General Play: Taking into account the simple rules mentioned above, it is possible to imagine any number of variations for play: 1. Any number of players can play at one time, playing either as individuals or as teams. Each individual player or team will have to have their own pack. (see Multi – sets below). 2. Who has the right to benefit from the clues can change depending on circumstances. 3. The system of scoring and winning can be varied; eg: the winner being he who wins most out of 3 times, the first to succeed to find 100 pairs …. Other types of variations: 1. Time challenge: here the opponents race against each other and the clock, either it is the fastest to complete all the pairs or the maximum number of pairs that can be found in a limited length of time. (These variations can also be interesting for solo play). 2. Error challenge: the current player has only the right to a limited number of ‘errors’ before he forfeits his turn or the number of errors is counted as a negative score. (The second variation can also be interesting when playing alone). Types of Sets: Link & Learn, and Educate & Enjoy are educational games which can be adapted for children and adults of all ages and to any theme that can be of interest to play with, which is to say – to learn. As stated above, for very young children, shape and colour recognition could be a very first exercise. Leading on from there, the usual letter – picture association might be a logical next step. There might also be an interest to introduce the relationship between capital and small letters. Counting is of course an activity that is also interesting to begin at this stage, which could be an extension of the shape and colour activity, (eg. 2 triangles + yellow = 2 yellow triangles). The next stage might then be to introduce numbers, (numerals) and the very first real counting exercises, (one circle + one circle = two circles). Further on, we come to more numbers and first words, “cat”, “dog” etc.. (N.B. A set can be used in ‘both directions’, that is to say that the clued card “cat”/cat image can be paired with either the word or the picture, re-enforcing the link in both directions.) The introduction of other languages is better absorbed at a young age then later on, hence ‘other language’ cards can be used. Cat image/”chat”. Triple sets etc: Here it might be interesting to look at the use of sets greater than 2. ‘Equi-finality’: Where the response is the same for different questions In the above situation of introducing a second language to young children, as the association “cat”/cat image has already been made and the association “cat”/”chat” is wished for the logical approach would be to add sets that include all combinations of “cat”/”chat”/cat image variations. : Another situation where multi packs are interesting is where the players are at different stages of development, hence the clues need to at different levels; eg. The response “9” might be related to the following different clues; “3 + 3 + 3”, “3 * 3”, “3 2 ” or “√81”. Each player might have their own question set linked to the response set. (How one can play a multipack game will be explained below.) Multi part questions &/or responses: For certain subjects where questions or responses might benefit from being split up into several parts. For instance; history: the war between “England” (clue 1) and “Normandy” (clue 2) was in “1066” (answer), law: “Jones” (clue 1) Vs “Smith” (clue 2) in “1987” (clue 3), who won (answer 1) with a ruling that … (answer 2). Certain packs might come with sub sets, (maybe colour coded), the reason for this is to allow certain clues to be used several times, for instance, “England” might appear in 5 history questions, hence there would have to be 5 sub sets so not to create any confusion. Game play variations: Multi-packs or Multi-sets: ‘Equi-finality’: Questions at the same level In certain circumstances it can be interesting to have several questions for the same answer, as described above for young children learning language. In a multipack game there are several questions that give the same response. (In the example stated above the response might be the image of a cat, and the question, (clue), “cat” and “chat”. – Although, of course any other combination would work just as well). In this version, each pack is laid out separately, (eg. Responses, English clues, French clues), each player in turn turns over the response and then one each of the cards from each of the question packs. To win a round in this case, both, (all), the clues that relate to a response need to be found. Questions at different levels: When playing with players at different stages of development, as mentioned above, one can have several question packs with different levels of clues for the same response, (un-clued card). The game play is the same as usual, only each player, (or group at the same level), plays with their question pack in front of them, the response cards are laid out in the middle. When a player wins a pair, he removes his card from the set, and places it on his ‘won pile’, the response card is moved from the other response cards and turned face up. If another player turns up their question card, (in error), that relates to a response card already won, they have the right to remove it and place it on their ‘lost pile’. The scoring is the same as with other variations. Multi part questions &/or responses: Multi part questions with a single response: The question cards are placed within their own group (and sub group), sets, hence one might have questions part ‘A’ and questions part ‘B’. In certain circumstances, (as with the history example cited above), these sets might be further sub divided into (for instance) different colours, giving A and B, red, green, blue and yellow. The player chooses a response card and then two question cards, one from each set, (eg A and B) and of the same colour, (eg Red). In this case, both question cards give the same response. Simple questions with a multi part response: In this variation it is the response that is split into two parts. One response set is dealt out face downwards and the other face upwards. The player turns over a response card from the set face down, and attempts to match it up with one of the face up cards. He then turns over a question card, which has for a response the information on the other two cards. Which means to say, that even if the answer card was correct for one of the cards but not for both, the round is lost. Multi questions with multi responses: Here, both the questions and the responses are multipart. The two sets of the rules above apply together. Copyright © Gary Edward Gedall 2005 – 2023 Published by From Words to Worlds