Johari Bones: Introduction

If you have been with this blog since I started it a few months back, or if you've trolled the archives, you may remember a game I posted called "Dragons."  It was a pen and paper pick-up game akin to Tic Tac Toe or Dots, and I felt like it wasn't really a marketable thing.

In the same spirit of public domain, I'd like to offer up another game I cooked up this weekend.  As a short caveat, this game is as yet unplayed, but the idea was novel enough in my mind that I wanted to just get it "out there."  The game is entitled "Jahari Bones."

Those who have studied any psychology may be familiar with the Johari Window.  I thought that not only is it a clever way of evaluating game properties, but the window itself might make for a clever game "hook."

Each player has a hand of 4 dominoes (henceforth called "bones"), and each is positioned in such a way as to represent the one quadrant of the Johari Window: one is face up on the table, one is face down, one faces toward the player and one faces away from the player.

Any bone which can be read by the player is manipulatable on his turn, including those belonging to other players.

The game has - as my design philosophy dictates - very simple and stable rules. However, the ability to change other player's property and the fact that they know something about your hand that you do not bring a bit of an edge and a cognitive tweak over your casual game.

Full rules and scoring will follow in the next post.