Original Games and Novel Game Variations

By Stanley Korn

Black Box is a game designed to simulate the process of scientific discovery. One of the players assumes the role of Nature and devises a process. The other players, acting in the role of scientists, attempt to discover Nature’s process by performing simulated experiments by providing Nature with inputs and observing the corresponding outputs produced by Nature. One of the benefits of playing Black Box, other than the enjoyment of the game, is that it provides the players with an opportunity to practice and thereby improve their pattern recognition skills. Questions requiring pattern recognition ability, such as analogies and complete the series, appear prominently on intelligence tests, which are used as admission criteria for high IQ societies such as Mensa, and on similar tests such as the SAT, a high score on which increases your chances of gaining admission to the college of your choice.

Quick Release is a game designed to determine which of two players has the faster reaction time, without the need for elaborate measuring instruments or the injury and death associated with gun duels.

The game of “What Can It Be?” develops the imagination and visualization skills of the players by requiring them to come up with objects having increasingly longer lists of characteristics.

Word Link requires the players to construct a sequence of words linking a given starting word with a given ending word, where every word in the sequence must be derived from the previous word by one of the operations specified in the game description.

The novel games variations section breathes new life into old favorites, including card games, among which are bridge, poker, and War, as well as board games, including checkers, chess, Monopoly, Parcheesi, and Scrabble. The Academic Treasure Hunt adds an educational opportunity to the enjoyment of a treasure hunt. These novel variations of popular games add elements of strategy, complexity, challenge, and renewed interest to the original games.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stanley Korn
• Release date: Feb 16, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310005770

Stanley Korn

Stanley Korn received a B.S. in physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and did graduate work in physics and mathematics at the University of Maryland. Stanley was employed by the Defense Department as a physicist, operations research analyst, and computer specialist; he has since retired. He is the former coordinator of the Metropolitan Washington Mensa Parapsychology SIG and an investigator of the paranormal. Stanley has given presentations on a wide variety of subjects before diverse groups. He is the author of four books, an inventor with four issued patents, and a Fellow of the International Society for Philosophical Enquiry, membership in which requires an IQ in the top 0.1%.

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Original Games and Novel Game Variations

Copyright 2014 Stanley Korn

Revised 2019

Smashwords Edition

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Table of Contents

Original Games

Black Box: The Discovery Game

Quick Release

What Can It Be?

Word Link

Novel Variations of Popular Games

Academic Treasure Hunt

Board Games Using Dice

Capture Checkers

Checker Tic-Tac-Toe

Dummyless Bridge

Five-Card Double-Draw Poker

Half Chess

Pure Skill Scrabble

Strategic War

Super Checkers

Word Bridge Scrabble

Information About the Author

Also by Stanley Korn

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Original Games

Described in this section are completely original games that can be played with readily available materials.

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Black Box: The Discovery Game

Black Box is a game designed to simulate the process of scientific discovery. The game is divided into a series of sessions. In each session, one of the players assumes the role of Nature; the others play the role of scientists. The role