5 Sports From Fiction You Can Try And How You Can Play Them
If you’re bored by the games you see every day, it’s probably the right time you try something new and unusual. Your best bets are games that came straight out of a film or book.
There are a number of sports seen in fiction stories that fans have wanted to play ever since they read about them. Fortunately, some of those fans were inventive enough to find ways to replicate them and make them work in real life.
Here are five examples of the sports that were inspired by fiction stories- and a guide on how to play them.
Quidditch
Quidditch appeared in the immensely popular Harry Potter series and has been in books, films and plays. Because of how popular it is, fans have had plenty of source materials on which to base the rules.
The original version of Quidditch had players flying through the sky on magical broomsticks which were called “Nimbus 2000” and “Firebolt 3000”. Their main goals were to throw balls through hoops, beat off aggressive and independent Bludger balls, and catch the tiny, golden Snitch.
The real-life version is much more grounded. Although players still have broomsticks, some factors were not the same. Players, for example, need to hold the sticks up by clutching them between their legs.
They need to throw balls through the hoops. However, rather than trying to fight off Bludgers, the players, called “Beaters”, have to throw deflated dodgeballs at the opposite team to knock them out of play temporarily.
The Snitch, meanwhile, is a lot easier to see than in the Harry Potter series. In the real game, it’s attached to an impartial official who runs away from the seekers who aim to catch it.
Tridimensional Chess
Tridimensional, or sometimes “Tri-D”, chess is quite similar to the real world Three Dimensional Chess. This version, however, uses a specific board and is inspired by the sci-fi classic, Star Trek. It’s been shown in several episodes of the series.
In early depictions, there were no rules and the board often changed design from one scene to another. In general, the boards were vertically-arranged but their sizes differ.
With this, fans were able to put together real-world versions of the board and solidified the rules into a sensible set. It’s quite similar to normal chess and even more so to 3D chess, but the game has different moves and levels.
Pyramid/Triad
The original series of Battlestar Galactica came up with a game called “Triad”. In the game, players make limited steps while holding a basketball-like object and throwing it into a scoring area.
The game took place in a triangular zone called the “Triad”. As a result of the release of the new series, the game received a new name- “Pyramid”. The rules, however, remained roughly the same.
In real life, it’s a full contact game with safe zones and teams or individuals. Players can only take three steps before throwing the ball and must try to score a goal. Compared with the rules in the show, it’s one of the games on this list that’s closest to the fictional version.
True American
True American is a game that has its origins in the series, New Girl.
The original version was completely random, with the cast of the show improvising. Becase of this, fans had to make a set of stricter rules to make the game a lot more structured.
Without touching the floor, referred to as “lava”, players make their way to a castle in the center of the room. This area is made up of bottles of beer (the “pawns”) and spirits. The players have to drink them until they’re all gone.
The first player or team who is able to reach the center first and finish the bottles wins. Finally, before one can be declared as winner, he must be able to take a swig from a central bottle called the “king”.
Poohsticks
Poohsticks is the ideal game if you are looking for something relaxing. It comes from the children’s classic story, Winnie the Pooh, and has the same set of rules.
Players find a stick of their choice and stand on a bridge over a river. They drop or throw their sticks together onto the upstream side and goes to the other side of the river to see which stick reaches it first. The first one to emerge on the other side is the winner.
The game has a remarkably large following for such a simple game and that included numerous World Championships.
The real-life adaptation of the game was originally called Posingford Bridge. It was later reconceptualized using funding from Disney and was renamed as “Poohsticks Bridge”.
Other Sports Brought to Life By Fans
These aren’t the only games from fiction stories that have been adapted in real life. If you want to know the other games and understand more clearly the five games in this list, have a look at the infographic.
