During those rare moments when Rose Anderson wasn't busy working as an information technology consultant, she wanted to spend time with her husband, Matthew, and their two children, Max and India Thomson. But Max, now a freshman at McLean High School, and India, a sixth-grader, preferred video games or other electronic entertainment. So one day during lunch time two years ago, Anderson scratched on some paper an idea for a board game that could hook the family and lure her children away from the solitary games. The game would be fun and challenging, not boring and easy.
That game turned into "Geist," a game incorporating strategy, fantasy, history and mathematics. She and her family have been playing and testing versions of the game since Anderson created it.
"I wanted a game where people could constantly find something new about it. I want it to be a game they'll play for the rest of their lives," said Anderson, a Vienna resident, who debuted her game in front of toy professionals at a Toy Fair in New York in February.
Created with her family in mind, Anderson's "Geist" is now sold in game stores throughout the nation, from Woodbridge, Va.; to Colorado; Texas; Vermont; and the World Wide Web.
RELYING ON player strategy vs. a lucky roll of the dice, Geist, like chess, asks players to think about ways they can win.
Through Geist, Anderson hopes to accomplish two goals: to have more families and groups of people play the game, thus giving them more time to interact together, and to bring intelligence and creativity back to board games. She wants the Geist tournament she's organizing for middle-schoolers in May at George Mason University to reintroduce teenagers to the world of board games.
"Board games have not kept up with the times," Anderson said.
In Geist, each player is a bounty hunter who must capture geists, or ghosts. To win the game, the bounty hunter must catch as many geists as he can. The more devious the geist, the higher the points. Yet bounty hunters can also block other players from racking up points, because each capture allows the bounty hunter to play a prank on the other players. That prank can be offensive or defensive, depending on the player's need at that moment.
"It was a pretty cool idea. It was fun watching it grow from a really simple game to what it is now," said Max Thomson, Anderson's son.
Anderson began thinking about board games 20 years ago, since the debut of Trivial Pursuit. Frustrated that the game catered to a certain group of people, Anderson scribbled down ideas for her own board game. When her children refused to play board games with her because they thought board games were childish, Anderson tried to come up with a game that would appeal to both boys and girls. Through research, she discovered that such a game would have to have a plot and superheroes. Strategy board games in Europe were good models, but the graphics were male-oriented and the stories focused on war and domination.
Her board game would also need to appeal to teenagers, the audience she was trying to reach. To do that, Anderson decided that players could play pranks against each other, since that's what teenagers liked to do already. To sweeten the appeal, the game would also have to give the player a lot choices and a sense of tension, just like the video games she was competing against.
"That's what Geist gives them, a similar feeling of tension. A lot of choices, and a lot of things happening," Anderson said.
And because Anderson was a former math teacher, the game needed to be educational. As a result, the game board is based on Pascal's Triangle, and the geists represent both good and evil historical figures.
AFTER TESTING earlier versions of the game, Anderson began selling it while her family encouraged their friends to try it. Her son, Max, brought friends home to play it. Two friends were reluctant at first but came back the next day to play more. Anderson's husband took it to work and introduced it to his co-workers.
"I am amazed at how well it's been received," said Matthew Anderson.
Geist player Ke Yang of Rockville discovered the game through a friend of a friend. Being Chinese, Yang would play games such as mahjong with her friends. When Yang's friend introduced Geist into the circle around Christmas last year, Yang was hooked. She played it with her husband and her friends.
"I love it," Yang said. "It really makes you use your brain. You have to have a strategy to try to win."
Yang added that she liked the game because she liked its design.
"It's really pretty. The pictures, the whole box, really grab me," Yang said.
Another player, Sherri Wilkins of Oakton, plays Geist with her 8-year-old daughter. Wilkins, who is Anderson's former co-worker, said her daughter's ability to add and subtract has improved since playing the game.
"It keeps your interest going. It's just so imaginative and creative," Wilkins said.
SINCE RETURNING from Toy Fair, Anderson has had several conversations with companies interested in distributing the game. Although she hopes for greater distribution, Anderson is currently working on a version of the game for younger players. She also continues to work on the Geist's Web site (www.playgeist.com), which includes a tips-and-advice page by her son Max.
"I'd like to see it on the market, so I could get some competition," Max joked.
At the very least, it's brought game night back to the Anderson household.
"I like the intensity of it, getting into it," said daughter India, who plays Geist "a couple of times a week."