion opened the piecepack, she dug her hands into the
components and strewed them about.

She messed around with the components awhile, then built an 8x3 board
of tiles.  (Are there any piecepack games that use an 8x3 board?)  On
top of each tile, right in the middle, she placed either a coin or a
pawn.  (She may have used dice too.)  I did not notice any ordering,
except that she placed the pawns close together.  The result was
pretty.

Later, she took a coin from each suit and placed it suit-side-up on
the corresponding suit icon on top of the piecepack box.  Pretty sharp
for someone who's only 2.75!  After she took off the coins, I placed a
pawn of the appropriate colour on top of one of the box icons.  Sakura
picked the remaining pawns up and distributed them to the other icons.
She didn't match the colours and I couldn't discern any other pattern
in the way she placed them, but for all I know, the kid is a piecepack
Mozart and invented a new system of colour correspondences.

Overall, it was a lot of fun watching Sakura play with the piecepack.
She treated them as construction materials, like building blocks,
rather than as a game or game system.  Lion showed me some varnished
wooden building blocks she likes to play with of approximately the
same size and colour as the piecepack tiles.  He also suggested that
"unit blocks" (that is, various blocks made of unit cubes) would make
in interesting game system.

If you do let a little kid play with your piecepack, watch them to
make sure they don't eat the smaller components.

This episode of the Piecepack Ethologist has been brought to you by...

Ron H-E

-- 
    Ron Hale-Evans ... rwhe@... ... http://ron.ludism.org/
   Center for Ludic Synergy, Seattle Cosmic Game Night, Kennexions
  Glass Bead Game & Positive Revolution FAQ: http://www.ludism.org/