Comment by cauch | Hacker News Reader

Comment by cauch | Hacker News Reader

I don't know the game that much, but ways to create random 5x5 grid seems pretty simple when I quickly try to think about one.

What about having 25 scrabble-like squares in a bag, and the spymasters pick randomly in the bag. Each square has a number from 1 to 25 that correspond to one position on the 5x5 grid, and one extra square is chosen to be the black square and shown to the spymasters. The spymasters have a pen and a piece of paper with a 5x5 grid where they can mark the information they receive.

(that is if the spymasters are not informed of the position for the other team, I'm not sure if it's the case or not in the real game. If not, it's even simpler: both spymasters look at the result of every pick, the squares are colored and the order in which they are picked is the order they are on the grid)

That adds pretty noticeable friction over the pre-printed cards, so I think the pre-printed cards make a lot of sense to have.

Note that the game already comes with 25 colored tiles (red / blue / white) which are used to cover the game board, so what you describe could be easily done with the existing game by putting those 25 tiles in a bag, shaking it, and having the spymasters secretly draw all 25 and fill in a grid in the order they draw them, and then proceed with the game as normal from there. I doubt many people would want to bother though.

> that is if the spymasters are not informed of the position for the other team

The spymasters both know all information, so it is indeed even simpler.

You are right, it is more cumbersome, but it is worth doing it if people have played a lot and they start to unconsciously remember the "weird pattern", which is basically ruining the game. I would say the printed card can be used when that risk is low.

The way I would do it: Get a board with a grid of 5x5 insets (like a Big Boggle board), a screen to hide it, 25 colored marbles (9 blue, 8 red, 1 black, 7 white), and a bag. Shake the marbles in the bag and empty it onto the board, shuffling it around until each marble is in a hole.

(Add another red marble if you want to alternate the starting team without switching their color and remove a red or blue marble each time.)

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