Books & arts
文艺版块
Home Entertainment
家庭娱乐
Home-made games
自制游戏
Your turn
轮到你了
For several hours of escape, invent a board game
为了几个小时的逃亡，发明一个棋盘游戏
On a distant planet, a rocket crashes.
在遥远的星球上，一枚火箭坠毁了。
The surviving astronauts—a medic, miner, soldier, scavenger, scientist and engineer— had been on a mission to collect rare minerals and other resources.
幸存的宇航员们——一名医生、矿工、士兵、拾荒者、科学家和工程师——一直在执行收集稀有矿物和其他资源的任务。
Now they have to co-operate to rebuild their craft and dig up as many precious rocks as they can shift, all before their dwindling oxygen supplies expire.
现在他们必须合作重建飞船，并且快速挖掘尽可能多的珍贵岩石，所有这一切要在他们日益减少的氧气供应消耗完之前进行。
They also have to cope with landslides, tunnel collapses and attacks from helicopter-like birds, wolf creatures and herds of space-mammoths.
他们也必须应对滑坡、隧道坍塌以及来自像直升机一样的鸟、狼类动物和太空猛犸象的袭击。
Life is not easy for characters on Planet Ozerdale.
对奥泽代尔星球上的角色来说，生活并不容易。
But at least they have plenty of opportunity for heroics and energetic outdoor activity, and are able to spend time with a reasonably large social group.
但至少他们有足够的机会进行英勇和充满活力的户外活动，并且能够与一个相当大的社会群体共度时光。
For your correspondent’s 14-year-old son, stuck in lockdown with his brother and their parents, the outer-space scenario was alluring.
记者14岁的儿子，和他的兄弟以及父母进行隔离，对他来说，外界的情景更加诱人。
He dreamed up the intergalactic mission a few days after his school closed.
他在学校关门后几天就梦想完成星际飞行任务。
Inventing—and typing up—the rules for a home-made game, debating strategy for confronting aliens and working out how to fly away to freedom have offered several welcome hours of diversion.
发明并键入自制游戏的规则，辩论对抗外星人的策略，以及研究如何飞向自由，这些都为我们提供了几个小时的消遣
Designing your own board game lets you combine the most enjoyable elements of other people’s.
设计你自己的棋盘游戏可以让你结合其他人最喜欢的元素。
The best involve both luck and strategy.
最好包括运气和策略。
Intricate and complex battles between armies, as in “Diplomacy”, “Risk” or “Axis and Allies”, tend to be openended and last many hours.
在“外交”、“冒险”或“轴心国与同盟国”中，军队之间错综复杂的战斗往往是公开的，持续了许多小时。
A hard time limit, represented by the disappearing oxygen, is preferable.
以氧气消失为代表的硬性时限更可取。

Tasks that require some collaboration can be satisfying, as when players in “Pandemic” work together to stop a deadly virus spreading, or when rivals trade resources in “Settlers of Catan”.
需要一些合作的任务可能会令人满意，比如“流行病”爆发时的玩家需要共同阻止致命病毒的传播，或者竞争对手在“卡坦岛”交易资源。
But vicious competition can be relished, too, especially if it means putting your annoying relatives in their place.
但是恶性竞争也可以获得乐趣，特别是如果它意味着把你讨厌的亲戚放在他们的位置上。
On Planet Ozerdale, the different astronauts work together to display a range of talents.
在奥泽代尔星球星球上，不同的宇航员在一起展示了一系列的才能。
Some, if lucky, can outperform the others.
有些人，如果幸运的话，可以胜过其他人。
Is it more rewarding to create a new game, calibrate sometimes complicated rules, make hexagonal tiles for the board, set up a website to share the idea and anticipate how others will be entertained
这样是不是更有收获呢，你可以创造一个新游戏，校准一些复杂的规则，为棋盘制作六边形的棋子，建立一个分享想法的网站，并预想如何娱乐他人
—or to get down to the absorbing business of rolling the dice, defeating monsters and dodging asteroids?
——或者开展滚动筛子、击败怪物和躲避小行星等一些有吸引力的业务？
In your correspondent’s household, the most intense excitement seems to come in the early stages of crafting a new thing.
在记者家里，最激动人心的似乎是在制作新东西的早期阶段。
For the inventor the pleasure is from being a storyteller of sorts, one who introduces a cast of characters, bestows each with attributes (a scientist able to invent new technology; the miner with geological nous) and then dreams up novel scenarios for them.
对于发明者来说，快乐来自于成为某种类型的讲故事者，一个介绍角色的人，赋予每个角色属性（一个能够发明新技术的科学家；一个具有地质常识的矿工），然后为他们梦想新的场景。
For those who lead others in roleplaying games, such as “Dungeons and Dragons”, it may be a small step to put a game on a board.
对于那些在角色扮演游戏，如“地牢和龙”中领导别人的人来说，把游戏放到棋盘上可能是一小步。
For their audience—especially parents, who are prone to being baffled by many intricate rules—having cardboard tokens in hand helps to keep things simple.
对于他们的观众——尤其是父母，他们很容易被许多复杂的规则所迷惑——手里拿着纸板代币有助于保持事情的简单。
The real goal, whether for those trapped at home during lockdown, or astronauts stranded on a planet of wolf aliens, is to have a chance to escape.
真正的目标，无论是在隔离时被困在家里的人，还是被困在有狼外星人的星球上的宇航员，都是有机会逃脱。

来源：经济学人