[[quoteright:350:[[CalvinAndHobbes http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Calvinball.jpg]]]]
->'''Hobbes:''' Okay, the score is oogy to boogy.\\
'''Calvin:''' I already ''had'' oogy!
-->--''{{Calvin and Hobbes}}''

->Other kids' games are such a bore!\\
They gotta have rules and they gotta keep score!\\
Calvinball is better by far!\\
It's never the same! It's always bizarre!
-->--''{{Calvin and Hobbes}}''

Describe {{Calvinball}} here.

If only it were that easy...

See, this is for any game which the protagonists play, but which we don't learn the full rules for. And often, what rules we do learn are insanely convoluted, can change at a moment's notice, and/or have bizarre exceptions and by-laws. Usually, this is for one of three good reasons:

# The games rules change whenever the players want, the players know this and aren't playing to win, but just [[RuleOfFun to have fun]].
# The protagonists are playing a non-existent game, [[AssPull making up the rules]] as they go in an attempt to hide an ulterior motive.
# Really, any attempt to explain the full rules would just [[RuleOfFunny take away from the joke]], so why bother?

You know you're dealing with a Calvinball-style game when the game's name is introduced, followed by a cut to another scene, then a cut back to a disaster area. Those are always the best.

Compare NoodleIncident (in fact, NoodleImplements are often a staple of this trope), TakeOurWordForIt.

Also, the trope does not include games to which every single rule has not been given. If the basic structure of the game is laid out it is not an example of CalvinBall. After all these are fictional games which appear in some kind of narrative, and we should not expect a full manual of rules to interrupt the flow of the story.

Also see PacManFever, where writers create Calvinball out of video games (intentionally or not) -- all we know is that most involve levels where you [[UltraSuperDeathGoreFestChainsawer3000 kill everyone]] with lots and lots of [[ButtonMashing button mashing]] and joystick swinging -- ''far'' more than what a game should have. See ScrewTheRulesIHavePlot when the premise is [[MerchandiseDriven all about a specific game]] but they end up turning it into Calvinball. When a known game or sport is played like Calvinball, then it's not Calvin's ball, but [[GretzkyHasTheBall Wayne Gretzky's]].

----
[[foldercontrol]]

!!Examples

[[folder:Anime]]
* From ''{{Bleach}}'', [[BrilliantButLazy Captain Kyoraku Shunshi's]] [[EmpathicWeapon zanpaktou]] is like this in shikai. [[spoiler: It imposes rules of a child's game onto the fight, which everyone (including Kyoraku) has to follow. One example is Irooni, where each fighter takes turns calling out a color. The color called out is the only color that can be damaged, and the more of that color you have the more powerful your attacks are. (For example, if the color is black, you're most vulnerable, and most powerful, if you're wearing a black jumpsuit) Because of it's unpredictability, Kyoraku has never used his bankai on screen.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Board Games]]
* There's a whole class of games where the rules can be changed, such as Nomic, Bartok, and Dvorak. Depending on the group playing the game, [[http://www.agoranomic.org/ the complication and absurdity of the rules can reach Calvinball-esque levels quickly]].
* In the game ''[[http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/542 Democrazy]]'', the object is to reshape (by player vote) the rules for acquiring and scoring colored chips so that your stash of chips is worth the most points at the end. As in the Fluxx example below, a winning position one turn can become worthless next turn, or vice versa.
* SteveJacksonGames' ''[[http://www.sjgames.com/knightmare/ Knightmare Chess]]'' uses a deck of cards, from which each player draws with every move, to turn chess into calvinchess. Typical card effects including blowing up pieces and rotating the board ninety degrees.
* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rithmomachy Rithmomachy]]''. Note that it still managed to be as popular as chess in 17th century Europe.
* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talisman_(board_game) Talisman: the Magic Quest Game]]'', by Games Workshop, an expandable board game loosely based on the Warhammer and WarHammer40000 role-playing games. Players advanced simplified RPG characters toward a simple goal (claiming a magical crown or somesuch), but the game took every chance to complicate and subvert this goal. Much of the gameplay occurred through card wars in the fashion of ''MagicTheGathering'', with the added dimensions of dice and boards. Even without the expansions, various player powers and cards indicated contradictory or overlapping results. Expansions added wild elements like time travel, outer space, underground dungeons, and cityscapes. The overall effect was of a network of overlapping and shifting rules, whose precedence was hotly debated at every turn. In fact, half the fun of the game is debating the rules.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Card Games]]
* The rules of the card game ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluxx Fluxx]]'' start simply, but constantly shift in unexpected ways with each new card, such that the players aren't even sure what will make a winning hand next turn. It's been described as "Calvinball with a deck" -- unjustly because you can't "make up whatever you like", you can only "do what the cards say", making it more like a simplified MagicTheGathering than like Calvinball.
** The difference being that there's only fifty or so cards in the game, and the shtick becomes predictable and boring once you know what kind of cards are in the deck (nearly all of which are either "draw X cards" or "collect items P and Q"). It doesn't help that several expansions to Fluxx exist (Family Fluxx, Eco Fluxx, Stoner Fluxx, MontyPython Fluxx...) that are nearly exactly the same thing only with different names on the cards.
