Easy rule change for Candy Land haters :)

[MercyA]

From the blog of author Patrick Rothfuss:

 

"...[Candy Land is] tedious because there is no skill involved. You draw a card, you look at a card, you match a color, you move your piece.  Games that involve no skill are not good games. Yesterday, after months of not playing, we brought out the game again and took another crack at it. Because he wanted to, and he asked nicely. And I can deal with some tedium if it makes him happy. But we changed the game a little bit. We added a house rule where you drew two cards and got to pick which one you wanted. With this small change, Candy Land became an actual game. Sure there was still a huge random element to it, but now there was some skill as well. You had to make decisions.  Suddenly, this game became fun for both of us. Not only was the race to the castle *much* faster. But you didn’t have to fear getting a “backer.†(Which is what Oot calls it when you get a card that makes you go backwards.) Most important of all, there was suddenly some choice involved. He had a reason to pay attention. Which card do you want? Which will move you farther?"

 

I am totally going to try this.  :001_smile:

 

(I don't want to link directly to his blog, because it contains some profanity and I don't want to offend.  You can Google it if you like.)

[Wilma]

Heh. I tossed Candyland ages ago because one or both of the children that were playing it *always* cried.

 

Anything that would make that game shorter is better, though, yes?

[Caitilin]

If rothfuss endorsed it, it might be almost enough for me to play candy land! ;)

[craftyerin]

Brilliant!!

[Maela]

Yay!  We'll try it this afternoon.

[kewb]

When mine were little I found that the disappearance of that card that sent you all the way to the beginning was a real time saver.

[bolt.]

Rothfuss! Put away the kids games and: Write. Your. Book!

 

(I'm an impatient fan.)

 

PS: Any other fans seen this response to "reviews" of his future book on goodreads?

 

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/327213074

[Cinder]

I have been fortunate enough not to have played Candy Land with any of my dc. Last time I played it was with my niece--that was over 25 years ago!

[Dmmetler]

It wasn't until a co-op games day that I realized that my then 7 yr old had never played Candyland, Hi-Ho Cherry-oh, or any "jr" game. She was pretty good at playing Carcassone, Catan and Blokus, and surprisingly good at finding short words that got high scores in scrabble. Parenting "oops" there, I guess....

[alisoncooks]

Here's how to turn those unused Candyland game boards into a phonics game.  Very cool idea...

 

http://mrsgilchristsclass.blogspot.com/2012/09/candy-land-cvc-words.html

 

Or a sight word version:

http://ironicadventures.com/sight-word-candy-land-printable/

[JustEm]

Here's how to turn those unused Candyland game boards into a phonics game.  Very cool idea...

 

http://mrsgilchristsclass.blogspot.com/2012/09/candy-land-cvc-words.html

 

Or a sight word version:

http://ironicadventures.com/sight-word-candy-land-printable/

 

I'd be tempted to do this once my dd is doing cvc word (within the next few weeks)  but she might cry if I ruin her game! 

[HSinNH]

Wish I would have thought of this when my girls were younger. I used to HATE playing that boring game!

[umsami]

I always thought if you played with real candy, that would improve the game. :D   (Memories of back in college when they used to host film nights…and they'd throw mini chocolate bars during "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" )

[elfgivas]

in desperation, we played it in different languages.  you could only move if you knew the colour in sign language, or another day in french, or another day in italian, or another day in spanish.  they still loved it! 

 

fwiw,

ann

[Thia7278]

My kids actually LIKE going back to the character spots!  So yeah, I just refuse to play unless it's someone's birthday.

[Cinder]

I always thought if you played with real candy, that would improve the game. :D   (Memories of back in college when they used to host film nights…and they'd throw mini chocolate bars during "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" )

 

Oh, that reminds me of when our friend's dd babysat our ds1. She told him you were supposed to play Trouble with Tootsie Rolls in the "home" spots and when you got your piece home you could take out the Tootsie Roll and eat it. He thought it was the best game!

[Jackie]

Candyland found its way out of our house almost immediately after finding its way in. Even though I always had a rule that cards that make you go backwards were always treated as "skip a turn" cards instead of going backwards, it was still far too miserable a game for me to play.

 

Chutes and Ladders disappeared even faster.

[GailV]

We have family jokes about getting "Plumpied" (drawing the Mr Plumpy card, especially when towards the end of the game). He would feign extreme despair about being Plumpied during the game, the kids would collapse with laughter about his antics.... Sigh, I wouldn't want to have missed some of those memories.

 

On the other hand, we have issues here with Chutes and Ladders, so it's not like we've entered into some zen state about goofy games.

[Haiku]

We always told the children that Lord Licorice would eat them in the night if they lost the game. It made them too scared to play it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kidding.

[vonfirmath]

I've heard that rule suggestion before. But Candyland has not been asked for at our house so often that it has reached a level of hate. So I haven't used it. I like it for helping children learn their colors and it can also help with learning that "life happens" and the fun is in the journey, not the endpoint.

 

[trinchick]

When mine were little I found that the disappearance of that card that sent you all the way to the beginning was a real time saver.

 

This is the only way to make the game tolerable. Those picture cards always result in tears (it's not the kids crying, though, it's me).

[simplemom]

I have conveniently misplaced some of the one color forward cards and left all the 2 colored cards to make the game go faster. If I can do it unnoticed, I have rigged the deck to make the game go faster and give dc a win most of the time, giving myself a win once in a while so they know they can't always win. I would also try to rig the deck so the special cards that set one back furthest in the game were near the top of the draw pile so that no one got those cards when close to winning.

[happypamama]

I like that idea!  I dislike CandyLand and Chutes and Ladders because I can't manipulate them to give someone a step up; it's all luck of the draw.  With Memory games, I can say, "Hey, Soandso, I found the doll card -- remember we saw the other one?"  And so on.  This might actually make CandyLand more interesting.