Rock Paper Scissors: Deluxe Edition costs £20, includes actual rock, paper and scissors, single-player mode, and lore
Stone me.
Rock Paper Scissors, Scissors Paper Rock, Roshambo, 가위바위보. Whatever you call it, everyone knows it. Now it seems not even the traditional folk game used to settle debates and pass the time can escape the allure of a Kickstarter campaign.
That’s right: the game famously playable with nothing but your hands is getting a Deluxe Edition that replaces your fingers with actual rock, paper and scissors. The price for this privilege? $29 - around £20 - plus shipping. Bargain.
For that price, you’ll get a raw amethyst geode - the rock - a pair of European embroidery scissors and metallic gold “performance paper”. The set comes nestled in a box with a custom insert from GameTrayz - familiar for producing box storage for massive component-heavy games such as Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy, as well as the likes of Wingspan and Dicebreaker favourite Parks. Artwork from Wingspan illustrator Beth Sobel adorns the front of the box itself.
If you can’t tell from how ridiculous it all seems - that’s very much the point. Rock Paper Scissors: Deluxe Edition is the latest joke-made-real by Jeff Kornberg of YouTube channel The Dragon's Tomb, which specialises in satirical takes on traditional board game rules videos.
Kornberg previously crowdfunded a parody of Cards Against Humanity and its fill-the-blank, oh-so-edgy ilk called Offensive Adult Party Game, which featured a single black prompt card stating "I like playing offensive adult party games because ______" and 19 white answer cards that all read: "I lack creativity and enjoy the illusion of being funny."
The target this time is clearly the endless flood of inflated Kickstarter editions promising flashy components - from dozens of plastic miniatures to metal dice and coins - that go on to raise eye-watering amounts of money on the crowdfunding site.
“If there is anything the board game industry has taught us in the past few years, it's that EVERY game deserves a deluxe edition, no matter how good or bad it is,” the Kickstarter description says with tongue firmly in cheek.
Hammering the point home is the inclusion of a single-player variant from noted solo designer Dávid Turczi, as well as the promise of Rock Paper Scissors lore penned by Too Many Bones and Cloudspire publisher Chip Theory Games. A snippet of the game’s “deep mythos” featured on the campaign page sets up the warring kingdoms of the Quartzicans, Parchmentarians and Shearmongers and their endless struggle as the result of finding they are effective against one opponent but always outmatched by the other. Funny.
Turczi’s functional solo mode, meanwhile, will genuinely offer a way to play Rock Paper Scissors by yourself with the aid of a 20-sided die and a nine-card deck.
While the campaign may be a joke, Rock Paper Scissors: Deluxe Edition will very much become a real product if the campaign reaches its $13,000 funding goal by November 11th. At the time of writing, it’s sat on just over $9,000 of its total. Backers are expected to receive their physical set of rock, paper and scissors next June.