Spring Cleaning

Currently Reading

Stars Awoken: The System Apocalypse #7

Tao Wong

Today was more spring cleaning. It is dangerous to open that door, as it leads to more and more work. Closets, cupboards, I feel like I’m barely scratching the surface. But at least I have a bit of junk food fueling me today. And I’m getting some decent audiobook time in with all this choring.

Also I ended up staying up fairly late to finish up the first version of my Scattergories game. For anyone who hasn’t played before, Scattergories is a party game where you have a set of categories and you roll a random letter and everyone must think of a work or phrase beginning with that letter for each category. You have a fixed amount of time to write down your answers and then you go through each category and aware people points if they found a valid answer which is unique among the players. Duplicates between players aren’t counted, so the most obvious answer isn’t always the best option.

Normally the game consists of a d20 for choosing the letter and a bunch of cards and sheets to list the categories and record answers. My version basically moves the timer, the letter selection, and the sets of categories online. The only thing each player needs is a way to record their answers either pen and paper or I guess they could use their computer or phone. There is a bit of honour system involved that people don’t change their answers once hearing other answers, but that is sort of true in person as well. Maybe at some point I’ll make it so you can fully play online without another chat happening, but for now, this should work.

I own the boxed version of Scattergories, which is technically a version of older games of this style, but I copied their categories verbatum, which I am probably not allowed to do for general distribution. However, I figure if you are playing with someone who owns the physical version, you are just ‘space-shifting’ the game and is fair use. Just like you can ‘time-shift’ TV shows with a DVR.

This is a game I would often play with my family when my brothers and I all lived at home, and again later whenever we were all home at the same time. Rare these days even without COVID-19. My parents asked me if we could play over video, and well, now we can.

Things I’m grateful for:

• Making a dent in the ‘technical debt’ of our apartment
• Rice Krispie squares
• Late night binge TV watching