Lockdown (game)

 

For the past several weeks, a group of us have been playing games online on Saturday evenings. This week we played a game, which we dubbed Lockdown, that was a winner. It's a simple game that involves strategy and chance. I recommend trying it over the holiday this week. 

Required materials

• a pair of dice for each player (or you can use an app to roll dice digitally)
• Access to a video conferencing platform (such as Zoom)
• A shared document with a grid (You can do this on Zoom by pasting a table onto the Zoom Whiteboard)

Number of player: 2-4

Ages: 6 to adult

The object of the game is to cover the most squares on the grid with your color. 

How to play

• The first player rolls a pair of dice and adds (or multiplies, if you want a faster game) the numbers on the dice. The player choose a corner and colors in that number of squares to form a rectangle (In Zoom, you can do this by annotating the shared Whiteboard). 
• For example, the first player (blue) rolls 2 and 4. That player colors in 6 squares. 

• The other players roll the dice and begin building from the corners.
• For example, the second player (red) rolls 6 and 3. That player colors in 9 squares.
• The third player (green) rolls 4 and 5. That player colors in 9 squares.
• The fourth player (purple) rolls 1 and 1. That player colors in 2 squares. 

• The first player rolls the dice again and colors in a second rectangle. The second rectangle must touch something that player previously built. 
• For example, blue rolls 2 and 1. Blue colors in 3 squares to form a rectangle that touches at least one blue square from a previous rectangle. 

• The game continues with players taking turns rolling the dice and coloring in rectangles. If a player cannot play (the sum of the dice is too big) that player must pass for that turn. 
• The game ends when all of the players consecutively pass. 
• The player with the most squares wins (hint, it's easier to keep a running total rather than waiting to the end to count squares).