Thesaurus Canada:

There will be a bigger game for seekers as they try to figure out which hunts go with which authors in which zones, using clues beyond the puzzles in the treasure hunts. I have mixed feelings about this. The French one is almost certainly in Quebec.
 
 
 
 

So for a neato story for a story treasure hunt - no, can't share that.
 
 
 
 

It occurred to me that there could be one treasure hunt where different designers contribute their own sections. I figured it wouldn't actually happen in the real world, but I'm reconsidering that. That could work.

Also hunters could go to more than one place to get to the one treasure, like in a movie. There are ways to do this.
 
 
 
 

A treasure with casino chips, hospital lottery entries, and bitcoin that varies based on book sales. There's a common theme to this. A free entry into the Silver Dragon hunt too. "The treasure could be nothing."
 
 
 
 

"Trinkets from different places around the world? Ehh .. uh .. pros and cons. Categorisation problems. A little fish knife from Czechia, good for picking mushrooms. Serbat wangi, maple/ice wine candies from Quebec, a colour cube from Japan. One can get a lock puzzle from Israel. Could have jungle chess from Hong Kong. I'm selling myself on this."

Okay. So what goes in this? Junk food is allowed. And I do fancy adding a pile of air miles, provided by the airline. I really like the museum piece silver alpaca from Peru, but that's for another day. We have some neat maori things from New Zealand, including a little haitiki. Games are not straightforward. A local game might be made in another place. Lapis lazuli from Afghanistan? Nobody said there had to be many items.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

This is a Hawaiian game made, in this case, by native Hawaiians. The rules are etched on the back, which solves the problem of rules on a piece or two of paper. I'm not sure how traditional the laser etching is. The site shows a couple of other photographs. The board is a taller than it looks here, a good slab of wood, with a tapered shape. Those are good white stones.

I don't talk much about konane, but I have a lot of respect for it. It's not a war game.

You would think photographing games is a matter of plunking down a board, tossing some pieces on it and snapping a picture. But it's more than that. In the beginning I had no idea about photography, particularly lighting, and, alas, there was nobody there to help me. It is tricky to get the bottom and top of the board to appear horizontal. Looking at the board at an angle solves that problem. You want to get a picture of a game in action. That requires actually playing a game, which is time-consuming work of a sort. After a picture is taken one often spots some annoying thing that went wrong, like an out-of-line piece or a dirty board. These guys messed up alternating black and white stones.

The konane look is so simple, and yet for many years I couldn't determine a crafty board design. I like having the same type of pieces for both players. That makes it easier to set up the game. I've been poking at a board that is all uniform ocean blue, with white pieces. Positions would be identifiable because the board is corrugated, like a checkerboard with alternating directions rather than colour. A less innovative approach is to have blue cells alternating with striped blue and white. No pits.

Early in the history of Oak Games I made a konane with a wood board like this, but the holes had straight walls, not curved. The black and white glass pieces were put in upside down. Functionally this was not too bad. But it had a slick look, with the flat bottoms of the 64 glass pieces up.

I wonder if konane is not sold commercially because it can be done with a checkerboard. Well, with extra pieces.

Do they teach this in Hawaiian schools? Probably, but I don't know. I wouldn't mind that class.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

It's time for the dilemma of whether to stick with the usual Halloween candies or offer more exotic things. Offering more exotic delights is easy to say, but problems pop up. Things have to be chosen, chased down, purchased in a certain quantity. These are more expensive than the bulk boxes of halloween candy. It can be tricky and time consuming to sort out what to give to people on the fly. When giving candy I really want people to see what they are getting from me, which is awkward. Maple/ice wine candies (no alcohol) and a little plastic spider led to awkward situations.

And yet I always come back to the multiple kids coming back with sacks of candy after trick or treating. Do they want all the candy to be same old same old? After trick or treating, they can dump out the contents of their bags, see what they got, and do some trading.

In the past I offered things like bits of ginger candies, coffee candies, Haw Haws from the Phillipines. Why don't people give out popcorn? I would, if they came in the right size, like little transparent plastic bags. Caramels would be fine by me. An expensive licorice pipe, which kids probably wouldn't want anyway. I'm going to see if I can get the Bananko chocolate bar.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I encountered brio drink in Safeway .. in the international section, but with a maple leaf. It's a Canadian company bottling the product, "Prepared in Canada", since the 50s. "Natural Chinotto flavour from Italy" probably confuses things (the capitalisation of chinotto but not brio confuses me). Chinotto extract, I guess the oranges, comes from Italy. I'm confused by two different bottle designs. company site
 
 
 

The chocolate bar boxes from Safeway including Coffee Crisp, Kit Kat, Aero and Smarties are Canadian. Others too, including Crispy Crunch (1930). I've never seen Big Turk for Halloween, something different. Packs with M&M's, Twix, Snickers, Mars are U.S.A. Also Resse's Peanut Butter Cups, Butterfinger.