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Around 1860, Abraham Lincoln grew a beard. A young printer, Milton Bradley, who had been making a living selling pictures of a beardless Lincoln now found himself without a salable product. He turned to making board games, and invented The Checkered Game of Life.
Similar to Snakes and Ladders, The Checkered Game of Life has players moving on the board depicting virtues and vices. Unlike "Snakes & Ladders," players have (limited) movement choices during the game.
Each turn, players spin a top to generate a random number, then consult a chart which gives them 2-4 movement options. If a player stops in a space which gives them points, they record these points on their chart.
The winner of the game is the first to accumulate 100 points.
This is the long predecessor to The Game of Life which is produced by the company that bears his name.
- Classic early board game with historical flavor
- Provides social commentary through life-path storytelling
- Older design may feel dated to modern players
- Limited modern mechanics or player interaction
- life milestones and events
- 19th-century social life progression on a checkered board
- satirical historical progression
- The Game of Life
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- event cards / life choices — Players encounter events that impact resources and outcomes.
- Events — Players encounter events that impact resources and outcomes.
- Path-based movement — Players move along a track determined by die/space events, simulating life progression.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Ace is all in. All in, baby.
- Listen to your heart.
- The real answer for those who want to know is indeed that his first name is Philip Israel.
- Net nothing.
- I went with Cludo. It's spelled Cludo in the UK, controversy around the name.
- Canada right there.
- Here's what your wager is. This is so tricky bidding for the other person.
- The parrot place in front of me looks like this.