I have to confess, I hate boardgames. They demand too much attention when I could be enjoying myself sitting quietly thinking about something much more original. There are no prizes worth getting excited about. They are usually based on a large element of chance. Five year-olds regularly beat me.
It’s certainly very hard to come up with any kind of interesting boardgame which can be played by a family using equipment that costs only pence to make.
Today’s invention is a variant on snakes and ladders. The board has no fixed snakes or ladders. These are placed on the board randomly to start. Each player is assigned, say, two elasticated snakes and two ladders. The ends of each carry a counter the same as the one used to represent each player. On tossing the die, a player can choose to move one end of one of his or her snakes or ladders forward by the number of squares it indicates (Using one positive and one negative die might be required, to generate retrograde motions).
This allows players to tactically position the feet of ladders in front of their own counter and the heads of snakes in front of those of their opponents.
