Okay. What is this game and how is it played? I need to know.
this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2025
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Two players draw their battalions on opposite corners of the paper, both with the same number of outward facing tanks. Player 1 places a pen on one of their tanks and then an index finger on top, like you see in the comic. You then flick the pen and try to get it in the other player’s ass. However far it gets, you mark the end and then it’s the other player’s turn.
Wait... the other player's ass? Now, this sounds like my type of game
You should use blunt objects like canning jars for safety reasons.
Don’t forget the flared base.
The whole thing is a flared base!
make sure you record the crunch and shriek like the OG then
Ass? Try to get it in...their ass?
You heard the guy
I used to play this all the time in grade school. One day I had like 12 pens sticking out of my ass.
Once the pen is too easy then you move up to Sharpies.... it gets exciting from there.
Cool! Thanks for the explanation. I thought maybe each player got a certain set linear distance per move and the objective was to intercept or evade to engage.
There's a pen-and-paper game called Racetrack, in which people can move the 'cars' a certain amount according to acceleration/braking, turning and inertia. It simulates the physics of actual racing remarkably well, better than many video games. There are both web and mobile implementations of the game.
Link doesn’t work
Remarkably, apparently either the server or the client replace backslashes in Markdown links with forward slashes, which is completely bogus and nonsensical.
The correct link is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racetrack_(game)
Also interesting that you're the first person to raise this issue after two hours and ten upvotes.
It had a link to search for "racetrack (game)" that then went to the actual article. Seemed weird but I got there and assume others did
You can still make a hyperlink by escaping () as %28%29.
[Racetrack (game)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racetrack_%28game%29)
This might be true perhaps; but the crux of the matter is that I shouldn't do more than the traditional human-oriented escaping of the addresses, which relies extensively on plain and friendly backslashes, instead of devilish and time-consuming machine-produced percent-codes.
Browsers would only escape parentheses in the address bar using the percent method until some time in the 2010s so many web users don't remember it. I agree that there should be an easier way for the writer but at least with a working hyperlink (which can currently only be made with %28 and %29), the experience is smooth for the reader.
Maybe a bot can be made to detect these errors on Lemmy? Another pitfall with Wikipedia links is the m. in mobile URLs that does not redirect to the desktop version (as opposed to the other way around) - a Reddit bot existed for this - so perhaps one can be made with both functions.
I'm happy to report that Wikipedia seems to have dropped the ‘m.’ prefix, and finally detects the device capabilities instead.
Huh, must be a recent development. They also seem to use cookies because clicking "Mobile" or "Desktop" (very last link on each page) has a lasting effect but they've been for a long time.
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There was a version we played where you use pencils, you draw your battle force on one half of the page, the opponent on theirs. Then you draw a mark next to the unit you are shooting with by drawing a dark spot. You fold the paper in half and rub the back of the paper to see if the mark lands on your opponent's unit. Of course, you have to draw the explosion in great detail and go "KERSHBOOOSH" or something.
Neat, and as a bonus it serves as a nice introduction to reflective symmetry. I can dig it.
Bigger question: is there any kind of online archive of paper/pen games we played back in the Before Times when we didn't have electronics or money?
Never saw that flick method before. When I was young, you had to hold the pencil/pen with one finger on the top against the paper, then by increasing pressure and tilting the angle it would eventually slip and draw your shot. Sometimes a very long shot. Was a fun game.
This is correct, flicking isn't involved
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Wild way to hold a writing utensil.
Yeah I feel totally left out. Only paper game I can remember that was fun was paper football.
I did dots and boxes. Similar feel to Go. There's some deep strategy there.
We used to be a lot more complicated than that. We'd draw X's around the paper for mines and sometimes a river in the middle with bridges across it. Your tank didn't explode if you hit the river but you got stalled there until you would back up and cross the bridge. Hitting a mine was the death of the tank. At one point I was thinking about making a book of Tank maps to sell but then video games took over.
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My dad taught me this game when I was 7; One of the first times I had ever even met him, let-alone got to stay with him a few days by-myself. On my next trip or so, he had forgotten the game entirely, was dis-interested, and I never met anyone else who knew it before I taught them.
Used to play this in primary school. First time I've ever seen it mentioned anywhere outside of that time and place. 😄
What is it?
Don't know its correct name, but we called it Paper Asteroids or Pen Wars? 🤷♂️
It works by placing a ballpoint pen (eg. a Bic) vertically on the paper held up by a fingertip, then moving your finger back and away from the direction you're aiming until the pen tip slides/rolls itself and the pen drops onto the paper. You draw a small 'x' where there resulting line ends.
Your opponent then does the same thing. And you repeat from your previous 'x'. You'll each end up with a series of —×—× over the page.
I seem to recall there being two ways to play:
- Have your line hit the other player's leading/current 'x'. I think this is the normal way, but it's hard.
- Have your line hit any mark the other player has made. Much easier, but doesn't make much sense.
Either way, it was a fun and cheap way to entertain yourselves during a class break years before everyone had dopamine slabs in their pockets. 😄
We played a pen and paper racing game in school. You could accelerate or decelerate 1 square per turn and turn 1 square per turn. It was good fun.
I just had an insane flashback. We absolutely did that.
Did you know that the concept was expanded as a formal game in 1980?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_Wars
It also tended to correspond with the popularity of the Mad Max movies. Good times.
@fatvegan@leminal.space
Pretty much a pen-and-paper game of the tank battle portion of the Atari game Combat.
I remember playing this with my classmates in middle school.
Oh yeah, many hours.
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