***Actually Fluxx has blank card packs you can get to make up your own rules, goals, keepers, and actions if you so desire
* The card game ''[[http://www.elsewhere.org/discordian/bwcards.html/ 1000 Blank White Cards]]'' has far fewer rules than Fluxx. The game ends when someone cannot play or draw a card, and the person with the highest score wins. Other than that, players can mess with the score, the rules, and really just do whatever the heck they want by creating a card with that effect. ''This'' is Nomic with cards.
** "Ends"? "Score"? You've not been playing the ''true'' 1KBWC, I fear. Score doesn't matter, the game ends ''whenever'', and cards don't even have to have an effect!
** As, indeed, is the aforementioned Dvorak. Which is superior seems to depend on if you prefer your Nomics with democracy or without.
* Point of Order: The most important rule of the card game "Mao" is that you can't tell anyone else the rules. The point of the game is to guess them. New players are introduced to the game with the phrase, "The only rule I can tell you is this one." You are even penalized for every infraction of the rules. This troper doesn't know whether this next rule is universal or a variation (e.g. we say "time out," not "point of order"), but the winner can also add one more rule to the next game.
** ThisTroper hands ThatTroper a penalty card for saying P. of O. in a P. of O.
*** and another one for explaining the rules. :)
** "Crates" (Chicago Cutthroat Crazy Eights) has a similar rule against telling the rules.
** And let's not forget MorningtonCrescent.
** Actually there are three main types of Mao. There's bureaucratic Mao, where discussion about the rules is allowed when not playing the game, but the rules are numerous and hard to keep track of all of them. There's fraternal Mao, which is what was described above. And there is dictatorial Mao, where a single player has full control over all rules and enforcement, but generally does not play to win, changing the rules at his whim.
** End Point of Order.
*** What's worse is that you don't know what game you're even playing. That happened to this troper because you're not allowed to say Mao. *draws a card*
* The game ''MagicTheGathering'' constantly changes because of the release of new card sets with corresponding rules updates. It can feel an awful lot like Calvinball at times, but that's part of its charm.
** For that matter, the main rule of the game may as well be that players may do nothing but follow their turn order, play one land per turn, and attack once per turn unless a card says otherwise.
*** For players who want to make it ''more'' like Calvinball, a variant called ChaosMagic exists, which means that every turn, a random effect is selected from a long, long table with entries ranging from the trivial to the board-sweeping.
*** Or Mental Magic, in which you can play a card in your hand as any card with the same mana cost ''except itself'' (No repeats), and typically there's one shared deck. Absurdity ensues. With style.
** Then you've obviously never looked at [[http://www.wizards.com/magic/comprules/MagicCompRules080501.txt the comprehensive rules]], a massive document that outlines how any possible interaction of cards will play out. Impressive for the thousands of cards and billions of possible combinations possible.
*** The Comp. Rules also contain the rule, "103.1. Whenever a card's text directly contradicts these rules, the card takes precedence. The card overrides only the rule that applies to that specific situation. The only exception is that a player can concede the game at any time (see rule 102.3a)." under the section "Magic Golden Rules". Which means that, the fact that any card can change the rules is at the core of the game. However, the number of cards that change the rules is very small, and most such cards can be gotten rid of in various ways, all of which undo their rules changes.
** This is the whole point of the Future Sight timeshifted card Steamflogger Boss, which has the ability, "If a Rigger you control would assemble a Contraption, it assembles two Contraptions instead." Both Assemble and Contraption currently have no meaning in Magic, and Rigger only has a meaning because that's Da Boss's creature type. [[http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/af169 This article]] explains that the card was designed as a joke, and lists other possibilities for the card's ability that were suggested during development. Some are even more Calvinball-esque than the ability it was actually printed with, such as "Other Splorgs you control may attack and block as if the 'five-second rule' didn't apply to them," "If another Splorg you control would molt, it molts tomorrow instead," and "Whenever another Splorg you control becomes self-aware, you may toggle any or all of its statuses." All of these terms are currently meaningless.
*** [[http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=73751 This thread]] on MTGSalvation discusses "combos" with Da Boss, involving made-up cards, mechanics, decks, and formats:
---->"You're all forgetting Chicken and Eggs is still T3 legal. Steamflogger Boss/Mortal Coils ''looks'' competitive, but in practice it'll be Flipped out of existance, and your opponent will still be able to resonate to 50 by turn four, no matter how many contraptions you assemble. The fact remains that without a proper answer to Planar Hatchery, contraptions aren't tournament viable no matter how much support they get."
** At one time, the card Time Vault's ability required that there be a short amount of time between players' turns when abilities could trigger and mana sources could be played. Wall of Roots has a mana ability that can only be played once each turn, but the creator of the deck argued that ''between'' turns it could be played any number of times. The deck used Sands of time to skip the untap phase (to avoid mana burn) and go straight to the upkeep, when normal abilities could be played. The mana was then used to put an infinite number of counters on Magma Mine and deal an infinite amount of damage to the opponent. The combo was legal for only a couple days after it was discovered, then WizardsOfTheCoast errata'd Time Vault so that there was no time between players' turns. Note that, although the combo relied on the wording of Time Vault, Time Vault was not even in the deck.
**Of course, the joke sets Unglued and Unhinged are Calvinball cranked UpToEleven. Here's an actual ruling from Saturday School:
--->Removing pants is not a game ability, the fact that the pants can be removed is faster than a mana ability is just a ruling, it's not an actual rule. You would not be allowed to force your opponent to remove his or her pants, even if the Wrangler is in play. The material of the pants would not matter.
