DS8 hasn't been too terribly big on made up games up to now, but just this spring he came up with a doozy... It started out kind of like all the battle games (Pokemon or Bakugan or whatever) as far as I can tell having never played myself (LOL) but first off, they never seem to play it as a card game, but rather as acting out parts and just yelling the "attacks" at each other (followed by long complicated negotiations of what effect it had and whether it was actually capable of that and how many points it spent/earned/whatever...) That one he can play with anyone apparently.
Then it morphed into a making-up-your-own-creature game with a slightly narrower audience, where not only could you battle with whatever creatures were already in the game in question but you could make up your own and their attacks and defenses... followed by long complicated negotiations of whether it was a fair arrangement, and getting into the idea of a "trump" and whether a too-powerful creature was unfair and/or no fun. And of course lots of random giggling over the naming of said creatures, and how they "evolve" into others.
THEN it morphed into something completely different and now there are only two kids who will tolerate playing it with him and one isn't really a fan... thankfully he recognizes that and can adapt... But this time instead of making up characters, it's all about making up the attacks, which have to be delivered
in song.
So DS is on a quest to collect "appropriate" songs that can be worked into battles. The friend he plays with has a huge repertoire from the "Queen" and "TV theme song" genres, which all make excellent attacks. DS's taste runs more to Weird Al and Tom Lehrer, which make for, well... hysterical eavesdropping. Lehrer's "Masochism Tango" makes your opponent attack himself (thank goodness for the other kid's parents having a sense of humor! LOL) His "Elements" song combines with one of his made-up Pokemons whose major power is "control over all the elements" to build a massive weapon of some kind. Chumba Wumba's "I Get Knocked Down" is a defensive move.
Somewhere in there he had a side-thing of the same kind of game but where your attacks had to be delivered in rhyming couplets (after Macbeth...) but that didn't last long... can't imagine why... LOL
