Karma Chakra is a game that teaches about Buddhism through it’s play, cards, and symbols.

Players move about the five wheels, learning about elements, form, poisons, and so on.

The goal of the game is to attain a rebirth as a Bodhisattva of the First Level (Great Joy) or at least a better rebirth than one’s current existence. There are no “winners” or “losers” in this game and whomever finishes first may not acquire the best rebirth. At the end of the game, players’ Sonam points (merit) are totalled to see what kind of rebirth he/she managed to get.

I’m unsure how a game that awards points can be considered a game with “no winner or losers”. But that’s the Buddha that isn’t the Buddha.

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Well, somewhat Hawaiian. You see, according to an article in Today’s Local News (a small California community newspaper) Eileen Tupman founded Akamai Games to make and sell Pele’s Perils and Ohana Mana. The games do incorporate lessons on Hawaiian language, culture, and history, but they’re derivatives of Parcheesi and Chutes and Ladders. Maybe not bad for the youngest children, but I’ll stick with my favorite game to focus on Polynesian culture, Conquest of Paradise.

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According to an article in the Daily Record, high schooler Alexi Corham in Montville, New Jersey is producing her own version of everyone’s favorite roll-and-move game as a charitable fundraising project. But MontvilleOpoly is far from unique. Fellow Editor Yehuda Berlinger maintains a list of both licensed and unlicensed versions of the game, currently numbering 1,552. And, it turns out that Pride Distributors, the source of many of these games, reached agreement 22 years ago with Parker Brothers to produce Monopoly imitations under its own trademark.

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From a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle we learn of two drinking games—elegant rather than base, but still drinking games. The first is BlindWine, a competitive wine-tasting activity where the winner is the person who brought the highest scoring bottle. The second is Karafe, a board game that also incorporates tasting, but then involves players in purchasing vinyards, harvesting grapes, and selling wine. Not very exciting looking games, in and of themselves. But then again, I guess the fun doesn’t really come from the game.

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Congratulations to our friends over at the Pulp Gamer Network on winning a third Parsec Award at the recently completed Dragon*Con in Atlanta. This time, Pulp Gamer took home the “Best Gaming Podcast” trophy for The Game Kennel, a show in which hosts Don Dehm, Jeremiah Lynch, and Derek Rex take the time to focus on a single game, what makes it stand out, and who is most likely to enjoy it. Other shows on the Pulp Gamer Network include Out of Character, a kind-of free wheeling discussion on games, the games industry, and game communities; Inside Track, behind-the-scenes interviews with game industry personalities and professionals; and Family Game Night, ideas for bringing the family together around the table to get the most out of games. Pulp Gamer puts out a very professional and highly entertaining series of shows—perfect gamer radio in the internet age.

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