I heard about this via Boing Boing, which means you’ve probably already heard about it, but in case you haven’t, I’m mentioning it here, too: The Board Game Remix Kit.

You know what this is. You take the components of popular and ubiquitous games like Monopoly, Clue, and Scrabble and you reconstitute them into new games. I used to do this as a kid, when I couldn’t get people to play Monopoly or Clue with me I’d play with them by myself, concocting strange alternate games using the components in new ways. (Except my remixes were, in general, terrible—little more than excuses to play story-time with Clue’s prop pawns and make-believe mansion.)

While I haven’t seen the Board Game Remix Kit with my own eyes yet, Cory Doctorow sure seems to think these are great and fun remixes of the core components of these games. And the book boasts beloved authors like James Wallis, so count me in. I’m eager to see how far afield these remixes get from their original games.

This use of classic components to create new games of course reminds me of Cheapass Games, too.

I wonder if these board-game hacks might also be able to interact with this thread at Story Games about Etsy and hand-crafted game objects. Could you sell Cheapass-style games as hand-made rulebooks via Etsy, meant to interact with the pawns and dice you already own? What if you included specially crafted (or vintage) pieces and play parts, so that each game was unique? I’m just brainstorming here.

If you get a chance to get your hands on the Board Game Remix Kit book, cards, or app, come back here and let us know what you think, please?