**That's not even the weirdest interaction involving Un-cards -- there is a combo involving Ashnod's Coupon that allows you to force your opponent to pay you any amount of money you want, as well as one using Mirrorweave, March of the Machines, Chaos Confetti, and Mindslaver to make your opponent ''tear his cards into pieces''. Note that each of these combos only requires one un-card; the rest are normal, tournament-legal cards.
* Webzine ''Critical Miss'' gave us "Clique": the unplayable, uncollectable card game. The goal is to confuse as many spectators as possible.
* In the card game/drinking game alternately known as "Asshole" and "President", one of the things the president can do is add a new rule at the start of a round (for instance, "pass all of the twos to me"). Whether or not these rules stay in effect for the whole game is up to the traditions of the players. As well, seats are constantly changed depending on who won the previous round, and drinking elements are often incorporated into it.
** In a similar vein is the danish card/drinking game "Gud" ("God"). Each drawn card has such effects as "Texas Quick-Draw" (Last person to mime drawing six-shooters must drink) or "Lawyer" (Create or remove a rule). The real fun starts when a player draws a king, though. This will render him or her "God", and the player is thus allowed to alter, create or remove any rule at will. Needless to say, this can get very convoluted rather quickly. And since rule violations require penalties in the form of extra drinking...
* Another game, Numbers, has each card using a different rule (for example Four has all girls drink and Six has all guys drink). The King lets whoever drew it add a new rule that has to be followed or else the breaker has to drink again. One of the favorites was that you can't say the word "Drink".
** This game is also known as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_(drinking_game) Kings]], and has its own entry on TheOtherWiki.
* The card game ''Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot'' increasingly gets this way with each expansion deck you add. Each card has a ridiculous amount of rules behind it, some only explained [[AllInTheManual in the manuals]], like a certain card not working on dates with all even numbers (like 02/18/08), or cards where you have to roll every dice X times, with X being the month. And then in the end, the winner is decided by what's essentially a complete random and arbitrary card that was shuffled and pre-chosen at the start of the game. Truly a game where the point is to have fun along the way.
*This troper is surprised no one's mentioned Steve Jackson's ''Munchkin'' series yet. In fact, it states in the rules themselves that players are not required to follow the rules, and indeed, that players can even make their own rules up as they go along, with the stipulation that whoever owns the game gets the final say in the matter. The fact that there are numerous different versions of ''Munchkin'' (''Munchkin Cthulhu, Munchkin Bites, Star Munchkin'', etc.) and the fact that each of these versions have their own expansion packs, plus the fact that you are encouraged to combine decks can result in very Calvinball-like games indeed. Then there's the bookmarks and other swag (including a rare ''coin'' token) that go with the games, which have even more ridiculous rules than some of the cards themselves.
*''We Didn't Playtest This At All'', and it's sequel ''We Didn't Playtest This Either'', qualify in this troper's opinion. Both are made by Asmadi Games, and can be found on [[http://www.asmadigames.com/ourgames.php their site]]. The games are simple. The only rule: you want to win. Trouble is, so do the rest of the players. And in this game, that's a problem, because, while it's possible to have multiple winners, it's also possible to have none. Each turn, a card gets played. With each card, a new rule is added. The kinds of cards vary from having to play rock/paper/scissors to shouting "ahh! zombies!" before being allowed to play a card, unless you have a banana. Each card has it's own flavor text, usually a silly quote or reference, including such things as a Marvin the Martian quote on a "Bomb" card ("Where was the Ka-boom? There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering Ka-boom.") to the song from the ''Chu Chu Rocket'' commercial. There are cards like "P.C." where everyone still in the game wins, as a joke about being politically correct, and "Spite" which states "play when another player wins. they lose, instead, but so do you." There are also cards that state that you win if it's the birthday of the person playing it, or if the player is the only person in the game visibly wearing a certain color. There are also cards that add up to a victory or defeat, such as "Bomb" which allows the player to draw another card, but when a total of four bombs have been played during the game, by all players combined, everyone loses, or cards that award 5 points, a total of 15 being needed for victory, which the exception of "Super Points" giving the player who used it 90 points, but setting the required amount for victory at 100. Then there are the time delay cards, such as "Dragon", "Arrows", "Black Hole", etc. that one player places before another, and will cause that player to lose if still in front of them by the end of their next turn, but that can be countered by specific cards, such as "Science" or "Rockets". And, of course, there are completely random cards, such as "Cake or Death" whose effect changes depending on how many players picked one option over the other, cards that make it illegal to point at anything, or to say certain pronouns. Then there's the chaos pack. One chaos card is drawn at the start of a game, and it's rule is in effect for the entirety of that game. Naturally, the rules on the chaos cards are even more random, such as one that changes all cards that say certain words to instead say other words, such as swapping which is referred to for rock/paper/scissors, or swapping "even" and "odd" or "cake" and "death", as well as having two blank chaos cards so that the players can even make up their own rules for the game. And this is all just from the first game, as the sequel wasn't out when this troper played the game last.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comics]]
* [[TropeNamer The name]], of course, comes from the anti-game invented by {{Calvin and Hobbes}}, whose only consistent rule was that you couldn't play the game the same way twice (although no one was ever allowed to question the masks, either).
