Ppolf

Description

This is an adaptation of the game Frisbee golf as a tabletop coin FlickingGame. It provides for a randomly set up course and does not require a library of pre-designed holes like some of the discussed miniature golf game designs. It also allows for solitaire play. This game plays best on a smooth seamless surface table that allows flicked coins to easily slide the length of the table. The game requires a table of at least 8 square feet in area, but the shape of the table doesn't matter.

Frisbee Golf was invented by George Sappenfield, Berkeley CA, in 1969-70 and later standardized by Ed Headrick in 1976. There are Frisbee golf courses set up all over the country, including one at the camp ground at Morro Bay State Park, CA, which is the only one I have personally played. -- Mark A. Biggar

Rules

• https://ludism.org/piecepack/org/rules/Ppolf.pdf (local copy)
• https://web.archive.org/web/2016/http://www.piecepack.org/rules/Ppolf.pdf (original copy)
• PpolfTextVersion

Design Notes

1. When I first started looking at doing a flicking golf game, I looked at the idea of a miniature golf game. But that involved having a large library of pre-designed and playtested holes. In addition, the down time between playing one hole and building and starting the next looked way too long.
2. Then I remembered Frisbee Golf, which has the goal of hitting targets instead of putting your ball in a hole. This lead directly to the idea of using suit-side up tiles as the targets, which would allow imposing a simple order on the holes based on the tile values.
3. That also lead immediately to the idea that the rest of the tiles automatically provides obstacles to the current target tile and so just placing the tiles randomly around the table provided an instant course, hazards and all.
4. I then borrowed the fouls idea from my TabletopCroquet rules and the first draft of the game was done.
5. The Putting-out rule came out of playtest, because balls blocking the hole turned out to be a problem.
6. I was going to just call it piecepack golf, then my nephew Lewis invented the current name.

Reviews & Comments

This is my third FlickingGame. Say its name with a stutter :) -- Mark A. Biggar

Links

BGG page: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/29485

CategoryGame NonboardDexterityCategory ThemeSportCategory SolitaireThemedGamesCategory GamesForChildrenCategory MechanicFlickingCategory MechanicLowScoreWinsCategory CategoryPortedGame