Grab a pencil (or pen), a piece of paper, and your imagination. You got yourself some quality father/son time coming.
I call the game Pencil Wars though I'm sure the Internets will tell me other names.
The Object is to destroy the enemy's camp.
Set up the board by drawing a line representing the shore that separates your land from the water, across from which your opponent is doing the same.
Next, draw five bases (circles with X's inside).
To play, set the point of your pen in the crosshairs of one of your bases, and, holding the pen down against the paper, tilt it slightly and exert pressure until it skips from under that pressure to create a sporadic line.
Lay a ruler along the line just created, carrying it on toward your opponent's bases. If the line hits a base, destroy it with a mighty flourish of the pen. If not, pretend the shot lands in the dirt, the water, or strikes a pigeon in mid-air.
Take turns firing until either yours or your opponent's bases are destroyed. If you have a boy, at some point your paper should look like this:
Close up of the carnage:
Extra goodies:
- Add things like force fields that must be struck several times to destroy, islands, and boats that can fire torpedoes.
- If you're short on time, go into blitz mode with both players using two pencils and firing simultaneously.
- My son also wants you to know the secret password: 846124/5$.
- Other stuff you can make up on the spot.