** Although the main point of Calvinball really was to make up whatever rules would cause your opponent the most defeat, humiliation and annoyance. Hobbes was very good at it, and Rosalyn picked it up quickly.
** Calvin seems to be fond of games with impossibly convoluted rules, even though he's not very good at regular baseball, let along the variation with over two dozen bases spread out over half the neighbourhood, entire "ghost" teams and usually ending in a BigBallOfViolence with Hobbes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''[[YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series]]'' often portrays the titular "children's card game" this way, mostly as a way of making fun of how complicated the game actually is, and how [[ScrewTheRulesIHavePlot the original show clearly doesn't even use the same rules]].
** Episode 107 of the actual show plays with this as well. After a duel shifts to a dice game, it is declared that the roll of a die will alter each monster's strength. The protagonist declares that his roll doubles his power, while his opponent's...
--->'''Nesbitt:''' A five! That must be good!\\
'''Duke:''' Actually, ''that'' cuts your monster's power in half.\\
'''Nesbitt:''' ''What?!?''' That doesn't make any sense! Are you making this up as you go along?!?
* In [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4502785/6/Scordatura chapter 6]] of ''Scordatura,'' an ''AhMyGoddess'' fanfic by Davner, Urd is forced into an actual game of Calvinball against her sister Skuld in a sequence that parodies the Thunderdome sequence of ''MadMax: Beyond Thunderdome''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films]]
* ''[=BASEketball=]'' was based around this trope.
* From the FunWithAcronyms Department comes [=TEGWAR=], or '''T'''he '''E'''xciting '''G'''ame '''W'''ithout '''A'''ny '''R'''ules. First seen in the movie ''Bang the Drum Slowly'', it is a game invented by professional baseball players for the sole purpose of winning money off of gullible fans (who, for the most part, are just happy to play a card game with pro baseball players).
* Would the card game "I Win" in ''Big Daddy'' count in this?
** Not in the strict sense, as the rules do not change every time you play, but perhaps in a looser sense that regardless of what happens, there is only one rule that supersedes all others. In Calvinball, it's that you can't play the same game twice, in "I Win", it's that... I win.
* In the audio commentary for ''{{The Lord of the Rings}}'', Dominic Monaghan describes "Tig", a game with ever-changing rules that the other Hobbits made up as a prank on Elijah Wood. "So we -- the three of us [Billy Boyd, Monaghan, and Sean Astin] -- were constantly getting it right. And every time Elijah tried a new way of tigging, we'd say, 'No, Elijah, you can't tig on a tog, you can't tag on a tig, you have to do an elephant impression if you're gonna tig Billy." (He adds that the prank went on for a year before the three 'fessed up.)
** What makes it even funnier is that Monaghan admitted they first came up with it "as a wind-up", to try and make Wood mad. Joke turned out to be on them -- he ''enjoyed'' it!
*** Actually, Billy and Dom started "Tigging" each other for no reason. Then Sean joined in, adding variations, like "tog" and "tig-tig." Elijah joined them, they told him that they were playing a game, "and spent the next hour making up rules."
* In ''Play Misty For Me'' {{Clint Eastwood}}'s charactar plays a game of ''Crybastion'' with his barkeeper to make a woman to strike up a conversation with them. [[spoiler:If only he hadn't.]]
* Although explained in depth in the novels, Quidditch from ''HarryPotter'' comes off like this in the movies. Some of the rules do seem to be different, especially fouls and the bounds of the field. On the other hand, see below to read about the fouls...
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Fans of ''[[TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' are well aware of Brockian Ultra-Cricket, which primarily involves smacking people with random sports equipment, then apologizing from a distance. The only known attempt to collect all the rules resulted in a volume so massive it produced a black hole. There have been fewer games of Ultra-Cricket than wars fought over rule differences in Ultra-Cricket.
** Which is actually a good thing since Brockian Ultra-Cricket is actually more devastating than the wars fought over the rules.
** One rule that we ''do'' know is that "the winning team shall be [[CaptainObvious the first team who wins.]]"
* Gary Cohn's [[http://www.eblong.com/zarf/moopsball/ "Rules of Moopsball"]], as the name suggests, describes the increasingly bizarre rules of a most unusual sport. The TabletopGames setting ''{{GURPS}} Illuminati University'' makes Moopsball the most popular sport on campus.
** Cohn worked on comics and the game appeared in ''LegionOfSuperHeroes'' as a ShoutOut.
* Attempts have been made to codify and play ''Cripple Mr. Onion'', the most famous card game on the {{Discworld}}, but it really is funnier left to the reader's imagination.
** Discworld has also been mentioned as having its Gods play games to which no one knows the rules, sometimes including the gods themselves.
*** We do know that they find Chess too complicated and don't have the patience.
** RobertAsprin's ''Myth'' series includes the analogous Dragon Poker a combined send-up of American poker and the incredibly bizarre scoring variation of mah-jong, which gets much less amusing when the rules and hands are described in tedious detail.
* The Leary family in Anne Tyler's ''The Accidental Tourist'' invented a card game called "Vaccination", which after decades of refinements has become so convoluted that no outsider could possibly learn how to play it. Except for Julian, who marries into the family; when he learns the rules, lead character Macon Leary is so impressed he withdraws his objection to Julian marrying his sister.
