Felicia Day just announced an international initiative to get people playing tabletop games. Her YouTube channel Geek & Sundry has put a lot of focus on tabletop gaming with their original show "TableTop" hosted by Wil Wheaton and the distribution of "On the Table," a tabletop gaming news show. Now, Geek & Sundry is advocating for more tabletop gaming. The first ever International TableTop Day is scheduled for 30 March 2013. You are encouraged to get out and play tabletop games. Invite friends over to your house for a game night. Visit your local game store or community center and join up for some gaming. Set up your own larger event or join in the fun at one of the Geek & Sundry scheduled events.
You can sign up for all the details and goodies at the International TableTop Day website.
I'm probably going to set up at home for some house rules Monopoly. Here's a brief run down of how this bizarre but wildly entertaining version works. You need two different editions of Monopoly and a way to do math while playing.
Overlap the Go squares to create a figure 8 track. Set up the money per the instructions of one edition; different editions sometimes have different currency values, so choose one and stick with it. Give each player the starting money from both games.
Each board represents a different country; therefore, you need to establish an exchange rate. In our Spider-Man/Mario example, you can use Spider-Man money to buy Mario property. You just have to pay a different amount of the money. 1.5x the value is a good starting place. This applies to taxes, property, and jail fees.
At the start of the game, you choose which board you want to visit first. When you pass Go, you cross to the other board. The only time this changes is if you land on Go. Then you can choose which board you want to play on until you pass Go again.
The rest of the rules apply as usual. If your game has special rules (like Pokemon Monopoly giving you powers on a double), you can decide whether or not to apply those rules to one or both boards before you play.
Of course, that's just how I choose to run the game. Some people like to play according to the manufacturer's rules. And some people have friends and family willing to play the more engaging tabletop games so they have no need to create a more interesting version of the game.
So, will you be celebrating International TableTop Day? Sound off with your plans and ideas below.