After we got home from Osaka Steakhouse, we sat around surfing the web and listening to some XM. I was getting a little fidgety around 10:30 with nearly nothing on TV and the fact that we were sitting at home on a Friday night playing on our laptops.
Earlier this week I had asked Kim if she wanted to play checkers. This after spending all day Sunday, with Dave, playing Mega Monopoly (you can blow through a game in under two hours with three people so we played 3x). For whatever reason I suppose I’m in a board game mood.
A few years ago (2004?) Kim had been looking online and stumbled across a game she played as a child that was originally owned by her parents: Careers. She found a near replica version of the original from what she remembered.
The set was complete with original score sheets, all the cards, instruction book, game pieces, money, etc. Kim will need to do some photocopying of the game sheets if we want to keep the originals but for last night’s game we used them.
Because we hadn’t played the game in quite some time, we laid everything out and set the board up. Kim began reading the manual and passed off three of the pages to me when she moved to the next group. Reading the direction is like attempting to read IKEA furniture instructions. My eyes glazed over and suddenly I wanted to sleep right then and there.
After Kim finished up and passed me the remaining pages in the instruction booklet, I threw my hands up and said “let’s play, I’ll figure it out as we go.”
Now, I don’t know if technical writers have improved since 1959 or if Parker Brothers employed long-winded Physics teachers to write their manuals, but the wordy descriptions and difficult to understand instructions were nearly unnecessary. The game is fairly simple to play once you get going. Were people smarter in 1959 than we are now? ;)
The basic premise of the game is to go around the board collecting wealth, happiness, and fame by accomplishing tasks like attending college, working in various industries, or doing something like going to Hollywood. Your salary increases on various squares and by finishing various tasks like college. You collect your salary every time you pass the first square subsequently named “Payday”.
The winner is determined by the first person to reach a total of 60 (or 100 if you are playing with only two). This number is decided by each player, in secret, prior to the start of the game. You add up the three types of points (thousands in wealth, happiness, and fame) and the first person to reach that goal wins.
Last night I lost with $40,000, 20 *’s of fame, and 40 hearts of happiness. Kim’s winning formula was $35,000, 30 *’s of fame, and 35 hearts of happiness.
There were two reasons I lost. One was because I accumulated much more fame than was necessary and not enough happiness. In addition I spent three turns stuck in the hospital square while attempting to roll a 5 or less on two die. According to the sheets that we had in the box from our first time playing, it seems that I won that round but it was so long ago that I don’t remember heh.
When I left Osaka last night they had a gong and drum in the foyer that said if you beat the drum that it would bring you good luck. I guess I need to take drum lessons.
See all the pictures from playing Careers here (camera).
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