One Thousand Blank White Cards (or 1KBWC for short) is a game devised by Nathan McQuillen of Madison, Wisconsin. Here's what he says about the rules:

The only way I've been able to explain the "rules" is as follows: any card played should be able to change the game rules, parameters, and experience in any way provided it complies with, or breaks in interesting and specific ways, the existing rules in play. All the rest is commentary...

Exactly. Our "deck" contains over 1000 cards at this writing, although playing with the entire deck is less than practical. The vast majority of the cards in this deck were authored by Amanda and myself, but there are many cards from many other people. A game of Blank White Cards typically begins by having all the players invent a number of new cards, drawing them on an index card cut in half. We originally began with 3x5 index card and then stepped up to the more practical 4x6 format. These new cards get mixed in with any existing cards and then players determine the initial guidelines to gameplay: how many cards to start with, how many to draw each turn, how many can be played each turn. That sort of thing.

Play then progresses in a clockwise or counterclockwise fashion in the manner determined. Players may (and in fact are encouraged) to invent additional cards while playing and add them to the deck or their hands. The point of the game is not so much to be the winner at the end of the game, but to entertain your fellow players. Currently our deck features a Fluxx-like mechanic for determining the winner: a "goal" card. Goals can range from having the most points to having the least points to having a certain number of Tom Petty related puns in play. It's really fun and you should play it sometime!

Update: I've added a 1kBWC pool to Flickr for worldwide card sharing. It is, as the youth of yesteryear would say, rad!

Also, an no-frills list of every card posted so far is available here.

Other Blank White Card pages:
The illustrious Molly has a collection of great cards.
Discordian Intelligence Agency Edition
trouserarousal.nu A number of nice card servers.
YWMonline's page of BWC goodness
Asymmetric's Arkanstock Deck
Asymmetric's Summit Deck


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Copyright 2005 Erik Johnson