When comic artist Bill Watterson wrote his classic strip "Calvin & Hobbes," he created a wonderful sport that I am depressed to see hasn't carried over into the real world: the sport of Calvinball.
The rules are simple. Rule #1: You have to wear a mask. No one can question the mask. The mask is a simple black cloth strip with eyeholes cut out, achieving a sort of Lone Ranger/Ninja Turtle aesthetic.
Rule #2: You can't play the same way twice. What this means is that Calvinball is sort of made up as it goes along, giving it the potential to always be new and interesting.
The playing field, preferably somewhere with a lot of trees, is divided into zones. Where these zones are and what effect they have constantly changes. A zone loses whatever effects and boundaries it has each time someone scores, and a player announces where a zone is and what he/she intends to do with it sometime between then and when a player stumbles into it. The other players cannot challenge this unless they have a game item with negating properties. Of course, the effects are all one-time use and can never be used again. Of course, since there are a finite amount of effects one can place on anything, we'll say that the same effect can't be used within at least five recorded games.
As for equipment, anything's game. A volleyball usually serves as the Calvinball but many different balls can be used, even all at the same time. Croquet wickets and flags are also standard, though not always necessary- as long as it's all relatively safe, i.e. don't throw keys and pointed sticks at each other. As with the zones, game items can have a number of different effects and uses placed on them at different times. The same thing applies to environmental structures such as trees and/or buildings in the playing field.
How one scores a point, and how many points are scored, depends solely on what items and/or zones are given scoring effects. The one condition to this is that a player must declare a scoring item/zone to be enough of a distance from all players as to create some kind of challenge. One could also score points by combining items and/or transporting them. It all depends on the whim of the players.
I would like to know if there are any other people out there who like this game enough to begin some kind of league or even a club. I'm held back from doing the work by my own busy schedule but if there are any others with the time and the passion, please come forward. We need a little more silliness and imagination out of life.
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