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  Method and apparatus for playing a game on a playing surfaceUSPTO Application #: 20080099990Title: Method and apparatus for playing a game on a playing surface Abstract: A method for tracking multiple durations in a game without the need for any accounting is provided. The invention readily scales from tracking just a few durations to tracking many durations without slowing the game down. Furthermore, the method provides an opportunity for all players to verify the results, making it suitable for a competitive environment. The method can be applied to any kind of game in which there is a need to track durations over several rounds of play. (end of abstract) Agent: Michael Wittig - Fremont, CA, US Inventor: Michael Wittig USPTO Applicaton #: 20080099990 - Class: 273243000 (USPTO) Related Patent Categories: Amusement Devices: Games, Board Games, Pieces, Or Boards Therefor, Piece Moves Over Board Having Pattern, Chance Device Controls Amount Or Direction Of Movement Of Piece The Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20080099990. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/967,934, filed on Oct. 18, 2004, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/967,934 claimed the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application 60/512,112, filed on Oct. 17, 2003, and incorporated the entire enclosure of U.S. Provisional Application 60/512,112 by reference; this application also incorporates the entire enclosure of U.S. Provisional Application 60/512,112 by reference herein. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1) Field of Invention [0003] This invention relates to miniature games, board games, card games, and role-playing games. [0004] 2) Discussion of Related Art [0005] Almost all games employ rounds of players taking turns: each player among two or more players has the opportunity to do something, such as move a game piece or play a card. When all players have taken a turn, a new round begins and each player has a chance to act as the cycle repeats. [0006] Trouble can occur when something in the game, some temporary effect, is supposed to last for set number of rounds and then end--in other words, if that effect has a duration within the game. For example, consider a character in a game that is poisoned by a snake. We wouldn't expect the character to drop dead immediately after being attacked, but rather that the character can continue to act for a couple of rounds before expiring. Different games have different approaches to simulating such a situation; some games, such as a typical role-playing game, require the player to keep track of each such effect through some means of accounting, such as writing down how many rounds the effect should last on a piece of paper and then decreasing that number by one each round until the time is up. This method can be tedious for a player and can slow the game down considerably when several effects are being tracked. There is also room for players to make an accounting error and in a competitive environment to accuse each other of making such an error. Other games, notably card games, sacrifice the realism of such a simple situation and instead only have effects that last forever, last 1 round, or happen instantly and then end. Such a drastically simplified approach, besides being unrealistic, also causes game balancing problems. For example, it isn't possible to give a player a powerful effect for only a short period of time to balance that power. Consider for example a magic wand. A character that acquires a magic wand that lets that character put opponents to sleep, for example, may have gone from very weak character in the beginning of the game to a very powerful one for the rest of the game, upsetting game balance severely. If the duration of such an item could be limited, then its impact on the game could also be limited, allowing players to enjoy the powerful effect while limiting its impact on the game. In many games this is not possible because, again, of the inability to easily track durations. There is a clear need for a method of tracking game effects with a duration of more than a round but less than forever without the need for any accounting procedures, without slowing the game down when many such effects are active, and without introducing opportunities for players to make tracking errors. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0007] A method for tracking multiple durations in a game without the need for any accounting is provided. The invention readily scales from tracking just a few durations to tracking many durations without slowing the game down. Furthermore, the method provides an opportunity for all players to verify the results, making it suitable for a competitive environment. The method can be applied to any kind of game in which there is a need to track durations over several rounds of play. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0008] The invention is further described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein: [0009] FIG. 1 is a isometric view of the preferred embodiment of the invention. [0010] FIG. 2 is a front view of the cards used to describe the creatures in FIG. 1. [0011] FIG. 3 is a front view of the cards associated with the creatures in FIG. 1. [0012] FIG. 4 is a table of values showing the odds of a game component lasting a given number of rounds as a function of the numerical interval used as a percentage of the total values available on a die used to generate random numbers. [0013] FIG. 5 shows two otherwise identical game components with different numerical intervals. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0014] FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings illustrates the preferred embodiment of the invention. Game 1 is comprised of a plurality of miniatures, including miniature 4 and miniature 6. The miniatures are distinguished from one another and are associated with a set of statistics preferably by the apparatus described in co-pending patent application Ser. No. 10/435,424, which is incorporated by reference herein. The color of base 10 of miniature 4 matches the color of card holder 12, thereby associating cards 18a, 18b, 18c, and 18d with miniature 4. Similarly, the color of base 8 of miniature 6 matches the color of card holder 14, thereby associating cards 16a, 16b, 16c, and 16d with miniature 6. Furthermore, cardholder 12 and cardholder 14 are of distinctly different colors to distinguish them and the miniatures being associated. The game also includes instructions 20, map 2 ruled with grid 22, 20-sided die 24, card decks 26 and 28, and card hands 27 and 29. Deck 26, card hand 27, cards 16a, 16b, 16c, and 16d, and miniature 6 all belong to and are played by player 1, while Deck 28, card hand 29, cards 18a, 18b, 18c, and 18d, and miniature 8 belong to and are played by player 2. [0015] FIG. 2 shows the details of cards 16a and 18a. [0016] FIG. 3 shows the details of cards 16b, 16c, and 31 and cards 18b, 18c, and 18d. [0017] In the preferred embodiment of the invention, game components are assigned number ranges. These number ranges are a numerical interval, a set of integer values that is a subset of the possible values that can be rolled with a particular die. The die is rolled each round and compared against the number ranges for multiple components simultaneously. If the die roll falls within the range specified by any particular game component, the state of that game component is altered according to the rules of the game. Since the probability that the roll of the die falls within the number range of a particular game component is proportional to the size of the number range, the likelihood that a game component will have its state altered can be greatly influenced by adjusting the numerical interval to be large or small in comparison to the range of possible die values. For example, on a 20 sided die, each value represents a 5% chance per round that a game component will have its state altered. If the numerical interval on a game component is 11-20, that means that there is a 50% chance each round that the game component will have its state altered. Over the course of several rounds, the chance of the game component having its state altered is: [0018] (100%--chance per round) number of rounds [0019] The size of the die alters the resolution available to the game designer for tailoring how long an effect lasts. A 100-sided die, or its equivalent, gives a large resolution to work with, as can be seen in FIG. 4, which lists the chance of a game component having its state altered as a function of the round (listed down the left) and the numerical interval size assigned to the game component (listed along the top). Values in boldface type fall within the interval of 77-83%, which we can arbitrarily define as the border of "pretty good odds" that a game component will not have its state altered in the corresponding round. Therefore, we can see from FIG. 4 that a 1% interval (i.e., 50-50) would result in pretty good odds that the game component would not experience a state change until after the 26th round of the game, quite a long time. Using a 2% interval (i.e., 30-31) would result in pretty good odds that the game component would not experience a state change until after the 12th round of the game, quite a while but less than half the time of the 1% interval. With a 7% interval (i.e., 93-99), would result in pretty good odds of no state change lasting until after just the 3rd round of the game. Continue reading... Full patent description for Method and apparatus for playing a game on a playing surface Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Method and apparatus for playing a game on a playing surface patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. 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