* The Herman Hesse novel ''The Glass Bead Game'' (''Magister Ludi'' in early translations, ''Das Glasperlenspiel'' in its original German) revolves around an extraordinarily complex game whose rules are never explained -- and its publication in 1943 makes this trope almost OlderThanTelevision.
* Shent from TadWilliams' ''[=~Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn~=]'' is implied to be like this. Its complexity is increased by the fact that players aren't expected to play to win, but rather to create aesthetically pleasing situations.
* Azad in ''The Player of Games'' by Iain M. Banks is a non-comedic example of an absurdly complex game. It involves at least three large boards and several smaller boards as well as multiple side games involving cards. The winner of an Azad tournament [[SeriousBusiness becomes the next Emperor]].
* In the ''Black Jewels Trilogy'', by Anne Bishop, Jaenelle and her coven invent a game played with cards and a board that has twenty-six variations, which the players may switch between in the middle of the game. Their respective husbands and consorts suspect that they purposely made it up to frustrate the male mind, until Daemon, Jaenelle's consort, invents a twenty-seventh variation that allows him to beat Jaenelle. Their conversation about it the next morning turns into InnocentInnuendo. (If anyone has the book handy, please copy it down here.)
** *Grabs book* The game's name is "cradle". It consists of a game board, colored stones, bone discs, a deck of cards, and sadistic ingenuity. The dialogue goes something like this:
--->'''Lucivar:''' You look like you put in a long night yourself.\\
'''Daemon:''' It was interesting.\\
'''Jaenelle:''' There's something a bit sneaky about the positions in variation twenty-seven that give a male so much of an advantage, but I haven't worked it out... yet.\\
''(Philip glares angrily at Daemon)''\\
'''Khardeen:''' You know twenty-seven variations?\\
''(Daemon says nothing)''\\
'''Jaenelle:''' Yes, he does, and that variation is brilliant. Sneaky, but brilliant.\\
''(Khardeen and Aaron haul him out of the room)''\\
'''Khardeen:''' We'll get breakfast later. First, we need to have a little talk.\\
'''Daemon:''' It's not what you think. It's really nothing.\\
'''Aaron:''' Nothing!?\\
'''Khardeen:''' If you've figured out a new variation of "cradle" that gives a man the advantage, it's your duty as a Brother of the First Circle to share it with the rest of us before the coven figures out how to beat it.\\
''(Daemon is not sure he had heard them correctly)''\\
'''Aaron:''' Well, what did you ''think'' Consorts do at night?\\
''(Daemon bursts out laughing)''
* Fiddler and the Bridgeburners in the ''MalazanBookOfTheFallen,'' will occasionally play a game with the tarotlike Deck of Dragons that is something like poker, except they make up the rules as they go along. Because they are playing with a deck of cards used to represent their world's pantheon, the games end up being vaguely prophetic.
** More than vaguely. It's heavily intimated, if not stated outright, that this is simply Fid's highly unorthodox method of reading the Deck.
* In all honesty, Quidditch from the ''HarryPotter'' novels seem to have fairly straightforward rules, except when it comes to ''violations'' of those rules. It is mentioned that there are over 700 different fouls -- and one of the novels cites a professional game where every single foul at that time (plus some that were not yet declared fouls at that time) occurred.
** One of the rules of Quidditch is that players are ''not allowed to learn about the fouls''. It might "give them ideas". (Although what ideas they might get from being forbidden to carry a swarm of vampire bats in your pants is open to debate ...)
*** It's noted in ''Quidditch Through The Ages'' that the ''author'' has had access to the complete foul list, and agrees that "No good could come of its release to the general public." He also notes that while the ban on wand use in-game would automatically restrict over half of them, and ones such as "striking another player with an axe"... well...
* In TomHolt's ''Who's Afraid of Beowulf?'', two imps have spent the past thousand years playing "Goblin's Teeth". They're still on their first game. Descriptions of the gameplay suggest it contains elements of chess, Monopoly, Scrabble and several others.
* In John Knowles's ''A Separate Peace'', Finny creates Blitzball which has rules understood by Finny and Finny alone.
* In ''WelkinWeasels'', the most popular game among mustelidae is called "hollyhockers". The game appears to be a bizarre mixture of poker and the I Ching, in which bets are placed on patterns that a thrown cupful of hollyhock seeds will fall into.
* ''SecondApocalypse'' has the game of Benjuka, in which the rules are changed by the moves players make.
* The ''[[MythAdventures Myth]]'' series by Robert Asprin features Dragon Poker, which includes such rules as sitting in the chair at a certain point of the compass enables you to retroactively declare certain cards wild after the hand has been dealt. But only once per night, so the game won't completely get out of hand... :^)
* ''The Glass Bead Game''. This is very noticeable since the life mission of the main character and his peers is to play it properly. The eponymous game is alluded to as being the ultimate intellectual pursuit.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* The infamous "Kamoulox" invented by french comedians Kad and Olivier. It's a parody of jeopardy-look-alike tv shows, whose habit of giving nicknames to their special rules can make them very obscure at first viewing. The game must have a referee and any number of players, giving special penalties to other players who have to answer with counter-penalties. These special rules are of course completely made up on the moment and must have the most stupid names possible. The referee decides if the counter-penalties work or not, based on other stupidly-named rules found in improvisation. He can also invoke rules of his own. The game ends whenever a player says "Kamoulox" (he wins then). The whole game is just an excuse to say stupid things.
