Give or Take - a Chance Board Game

I have been meaning to revive this childhood game of mine that I used to play as a kid and get my friends familiar with so I could play. I have had very little success but probably because I didn’t explain the rules fully or properly since it often took place in the pub on a Friday and also getting a bit nostalgic when thinking of it. I have not been able to find a name or something to compare it with currently and since this was a long time ago my childhood friends can’t seem to remember the name either! Here goes, most likely this is a variation of something or alternative of some other dice game and possibly exists already. So if you know the name or it rings a bell to you please let me know. First because I really want to know the name in English but also want to attribute copy and other rights.

I find this game to be fun and fast paced although haven't played for a while I still get this intense feeling whenever play. It is a game to pass the time and could become a party game or if you are looking to pass the time.

Rules

The game starts with an empty pot after each player is allocated a number of finite number of tokens – e.g. 20 beans.

The youngest player starts the game (or if that is not easy to identify then the oldest can start) by throwing the pencil piece.

The pencil piece should land on one of six sides - a good idea to clear up some flat surface to throw it. After the turn is finished play moves on to the next player clockwise. Possible outcomes for when the pencil piece is thrown and what they mean:

• Empty/nothing – this kind of means pass so play moves on to next player.
• Give 1 – player puts one token in the pot and the play moves on to the next player.
• Give 2 – player puts two tokens in the pot and the next player throws the pencil piece.
• Take 1 – player takes one tokens from the pot and adds them to their own tokens.
• Take 2 – player takes two tokens from the pot and adds them to their own tokens.
• Take All – player takes the pot and wins the round. The player who wins the round starts the next round by throwing the pencil piece again.

After a few rounds anyone who does not have any tokens left can no longer take part in a new round and become spectators.

The winner is the last person who gets all the tokens by throwing a Take All with the pencil and no other player has any tokens left. Players who are in the round but don’t have any tokens are still eligible to throw the pencil piece and still take tokens if that is what they throw but since they don’t have any tokens left they cannot give anything.

Game is best played with 4-6 players, can be played with less of course including with just 2 players. However the more the merrier and 8 players is also good and again 10 players works well but it will take longer to finish in which case you can reduce the number of tokens distributed to try to balance fun vs duration.

Cheap/quick setup version

• Any hexagon shaped pencil
• Tokens - anything you have around the house

Modern version

• Computer
• 3d printer
• Filament (PLA)

Following from the rules in the introduction hopefully you would have gotten an idea of the game. So this is a similar version that I used to play when I was a kid and is very cheap to setup. Get your self a hexagon shaped pencil, preferable with little writing on, and mark each side with a Biro pen. The fastest would be to abbreviate the options so you would get the below, note that instead of writing the numbers, I have opted for roman numerals as they are easy to do that way. Then the players just need to understand this convention and enjoy. Also the order of them does not matter as long as you leave the 'nothing'/pass on the writing side which all pencils will have such as brand name, graphite scale, etc.

• T I
• T II
• G I
• G II
• T All
• (empty)

You can if you like try to write the whole words if starting out with the game and are getting used to the rules and play style. You can also use a pen too as long is it has 6 sides and is not round in circle shape. A pen is harder to mark but is doable (try etching it) and is more durable too. If you like the game and are looking to have something more durable as well as more 'professional' then check Step 3 and 4 to see how you can model and 3D print the 'pencil' piece.

For tokens I will let you choose your own. Pennies work but apparently they are much harder to come by these days. If you have the Monopoly game in cupboard you can use the singles from there. Or the better option would be to tear off some used paper into bits that can represent one token values. I say used paper here but if you like the game and want play again with family and friends you can print some funny money/tokens in single values. If you are at the beach with pebbles then they are also good too if you are looking for something handy - just make sure the pot is visible.

