What’s been happening at Pizza With a Fork Games?
We have been redesigning our Haunted Inheritance game board!
Our game board has a story behind it. And it’s a good one. Grab a glass of milk, coffee, wine, tea, or other favorite beverage and stoke up the fireplace. Have I got a great tale for you!
Have you ever been to Oconomowoc, Wisconsin? The midwestern town where The Wizard of Oz premiered in 1939. The town of historic summer homes and lakefront properties on Lac La Belle. The town that is home to the Inn at Pine Terrace, the inspiration for the layout of the board. This is where our story takes place.
Once upon a time, young David paused his rumbling Jeep as he came upon a house like he had never seen in the quiet town of Oconomowoc, WI. A lightly painted, assuming Victorian home with columns by the front door, narrow windows stretching up to the sky, a tower that seemed to be growing taller and taller by the moment, and attic rooms popping out of the broken roofline loomed before him. The beautiful flower garden was buzzing with insects pollinating flower after flower. The roses seemed to sing as they guarded the terrace. Within the garden, around the back of the house, the small patio with painted iron chairs and ivy-covered gazebo in the backyard told of times before when gathering with neighbors for tea was the highlight of the afternoon.
As he stood there looking upon this home, the storyteller within him began to hum. Ideas and tales crept into his mind. Stories of adventures, of mystery, and of love began to weave out their melodies. His mind settled on a story of haunts and fortune. A board game! That’s it! This place would be the perfect setting for a mystery game. David knew that this place was special and began to dream about what the inside of the house held. Suddenly, David realized he was not alone.
“You lookin’ for trouble, young man?” a strong-chinned older man squinted his eyes and stared David down.
“No sir!” David said startled. “Your home is beautiful. There is so much to look at and imagine about it.”
Thus began a conversation that lasted a long, long, long, long, long, loooooooooooong time. (Because we know how David gets when he is excited about something.) David asked the man question after question. The man replied with saga after saga. When he told the man that he would like to make a board game inspired by his home, the man was overjoyed. He had just been working on updating some of the house and happened to have the blue-prints. Both men bounced with excitement and anticipation. When he asked if David wanted to see them, David’s “YES!” came out before the man could finish his question.
David thanked the man and after wiping off his Jeep hood really, really well, he laid the blueprints down to take a look. He snapped pictures and imagined what kinds of haunts would take up residence in a home this wondrous. When he turned to thank the man, he had vanished. Only a thin mist that twinkled in the dusky air remained where the man had been standing. With his eyes on the mist, he reached back to roll up the blueprints. Turning slowly around, he realized that they too had vanished, leaving only the smell from air freshener that had just been released.
For most, this terrifying moment may have sent them into a frenzy. But for David? His eyes widened. His heart started beating faster and faster. He knew the fortune would be a Haunted Inheritance!
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In all honesty, I made this story up. I do know that David and a previous owner of the house did chat, he was doing some kind of remodeling and did have the blue-prints, which he showed David. The rest of it was just fun to write.
The first iterations of the board were very simple. Well, simple for blueprints. However, while the last iteration has been around a while, we decided we needed to spruce it up. Do a little remodeling of our own.
The main shape of the house is as near as we can make it, but some of the rooms have been changed. (I mean… there is no dungeon or crypt in the basement. The Dark Closet, however… we all have one of those…)
We added some color, rearranged the floors and fancied up the graveyard and Cloud 9. We love it!
We will probably have to add a few more curves and adjust the colors – but for our new protype? It’s perfect!