The time I tried to save the planet with a homemade board game

I've always loved board games, but I felt bad about all the plastic. So, I decided to craft my own game with things I had lying around. I cut up old magazines for cards, grabbed bottle caps for player pieces, and drew the board on the back of a pizza box. It seemed like a great way to be eco-friendly. During game night with friends, things went sideways fast. The magazine cards kept tearing, the bottle caps rolled off the table, and the pizza board kept curling up. We spent more time fixing the pieces than playing. In the end, we laughed so hard we cried, but my green gaming dream needs some work.

3 comments

3 Comments

jordanb802mo ago

Feel your pain lol, my version of this would involve cardboard pieces that dissolve at the first sign of sweat and a dice made from glued together cereal that falls apart every roll. Your game night sounds like a beautiful disaster though, the kind of fail that's way more fun than a perfect store bought game. Honestly my eco friendly craft attempts usually end with me buying the plastic thing anyway after the third glue related injury. Sounds like you at least got a core memory out of it even if the board was trying to escape.

the_thomas2mo agoTop Commenter

Disagree lol, craft fails aren't more fun than working games. When stuff falls apart, it just kills the mood. I'd rather have a reliable set for game night.

hernandez.brooke1mo ago

That pizza box curl is a classic craft fail move. My own attempt used old gift cards as tiles, but they slid everywhere on the tablecloth. What finally worked was gluing a sheet of sandpaper underneath the board to stop it from moving. It looked ugly but saved the game. Have you tried weighting your pieces with a bit of clay inside the bottle caps?