**Example : '''Referee''' : we begin by an ostrogoth chicken onslaught. Player 1... '''Player1''' : I don't know anything about this subject, so I prefer to use my porcine opera wildcard to skip this part. '''Referee''' : This puts you in a very delicate situation, Player2 ! What will you do ? '''Player2''' : I'm saying that at random, but I'm picking the reluctant machiavelian houseplant. '''Referee''' : Correct answer. That was a close one ! Now it's your turn, Player2 : what's the content of an assyrian fridge ? '''Player2''' : a frustrated holywood actress sporting a baseball as a hat ! '''Player1''' : KAMOULOX ! '''Referee''' : You win ! That was a pretty stupid mistake, Player2 ! According to the Melvin rule, you can't use any reference to the parisian ukulele bonus. '''Player2''' : I know, I should have paid more attention...
* Fans of ''StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' will no doubt recall Fizzbin.
** Which was actually made into an old Apple [=IIe=] program.
** And, for that matter, 3D chess, which is understood to have rules, famous stratagems, etc. In-universe that are never shown to the viewer. Used as a plot point in a couple of ''TOS'' episodes, then largely relegated to ShoutOut status in the newer shows.
*** An episode of ''The Next Generation'' featured as a B-plot Data losing a game of some kind to the universe's greatest player of the game. The rules are never explained, but from the looks of things the point is to acquire territory on multiple 2D planes. Since the player in question is organic, Data is baffled as to how he could have been beaten by a theoretically slower brain. As the episode progresses, he has some kind of revelation, and, during a rematch, manages to maintain a stalemate long enough to confuse and infuriate his opponent, who furiously quits and claims something isn't kosher. Data explains that his opponent played to win and expected Data to do the same, which is why Data played just to block him. But they never explain the rules enough for Data's opponent to be anything but a poor sport when he walks away.
* In ''TheMonkees'' TV show, Mickey Dolenz invents the game of "Creebage" for much the same reason as Kirk invented Fizzbin: to distract a captor and allow for a quick escape.
* The British show ''GreenWing'' gives us Guyball, which features all the quirks of jai alai, basketball, and Eton College's Wall Game. Plus a really funny hat.
** The one rule actually given was "curbing the Matterhorn", which entails insulting your opponent as much as possible.
* ''TheLeagueOfGentlemen'' has "Go, Johnny, Go, Go, Go, Go", a sketch in which a novice player makes increasingly trivial mistakes and violations of the rules to the titular game.
* The ''{{Scrubs}}'' episode "My Jiggly Ball" had the titular jigglyball, which was actually a hoax designed by the Janitor to manuever J.D. into a position where the entire hospital got to throw tennis balls at him.
* ''TheGoodies'' had the game of "Spat", which seemed to be made of rules that led to Bill always losing and being injured.
* ''{{Friends}}'' featured Cups, a card game invented by Chandler to transfer money to Joey. BeginnersLuck is a vitally important feature.
** And later the quiz show ''Bamboozle!'' which involves "Wicked Wango Cards" and "The Wheel Of Mayhem"
** Also Phoebe Ball, which appears to consist of [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Phoebe]] asking questions and arbitrarily awarding points for the answer closest to the description she was thinking of. This being Phoebe, the others gets frustrated after one round.
*** No it doesn't have a name.
** Chandler and Joey, as the typical "boys will be boys" characters, have invented a number of their own games, including "Hammer Darts", of which we know nothing about, only that it cost them their insurance and part of the wall, and Fireball, which involves [[NoodleImplements oven gloves, lighter fluid and a tennis ball.]] Or better yet, a bowling ball and acetylene torch for '''Ultimate Fireball!'''
* The British show ''That Mitchell and Webb Look'' (and its radio predecessor) features Numberwang, "the maths quiz that simply everyone is talking about." Unfortunately, it's portrayed as so ubiquitous its rules no longer need explaining -- and the rules are not intuitive. Here are [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BGEALhrb38 three]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIxz6BDmTNU&NR=1 sample]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJDu5D_IXbc&NR=1 games]] so that you can find a pattern.
** Series two offers the home version, which comes with the rulebook in twenty volumes; it also shows a 1930's episode where "the boffins" take several hours to work out whether the first move was Numberwang or not.
* ''[[{{MASH}} M*A*S*H]]'' had Double Cranko, played with a poker deck, a chess board, dice, and [[ThereAreNoRules no rules whatsoever.]] When Colonel Potter finally turns the tables on Hawkeye in it, Hawkeye proceeds to invent ''Triple'' Cranko. (An earlier episode had Hawkeye and Trapper playing a similar venue, but as a DrinkingGame.)
* In ''StargateAtlantis,'' Ronon introduces Sheppard to a "traditional Satedan sport" that is a sparring session where the rules change with every round. After picking himself off the floor a few times, Sheppard complains that Ronon is just inventing this as an excuse to kick his ass. He good-naturedly indulges Ronon though, possibly because he's used to it by now (his teammate Teyla regularly kicks his butt while attempting to teach him her fighting technique).
* In the ''ILoveLucy'' episode "The Golf Game", Lucy and Ethel want to take up golf, and ask Fred and Ricky how to play. The men don't want their wives following them around the golf course, so they try to discourage them by inventing a set of crazy and overly complex instructions for play.
