As a kid I made myself a set, but I don’t think I ever played it, primarily because my parents and siblings had already learned the sorts of games I liked to play and refused.
Dragon Poker (From Little Myth Marker by Bob Asprin) was played at cons when I was younger (and might still be today for all I know).
So it’s not really a fictional game, just a new iteration of the real thing that the comic was based on in the first place.
So Harry Potter first got people that would never read to read, now it’s getting people that sneer at sports to play a sport?
I guess that’s good?
Pretty much, though I suspect that there were aspects of Hackmaster (as described in the comic) that didn’t make it into the actual game.
You know, I read this, and thought it must be one of the lamest things ever…the video confirmed my suspicions…wow…
I mean, I’m sure they’re having fun, but do they really need to stick brooms between their legs and wear capes?
I think they could really lose the brooms for a land based version but I like the capes.
Without the brooms, it looks like fun.
I’ve wondered about that one, though really, the game isn’t as complicated as it’s made out to be. It’ll be different each time, of course, but in any given game, the rules aren’t much more complicated than ordinary poker.
Depends on how long the list of rules is.
It seems to me that the brooms make sense to the extent that they (a) take away one hand, and (b) make direct scuffling for balls awkward. The former surely means that receiving and controlling the quaffle isn’t easy. The latter might favor agility relative to force, though under the Middlebury rules that I linked above, it still sounds like a moderately rough game when played by athletic people.
Still, the game effect of brooms should be distinguished from the twee affect of actually carrying brooms around (let alone capes).
I think I’d want to lose the brooms and try just requiring everybody (except perhaps beaters) to play one-handed. Maybe have players wear one glove each; all valid ball plays must be made with the gloved hand.
Apparently people in several countries play versions of Jugger, the brutal post-apocalyptic sport from the Rutger Hauer film The Blood of Heroes (AKA Salute of the Jugger). The weapons are padded and they don’t use actual dog skulls, but they do still keep time by throwing stones against a gong.
Carrying the dog boy is, of course, strongly discouraged.
In their book Crisis on Cloud City, West End Games created a deck and rules for the “sabacc” card game mentioned in an early draft of The Empire Strikes Back and elaborated upon in the Timothy Zahn Star Wars novels of the 1990s. I have no idea if their version of the game ever caught on, but a Google search for “sabacc” brings up plenty of variant rules, computer-game interpretations, and guides.
It’s about time a network produces The Running Man.
That movie seems more and more prescient every day.
This made me laugh—glad I’m not the only Mad magazine fan here.
This is what I would have said. I’ve never played it, but once knew some folks who did, at a sci-fi convention.
How about Star Trek’s Tri-D Chess?
Understood, and you may well be right as to the drawish nature of Jetan, but what I meant was that one player’s Warlord would be an effective screen against the other: If my Warlord is within three spaces of any of my pieces your Warlord can reach, your Warlord’s potential for causing trouble is much reduced. That’s all.
As to discussions of chess endings, I refer you to my signature. 
The actual brooms serve two purposes. First, it simulates the challenges of real quidditch, where they have to actually ride the brooms. That means focusing some element of attention to something other than running and the other players and oncoming bludgers, etc. As well as the aforementioned taking one hand out of play - they can hold it with their thighs, but it is hard to run that way, so they can either run holding with one hand or stop to use both hands for shooting.
The second purpose is shared with the capes, that of the aesthetics matching the Potterverse game. If it doesn’t involve broomsticks, then it isn’t quidditch. And capes because they are wizards.
Though using Potter style plastic brooms does look a bit… er… dweeby.
I’m still waiting for Interstellar Pig to get popular…
Yeah I’m imagining Segues…