Cranium + Jenga = WAR AND DIPLOMACY

Combining two boardgames, and using none of their core rules, especially when one of those games is composed entirely of blocks, is challenging.
Nevertheless, Quintin (http://www.quintonoverbay.com/) and I made the attempt to make a coherent game out of the two. While the end result was a bit convoluted, I believe we succeeded.

We used the Cranium board as 4 different quadrants, and each of us held two. Along the 8 colored spots along each quadrant we placed 'foot soldiers' made of Jenga blocks. Where the cards typically sit on the board, at outer corner of each quadrant, we put our 'country leader', using a player piece from Cranium.

The goal of the game was to take down these country leaders using war and diplomacy.

The first part of a round was taking turns rolling the cranium ten-sided dice with colors on each side. If the dice landed on, for example, blue, then the blue quadrant became under attack. The player who holds blue now writes down which two colors they defend, and the other player writes down which two colors they attack. They then reveal their 'hands' and execute the moves.

For example, the edge of the blue quadrant closest to the frame has red and green under the blocks, and red as an attack point. If the attacking player chooses red as one of their colors, and the defending player chooses to defend red and yellow, then the attacking player can take away the block on only the green spot.

Following this tactic, the players must strategically try to take down as much as the other player's defensive pieces as possible. There could be anywhere from four to one standing when it becomes impossible to win the quadrant using these rules or 'war'.

Now diplomacy comes into play. The attacker wants to take the last defensive piece that is sitting on a red spot, so they must take a red card and pass the answer on the card within a time limit. If they pass negotiations, they can remove the last defensive piece and take the country leader. Should diplomacy fail, they lose a one or two of their own pieces (depending on colors).

This second picture is a finished game where the player closest to the camera one with both of their country leaders still in play, however they lost all but 3 of their pieces. Despite the ridiculous rules, this game was actually very close, and pretty fun. It was nice to have a game that changes pace in such a drastic way halfway through, and the player actions reflect how war against a country or territory will turn into swift or drawn out diplomacy.