When Sid Sackson wasn't designing games, he was often writing about them. In addition to the over 50 published board and card games that Sackson invented, he wrote a number of books that featured original games (such as the "Beyond" series, including "Beyond Words" and "Beyond Tic-Tac-Toe") and compilations of little-know games and diversions ("Card Games Around the World"). Perhaps his most popular book is slender little column called "A Gamut of Games", which features 38 games by a wide assortment of game designers, including 22 by Sackson himself.
The is broken down into a number of chapters. "In Search of Big and Little Game" contains six games worthy of reprint, most with unknown authors, that Sackson encountered in his worldwide game quest. "Game Inventors are People Too" features nine credited games -- many by Sackson's acquaintances in the game design community -- and "Those Protean Pieces of Pasteboard" has nine original card games. "New Battles on an Old Battlefield" has three games playable with a standard checker set, "Grab a Pencil" has games playable with nothing more than a pen and paper, and the final chapter is a catch-all for miscellaneous games that didn't fit into any of the previous categories. Sackson designed of all the games (save one) in the last four chapters.
The final part of the book contains capsule reviews for over 300 games, all of which Sackson owns in his personal collection. A word of warning, though: Sackson has not updated this section since the second release of the book, so the oldest game in the lot dates back to 1982. While you won't find "Settlers of Catan" or "El Grande" in here, it is fun to see that he gives a thumbs up to such hard-to-find gems like "Rubix's Game" and "The Creature that Ate Sheboygan".
One of my favorite games in the book (which was also reprinted in Schmittberger's New Rules For Classic Games) is a simple little affair called "Haggle". To play, all you need are some cards in five different colors (colored index cards work great), and a bunch of slips of paper. Each slip of paper has one score-related rule on it, such as "A blue card has half the value of a green card and twice the value of a orange card" or "If a player has more than five green cards his loses 10 points". At the start of the game, each person receives a random assortment of colored cards, and two slips of paper (i.e. two of the scoring rules). Over the course of the game, players may trade with one another -- cards for cards, cards for rules, rules for rules -- and, at the end of the match, each turns in all the cards they have collect (or a subset thereof). The cards are then scored using all the rules in play. The great thing about Haggle is that it can be played "around" other games. You can hand people their cards and rules at the beginning of an evening, play other games for a few hours (allowing people to trade whenever they want) and have them submit their entries when the night is coming to a close. I coordinated this game myself at a moderately sized party, and had great success with it. (It's worthy of noting that the new card game "Democrazy" is very similar to "Haggle" in concept).
Another interesting game outlined in Gamut is playable using a standard checker set. Called "Lines of Action" and designed by Claude Soucie, the excellent two-person abstract strategy game has proved so popular that it has even spawned websites (http://www.andromeda.com/people/ddyer/loa/loa.html) and player groups throughout the world. Each player starts with 12 pieces. One player puts his checkers on the middle six squares on the north and south edges of the board, while his opponents places his pieces on the East and West sides. On a turn, a player may move a piece along any horizontal, vertical or diagonal line, and the checker must move a number of spaces exactly equal to the total number of checkers (including opponents') that currently occupy that line. Players may not jump over opposing checkers, but may capture by moving to a square occupied by an opposing piece. The object of the game is to get all of your pieces into a single, connected group. What makes the game so fascinating is that while capturing your opponent's pieces may make it easier for you to move about the board, it will also make it easier for him to meet his objective (as it is generally easier to unite three checkers than ten).
A vaguely similar game entitled "Focus", this one designed by Sackson himself -- is also included in the book. In this classic contest (which can be played on a standard checkerboard with minor modifications) players take turns moving the checkers on the board. A single checker can be moved one space, and can be put directly on top of another piece of either color. Stacks of multiple checkers are owned by whomever owns the top checker in the pile, and move a number of spaces equal to the number of checkers in the stack. When a stack of six or more checkers is formed, all checkers in excess of five are taken from the bottom of the stack and removed from the board. Play continues until one player is unable to make a move.
And lest you think that Gamut of Games is simply a collection of games that weren't good enough to be produced commercially, be aware that Focus was sold in both America (as "Domination") and Europe, and even won the 1981 Spiel des Jahres Game of the Year award! The book does have a few clunkers (I think "Card Baseball" has more rules than the actual sport), but, by and large, the games presented are excellent. The book was reprinted in 1992 by Dover for the modest price of $7.00. That's quite a bargain, considering that "Focus" -- just one of the 38 games included -- currently retails for forty bucks. Gamut of Games is a great book, and one that every game enthusiast should consider picking up.
