Drinking Games (with actual game rules!)

By JoshPetersel in Josh and the Arts 0 Comment

Here we go. The rules to the three drinking games I’ve had a hand in inventing: The NBA Hangtime DG, The MLB Showdown DG, and Drinking Mario Golf

The NBA Hangtime Drinking Game

Requirements: Nintendo 64 with 4 controllers. Three drinking buddies. Roommates and neighbors who will put up with loud noises.

Time of Play: ~30 minutes.

Rules (for NBA Hangtime):

  1. 2 vs. 2 basketball. Score more points than your opponent to win. Most other basketball rules apply.
  2. You can shove/foul relentlessly. No free throws.
  3. Score three baskets in a row (without your opponent, or teammate, scoring any) to go “on fire.” This gives you unlimited speed boost and 99% shot accuracy until the other team scores.

 

Rules (for the Drinking Game):
  1. You drink every time your teammate scores a point. Take a bigger drink for a 3pt shot.
  2. If you’re the “player of the half,” or “player of the game,” you drink half the number of your injuries incurred. Which means A) you’ll have to be strategic about scoring points (rule 1) if you don’t want to incur uncomfortable halftime drinking, and B) you should be shoving and fouling relentlessly.
  3. If you’re awarded a drink, you’re not allowed to continue playing until you’ve drunk it. (Smart players will continue operating their controller with one hand in the meanwhile, and will also call out other players who forget their drink.)
  4. Take a drink every time you goaltend. This may be strategic if you want to go on fire and prevent the other team from scoring, or, if you’re thirsty.
  5. Everyone gets one drink any time the announcer says something preposterous (including, but not limited to “Baseline Leaner!,” “Wayne Tech!,” and “Slamma-Lamma Ding Dong!”)
Looking back at our rules from last week for a successful drinking game: We’ve accommodated no less than four players. Five rules are not overtly difficult, but could stand to be simpler. You’ve got ample room to be creative (deciding which sayings warrant a drink, and the fact that you’re playing a dynamic video game). And most importantly, it’ll hardly register that you’ll be drinking at a steady clip.

The MLB Showdown Drinking Game

Requirements: MLB Showdown Gameset with 20-sided dice. Three Drinking Buddies.

Time of play: 45 minutes.

Rules (Hoo, boy. Here comes my inner nerd.):

  1. MLB Showdown is a trading card game that (normally) pits two managers against each other in a game of baseball, each armed with a custom team of players (whose real-life talents relate to their in-game abilities) and strategy cards (which dictate the managerial decisions  the game).
  2. Basic play is broken down into two 20-sided dice rolls. One by the batter to determine the swing result (see the chart on the Albert Pujols card above), and before that, a roll by the pitcher to determine whether the batter’s chart or the pitcher’s chart (not pictured, but considerably less favorable than the batter’s chart) will be used to determine the result of the batter’s roll.
  3. Strategy Cards add modifiers to rolls, change results, and create special opportunities based on game circumstances and (loosely, sometimes) based on baseball events. “Swing At Anything” (above), for example, is based on the real-life managerial decision to instruct a batter to swing at any pitch coming. As such, the batter would re-roll a walk result—you couldn’t walk, naturally, if you were swinging!
  4. As the game is currently six years defunct, the best I could find online for comprehensive rules is this guy’s blog/thing/site. Weird.
Basics (For the Drinking Game):
  1. Four managers instead of two. Gameplay is 2-on-2, which each pairing splitting and taking turns at the roles of player (rolling for pitcher and hitter) and manager (handling strategy cards).
  2. Batters give out drinks for reaching base or scoring runs, and take drinks for striking out. Instead of discards (the primary operative of powerful strategy cards is that they require you to discard other cards in your hand), take drinks. Gameplay largely revolves around forcing discards and turning results into strikeouts.
  3. I’ve assembled the complete rules in a viewable Google Doc here.

Compared to our rules for successful drinking games: We’ve accommodated four players. There’s an overabundance of rules—it’d be difficult to train someone completely foreign to trading card games and MLB Showdown…however, the drinking game modifiers are a relatively simple jump from the base game. You’ve got nearly infinite flexibility as to your team strategy. And with cards and dice and everything flying around, it’s rather simple to forget that you’re imbibing.

Drinking Mario Golf

Requirements: Nintendo 64 with 4 controllers. Three drinking buddies.

Rules (For Mario Golf):

  1. Play Golf.
Rules (for the drinking game):
  1. Whenever it’s not your turn, nurse your beer. Since the game decides turn order by whoever’s farthest from the pin, the worse you play, the  less you get to drink.
  2. Whenever it’s not your turn, mash buttons wildly.
Four Players? Check. Rules? Simplest possible. Creativity? That’s what the button mashing is for. Forgetting you’re drinking? Between the game’s sweet serenading songs and your opponents’ flagrant button abuse, there’s no question. Much like actual golf, it’s a slower, tranquil game—perfect for building camaraderie among friends.

 

 

 

 

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