Checkpoint online, in a park, in another country…

One of the things we learnt from Hide and Seek this year is that people really, really love smuggling. All those claims that smuggling in the eighteenth century was a method of tax evasion? Lies - it was just an excuse to sneak around and be clever.

If you, too, want an excuse to sneak around and be clever, then you’ll be pleased to find out that Checkpoint — the smuggling game from Andy Field that developed over several Sandpits and turned out to be one of the big hits of the festival — now has its ruleset online so that you can run it yourself.

“But I don’t have time to run it myself”, you say, “and nor do I have an eclectic selection of household goods for players to smuggle”? Well, never mind, get down to Chalkwell Park in Southend-on-Sea this Saturday 27 September, where a vast game of Checkpoint will be running at 2:30pm as part of Metal’s Village Green event. If you want to be a border guard and catch the smugglers, email borderguard@ludocity.org and your travel costs may be paid for you; otherwise, just turn up ready to play. There’ll also be a game of People Watching, previously a triumph in Leicester Square in London, and at Come Out and Play Amsterdam in 2007.

“That’s all very well,” you say, “but I’m nowhere near Southend-on-Sea, and am instead in Berkeley, California”? Well, even you don’t have to worry! A game of Bootleggers, based on Checkpoint rules, is running at 1pm Friday 26 September (warning: Facebook event page), starting from the front steps of Wheeler Hall.