I used beans (uncooked of course!) that can be used as many times as you like and after a bit of washing they can be used in your favourite recipe :)

If you have read any of my other Inscrutables that involved Tinkercad you will have noticed that I usually signpost to these starter started tutorials and additional tutorials. Tinkercad is my tool of choice when designing any models to 3D printing and I recommend as it can be used to create quiet advanced models.

For creating our model for the game we start with a Polygon from the Basic Shapes; drag it on the Workplane. It will have default measurements. First we need to uniformly scale the width and length (see this 'Tinkertip' on how to do it) to about 26mm and 30mm respectively. If you are having trouble with scaling you can enter those values directly. Note that depending on Snap Grid setting it might not be exactly those values when you are done and I will leave it to you if you want them exact or leave them be from the scale operation, although I did change mine!

Next we need to change the height to 100mm. The way I decided this was to measure my hand which is about 90mm I upped this to an even 100mm go ahead and change this to that value or something you would like for yourself e.g. more if you have a bigger hand. This is so that the pencil piece sits snugly in the hand when throwing but also the text can fit in it.

Rotate

We then need to rotate to model so that it is laying flat on the Workplane for us to add text to it. Rotate it by either 90 or -90 degrees it doesn't matter as it gets us the same end result. On thing here is that the rotation should be either left (90 degrees) or right (-90 degrees) and not forward of backwards.

You will find that the model is now suspended in air and no longer touching the Workplane. You can press D on the keyboard and it will drop to the Workplane. This is a handy Tinkercad keyboard shortcut and see this link for more shortcuts.

Add Text

We can now add text as required by the game rules - see intro for options. The way to do this is to add text at the top edge and then rotate. One suggestion here is to start off with to the Take All option i.e. the longest option, it will allow us to adjust anything according to this at the start instead of later on when there is more to change.

I say add text but technically we will change the text from solid to a hole type object and combine the two parts leaving an engraved pencil piece with writing on the top edge.

Drag the text object from the basic shapes to the Workplane, change the font to Sans (I find this tends to print better and is my go to font for 3D printing). Change the object from Solid to Hole as shown in the photo. Next, change the text to the Take All option and I suggest that you use capitals.

As you can see the text object is too big (or was for mine) so we need to reduce it so that it fits the top edge of the polygon aka pencil game piece. Use the same uniform scale method you used above until you get the text less than the pencil piece which on the side the width is now 100mm. I got mine to about 85mm which fits but this is to big for the edge so we need to reduce the length a bit, do this manually to make sure it fits OK. Mine was about 12mm and was a really good fit. The only remaining measure we still need to change is the height of the text so go ahead and change this to 1mm which is a good amount for the printer to inscribe text.

The next step will be to combine the two objects. Select the both of them and align them centre on both front and left/right sides and then do the top as well - order doesn't matter as long as its those three points (see photo). With both objects still selected press Ctrl + G or the Group button to group them, leaving you with only one object.

TIP: Before moving to the next step I wanted to give you a tip here, prior to aligning the text you can duplicate it and use that for the next edge. Saves a few of the steps manipulating the text when you can just change the duplicate for the next option.

Whichever option you choose for creating the text for the next option we will need to rotate the polygon / pencil piece so that an empty edge is on top. We need to rotate the pencil piece and since it is a simple polygon with 6 sides we need to rotate it 60 degrees (360 / 6 = 60). Once you have rotated the object you should be able to add the next text on the top edge the same as above. Don't forget to align them before you group the two objects.

At this stage it is a matter of rotate, add text and group and repeat :). Once you have all 5 options on each edge ( remember one of the edges remains empty) you are done and can export the file as STL for printing.

My first print attempt was to print with the empty side touching the bed and without support. It came out ok as a first print and is usable but another couple of tries game me these optimal settings. Print with support especially with anything touching the bed and print on one of the written edges with the empty edge next to that one.this way only one side will need support

So maybe before you export the file make sure you rotate it appropriately in Tinkercad to save having to do it on the slicer.

I hope you like this game and by adding it here it means some of you will have a go at it. Let me know how you get on or if you have any comments or suggestions.