* ''TheGilliesReport'' had a running gag involving a reporter describing the results of the fictitious sport of farnarkling. He would describe the game using bizarre terminology but acting as if it was commonly understood. A typical example: "And he was soon arkling the grommet from all points of the gonad".
* The ''{{Firefly}}'' episode "Bushwhacked" opens with a spirited game of Calvinball in the cargo bay.
-->'''Simon:''' They don't seem to be playing according to any civilized rules that I know.
** In "Shindig", Book, Simon, and Jayne play a card game designed to divvy up chores.
* [[http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=CfgRGW9Ghik Quizzlestick]]. Remember, ''always'' remember to use your Green Quizzle Chance.
* In the French TV series ''{{Kaamelott}}'', Perceval knows ''lots'' of totally unplayable games that he alone can understand and play. Some of them involve fourteen dice and artichokes.
** King Arthur seems to know perfectly the twisted rules of the "countersyrup" card game, as well:
--->"We need 14 dice to play that game. Anyway, we can play it with cards, that's not a problem. What matter are the announcements."
* The ''{{How I Met Your Mother}}'' episode "Atlantic City" features an unfathomable casino game called "Xing hai shi Bu Xing", which features cards, dominoes, changing seats with other contestants, a wheel of fortune, and a jellybean. Marshall is the only one who could figure out the rules just by watching the game while everybody else stands there befuddled ''and'' he's even able to give Barney game-winning advice. This is hardly a surprise, considering:
** "Bas-ice Ball," the hockey/basketball hybrid that Marshall's family plays. It's basically an excuse for his brothers to whale on each other.
** Also Marsh-Gammon, involving a Candy Land board, poker chips, playing cards, a buzzer, handwritten "Autobiography cards", a Twister spinner and some dice.
* ''TheMiddleMan'' gave us Shabumi, an exceedingly complex card game played by high-class villainous types. Each player is given a full deck of cards, over 300 verbal and physical challenges are involved, and the price for loosing or cheating is death. Oh, and live bunnies are involved somehow.
* ''MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' featured the quiz show "It's A Living", the rules of which were so insanely convoluted and complex (but somehow revolving around what fees the BBC got) that by the time the presenter finished explaining them, the show had finished.
* In the 2004 SciFi channel reboot of ''BattlestarGalactica'' the pilots are often seen playing a card game known on the original show as "Pyramid", referred to on the ReBoot show as "Triad". The cards are six sided with a variety of symbols and colors to designate suit and rank; there are rules posted online but they are largely created from fan speculation. It is potentially impossible to integrate canon with an actual rule set, since the actors playing the pilots were known to improvise game terms and names of winning or losing hands on the spot.
**Averted with the reboot show's game that uses the name "Pyramid:" a vaguely handball-like game played in a small court with three goals and for which the writers did, in fact, draft up a full set of rules.
* Puppeteer/comedian Marc Weiner had a bit where he and two volunteers from the audience would play a game called "That's Not Fair!" where no one ever gave the right answers and points were awarded arbitrarily.
* ''ThePrisoner'' features the sport of Kosho, played on two trampolines set on either side of a four-foot-by-eight-foot tank of water and bordered on two sides by a wall with an angled ledge and hand-rail. Two helmeted opponents each wear a boxing glove on their left hand and a lighter padded glove on their right, and while moving freely in three dimensions attempt to knock, push or throw each other into the tank. ''SoYeah''.
*Arguably, any game show created by Jay Wolpert, especially ''{{Whew}}''. Just [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0135115/plotsummary look at the rules]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Print Media]]
* The trope's first reported instance was in ''MadMagazine'' back in the 60s, when they invented a college game called [[http://www.madcoversite.com/index-quiz_olympics.html 43-man Squamish]]. Details are sketchy, but when official gear includes a shepherd's crook and flippers, odds are the game wasn't meant to be played anyway. Still, apparently some actual teams were formed for a bit. An excerpt from the rules:
-->''A Squamish team consists of 43 players: [[LongList the left & right Inside Grouches, the left & right Outside Grouches, four Deep Brooders, four Shallow Brooders, five Wicket Men, three Offensive Niblings, four Quarter-Frummerts, two Half-Frummerts, one Full-Frummert, two Overblats, two Underblats, nine Back-Up Finks, two Leapers, and a Dummy]].''
** An earlier example from ''Mad'' is the late-fifties board game parody [[http://erniekovacs.blogspot.com/2007/12/test.html Gringo]].
** Another was the board game "Three-Cornered Pitney" in 1983, with similarly ridiculous rules, as it was designed by one of the creators of 43-Man Squamish.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* At ''{{WWE}} Backlash'' in 2001, William Regal challenged Chris Jericho to a Duchess of Queensbury rules match, which Jericho readily accepted, despite having no idea what "Duchess of Queensbury rules" entailed. It turned out that Duchess of Queensbury rules simply meant that Regal got to change the rules whenever Jericho was about to win. Jericho attempts to pin Regal? Oops, the match is divided into two rounds, and round one just ended. Jericho gets a submission? Oops, submissions aren't allowed!
** This wasn't the first time this kind of match was used; this one is a popular, albeit seldom used kind of ZanyScheme for heels in ProfessionalWrestling.
