Create Your Own Board Game

You'll need a pencil and paper for sketching and brainstorming, scissors, 12 sheets of white cardstock, a fresh supply of paper and color ink for your printer, clear shelf-lining paper, spray adhesive, a set of dice, a square of cardboard* at least 18 inches x 18 inches, and 6 items to use for player figures, which are best chosen after your theme has been determined. Options: A guillotine paper cutter will make the job much easier than scissors, and if you can gain access to a laminating machine instead of the shelf-liner, all the better.

Start by coming up with a theme for your game. This can be anything you like, but if you can't think of an original idea, you can use the basic premise from a movie or book. With most board games there are positive events and negative ones which give bonuses or penalties. Come up with at least 5 of each. These can be turned into more variations simply by changing the number of bonuses.

Next your should decide how you want the path to run around the board. The easiest way, of course, is in a straight line around each edge of the board. The middle portion can then be for stacking cards and rolling dice. If you are unsure of exactly what sort of events to use, or how to lay out the path, try getting ideas from other board games and changing them to match the theme of your game.

Once you have your theme, and all your events and card ideas, type them up in a table in a word processing program. Here you can add colors and clip art, as well as choose the font that you like best with your theme. Save the files in case you make a mistake or need to repair damage later. Print them on the "best" setting. Cut them out. Spray the board lightly with adhesive and lay out the path and any other pictures and background needed to cover the board. Cover the whole thing in shelf-liner or laminate. Cover the cards with shelf-liner by placing 1 piece of liner on either side of each card, with their sticky sides facing. Trim so that only a ¼ inch edge remains around each card.

*If you cut this from the corner of a box it will have pre-made folds which will make for easier storage.