For my bachelor party, I wanted friends from every part of my life in one
place. A weekend in the mountains sounded perfect. It also created a
practical question: what were thirty people going to do once we got there?
The answer was a giant game. My friend James and I spent weeks turning
brackets, side quests, and a completely unnecessary legal agreement into a
60-by-48-inch board. Beer pong counted. So did chess, push-ups, jumping in
the lake, cleaning up after dinner, and dozens of other things that might
happen anyway. Almost anything could move the score.
We played it all weekend. It gave people who had never met a reason to
team up, compete, and laugh at the same ridiculous scoreboard. It was fun
enough that I later made versions for three other bachelor parties. One activity
was Know the Name: anyone could ask me to point to someone else, then earn points
for knowing who they were. It worked because the house was full of friends from
different parts of my life who did not all know one another.
I always wanted to turn it into something other people could make for
themselves. That is what the builder above is.
Now I am well past bachelorhood and firmly into fatherhood. The full-circle
moment came when I made a kids' version for a weekend my children spent
with my mom in Chattanooga. Same idea, different activities: give a group
a little structure, and an ordinary weekend starts collecting stories.
