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29 WEDNESDAY - MARCH 1972
WEDNESDAY IN HOLY WEEK - 89TH DAY - 277 DAYS TO COME

Bob Hallowell called. He is staying at the Delmonico Hotel
and he wants me to bring the rules to him there
tomorrow.

Rewrote the rules for FENCES and I think they are somewhat
better.
Made the changes to the WILDCAT rules.
BB typed all the rules and I completed the illustrations.

Rcd. a package from Ideal with : - PERCEPTION, LOGUS SR., TRAP, REBOUND.
Rcd. a package from Dynamic Design with : - BODY TALK, TAROT,
I-CHING, LIE, CHEAT & STEAL!, THE CITIES GAME, SOCIETY TODAY,
WINE CELLAR, WOMAN & MAN, WHO CAN BEAT NIXON?, DRUG ATTACK,
THE FAMILY GAME, EMPEROR OF CHINA, BLACKS & WHITES.

(cont. from 3/30) [3/30]

To Earl's. Told him about the visit to N.Y.U.

[Diagram of a 5 x 5 grid of diamonds representing a tableau of cards. # chips are depicted among them. One labelled 'A' and two laballed 'B'. See text.]

We played his game ZODIAC ZOO, which is a
redo of his THE AMERICAN WAY. (Incidentally
he received a very brusque letter in answer
to his to Nixon on this.) There are 25 cards
which are placed at random in the pattern
as shown. There are 60 spots for placing chips,
20 on the outside (A) and 40 on the inside
(B). Each player has 30 chips, 6 each of 5
different colors, worth 5, 4, 3, 2, or 1.
The cards are divided into twelve different pairs of animals
for the Chinese astrological sequence. These are valued from
1 to 12. (that is there are 2 no. 1's, 2 no. 25's, etc.). The 25th
card is the "panda" which has no value on it. Instead it is
valued the total of the four chips played on it.
The players in turn place one of their chips in a spot. He
can place any value of any chip and in any position, except that
a player cannot play on the same animal (even if the other
of a pair) two turns in a row. A chip placed on one of the
outside spots (A) is worth one point more than its regular value.
When all the spots around a card are filled the player with
the higher value of chips wins the card and places a marker on
it. In case of a tie a neutral marker is placed. After all cards
are surrounded, each player scores the point value for each card
captured. Also a 5 point bonus for capturing the two cards of any pair.
The game played quite well, except that it was quite difficult
to see. I made the following suggestions : - Play
with 16 cards in a 4 x 4 arrangement - each player having 20
chips, 5 each of 4 values. There are 8 pairs and no
panda. (Later thought of having 7 pairs and 2 pandas, 1
"good" and 1 "bad" which scores the same way, but against
(cont. 3/27)