Selwyn Times: October 14, 2020

Wednesday October 14 2020 Selwyn Times
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
NEWS 17
Play rugby on your table top
• By Chris Barclay
WHILE ALL Blacks to club
rugby’s toilers are often urged to
play what’s in front of them, Zane
Thompson spent years refining
his game plan.
The board game fanatic spent
eight years toying with a project
to transplant the national sport
to a card and dice based game
where all the intricacies of
the code – even the ability to
determine the weather conditions
– are built in.
Although the goal is the same
as playing on grass – scoring tries
– three mini games: the scrum,
lineout and breakdown ensure
there is more to winning than a
lucky roll of the dice.
Usual tactical appreciation is
key while the sin bin, TMO and
astute use of the “cheat” card
can also influence the flow of a
match-up.
Thompson, 48, laid the
groundwork for Rugby – The
Game one morning after his son
Jacob’s match was rained off in
Christchurch.
“He made an off-the-cuff
comment: ‘It sucks there’s not
a rugby game’. I was like: ‘Let’s
make one’,” he said.
“It is a very different game now
to what it was. Originally I had 15
players lined out and it was quite
long and messy. It was dialed
back to get that fast game play
for a board rather than it being a
simulation.”
Now there are six positional slots
a side and a game of two halves
should take 40min for players 13
years and over. There is also a 7s
format planned for juniors.
Thompson developed an
interest in board games in the
1980s and it never wavered
in spite of the advent of video
consoles, computer games and
mobile phone game apps.
“As long as I can remember
I’ve liked the competitiveness of
board games,” he said.
“That started with all your
standard family games like
Snakes and Ladders and it grew
into Hero Quest, Space Crusade –
very old-school games.”
He then progressed to The
Lords of Hellas and Western
Legends before his focus turned
to his own contribution to a
growing global industry.
The project gathered
momentum when a Kickstarter
page launched last September
raised about $11,000, $1000 of
which was spent on a mould for
the ball.
The first 1500-box order
was produced in China and
is expected to be stocked by
Whitcoulls and other retailers
in the run-up to Christmas – a
victory of sorts because rugby
games can be a hard sell.
“Sports people probably aren’t
that keen on a board game and
most board gamers aren’t that
into sport,” he said.
New Zealand Rugby is playing
a waiting game before they
endorse the product, so for now
Thompson’s supporters like Korey
Waipouri and Grant Golding are
the ‘stars’ of this edition.
“We’ll look at that (NZR)
after we get some sales up and
hopefully we can negotiate to use
some of the players,” Thompson
said.
ENTHUSIAST: Zane Thompson has created a rugby board
game.
PHOTO: CHRIS BARCLAY
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Advertorial
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