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I have my good friend Joe Davis to thank for this post, because he reminded me all about it.
Joe and I went to both Brockbank Jr and Cyprus High, we had many of the same classes and both suffered through many of the same extremely boring instructors. A token handful of our teachers weere actually quite good, but beyond that, some of them sucked exponentially--and to those who couldn't figure out a way to endure their classes would die horrible deaths. So, digging into our proverbial trenches like the survivors we were, we invented War on Paper.
[And feel free to borrow/play this game.]
It first began (I think) when I was in 8th grade. In its crudest form it was a game Patrick Cordeiro and I played in what, I think, was Mrs. Haynes' music class. Doesn't matter who the teacher was though, music class = boring, hence the need for a passtime. So this is where it was born, but it didn't mature until High School when my friends, specifically Joe, and I would play it. Slowly developing rules to weed out unfair tactics. The game is unique in that it rarely ends decisively, mostly it does what it's supposed to do--keep you entertained for an indefinite amount of time. Perfect for a slew of boring lectures.
So what is the game, and how do you play? Simple.
For classic 2 player War, you get out a blank sheet of paper and a pen (preferably pens of different color--one for each of you), then you decide who will "Defend" and who will "attack." That is all that is needed. Whoever the Defender is, draws a tiny stick figure man in the center of the paper. His job then is to defend the stick-figure from attack. The Defender passes the paper to the Attack (with only the stick-figure drawn so far) and the Attacker draws some kind of threat endangering our intrepid stick-figure man. For example, a common tactic was to draw a glass of water around the stick-figure to imply he is drowning.
The attacker returns to the paper to the defender who adds to the picture, constructively, to explain why the water around the stick-figure is not a threat. For instance, he may draw a leak in the glass (implying the water will drain away before our hero drowns), or he may draw a scuba apparatus around the hero. Then, once the attack has bene vanquished, the Defender returns the paper to the attacker. Who either expands oin his threat, or else creates a new one. This inevitably leads to chains of attacks and defenses building of feach other and filling the page. The aim is to be as creative as possible. Once someone has one or, more commonly, the game has gotten old--it's not over until you give it away to someone who doesn't expect it. For example, stuff it in a locker. It'll look like complete non-sense to whoever finds it. And the game, and class, is over for the day.
Many of us played this, and each person contributed to the creation of some kind of rule (spoken or unspoken) to eliminate abusive tactics. The basic rules are:
1. Don't draw too much at once, ie use up the paper
2. Don't erase or scribble over existing lines, yours or theirs
3. The third rule of War on paper is - you don't talk about War on Paper. (jk)
4. Don't abuse the same tactic by doing it over and over and over ad nauseum. (This was born because my cousin Matt Bills once decided, while attacking, to only draw bundles of grenades everywhere with no end. Countering one bundle he'd just draw another, and another, and another, grenades everywhere. It becme very old. Another contributing factor was my own tendency to turn everything into television sets and portraits, see below:)
At any rate it's still a great game, albeit a somewhat forgotten one, and it promotes a high degree of creativity. Not to mention laughter. So, if you're bored in some class with a friend, or church, give it a try sometime.
(I'll probably add pictures later, when I get a chance)
PS: I think I'm going to go to war with Joe online, using paintbrush, (a battle we fought once years ago, one that was nothing short of legendary, if I do--I'll post updates here.)