*** And when the General Managers or Vince himself gets involved, their reason is automatically ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Radio]]
* A lot of beginners playing Mornington Crescent, from the British radio show ''[=~I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue~=]'', mistake it for a game of Calvinball due to its [[{{Metagame}} arcane stratagems]], ancient rules with [[HouseRules myriad variants]], and famously arbitrary victory condition ("first to say '[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mornington_Crescent_tube_station Mornington Crescent]]' wins"), leading many untrained observers to call the game nothing more than "stations in the London Underground being shouted out randomly". [[supersecretspoiler:They're right.]]
** This is especially jarring to those players who go so far as to set up an enormous double lengthwise switch halfway through the game, only for it to be called nothing more than a lot of bull. Philistines.
*StephenFry's ''Saturday Night Fry'' gave us the game of "Kick The Frog", in which Hugh Laurie was the frog and had to answer questions. If he got the answers wrong, Jim Broadbent kicked him. If he got the answers ''right'', Phyllida Law kicked him. There was no mechanism to make someone else the frog.
** From the back of the box: "Kick The Frog is like life. It isn't fair." The rules were subsequently changed to become (in principle) fairer, first by becoming a democracy (in which only Stephen and Jim had the vote, and both voted Hugh should remain the frog, and neither he nor Phyllida should get a vote) and eventually into a pluralist social democracy (in which, after long discussion, almost everyone agrees it makes ''sense'' for Hugh to remain the frog). Eventually Hugh persuades them to stop playing altogether. So they just kick him instead.
*Since 2005 or so, Netflix has used radio ads featuring contestants on a fictional quiz show with totally absurd questions and nonsensical answers, such as "A dog goes ahead in time and bites his tail. When does he feel it?" "Yesterday." "Correct!"
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* [[http://www.indie-rpgs.com/articles/21/ According to Role-playing game designer Ron Edwards]], "Calvinballing" is when a player in a tabletop role-playing game utilizes mean-spirited misinterpretations of the rules to one-up the other players and gain control of the game.
* In one of the ''[[DungeonsAndDragons Dungeons & Dragons]]'' settings, "Kholiast" is an elven game played with "a deck of more than 1000 cards, a variable hand determined by a throw of dice, and a point-counting system that would drive even the most dedicated Candlekeep scholar completely mad."
** Described in ''Monster Manual V'' is the Great Game of the dragons, Xorvintaal. The basic rule is "Steal the other dragons' treasure", but most of the gameplay is left up to the DM's invention, as in "you want the [=PCs=] to do this, call it a Xorvintaal maneuver".
* ''{{Talislanta}}'' has "Trivarian," which is so complex that it can only be played by people with two brains.
* ''Pyramid Magazine'' featured a campaign setting called ''[=LudiCROUS=] -- The Sport of the Future!'', about a sport where the rules could change from moment to moment... including the rules about how the rules could change. A good [=LudiCROUS=] team needs people with a wide variety of skills, from footballers to chessmasters, because the goal of the game could be almost ''anything''.
* ''{{Paranoia}}'' might fit the bill or subvert it depending of how you see it. Basically the rulebook (often ignored) states that arguing rules is against the Big Orwellian Omniscient AI's will, and it can (and will) result in painful death for the players. Actually, [=GMs=] ''make'' the rules as long as they keep the game interesting.
* Pretty much any RPG that encourages participants to develop their own house rules is, in effect, an example of this trope. Among 3rd Edition D&D fans, house-ruling became known as "invoking Rule Zero", in reference to the 3E ''Player's Handbook'' having prefaced its numbered list of character-creation steps with a reminder that the DM may have modified the procedure to suit his or her campaign.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Many of the Zoq-Fot-Pik from ''StarControl II: The Ur-Quan Masters'' are obsessed with Frungy, the "sport of kings". Naturally, the player is never given an opportunity to learn the rules of Frungy.
** WordOfGod tells us that however it's played, it's played ''with gusto''!
* The ''{{Zork}}'' series featured Double Fanucci, a card game with 15 suits and absurdly complex rules (which are never given in full).
* In ''FinalFantasyIX'', Tetra Master is basically Calvinball to the people who ''play it''. Nobody who you meet actually know the rules, and as a player you have to pick the rules up from other character's suppositions and actual gameplay. Apparently the cards sort of play themselves somehow.
** The card game in the previous game, ''{{Final Fantasy VIII}}'', wasn't much better, with rules being added or removed more or less at random, depending on whom you play with.
**Directly parodied in ''{{Adventurers}}!'' with "Septuple Scare" (below).
* Chuckles the jester in ''{{Ultima}} VII'' is a champion of "The Game", which it's impossible for him to explain the rules of without violating them. [[spoiler: The objective is to complete a conversation with him without using any words containing more than one syllable.]]
** ''Ultima Underworld II'' has a game called White Rock Black Rock, with [[{{Understatement}} fairly]] simple rules: if you pick the white rock (by choice, not by chance) then you win, and if you pick the black rock you lose. However, the game's rules become very bizarre when you play it in the Ethereal Void later on: fish, limbo and peas are somehow involved, among other things.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* Most of the sports featured in ''HomestarRunner'', which probably became a running joke after [[LampshadeHanging having its ridiculousness pointed out]] by Strong Bad in the commentary for "In Search of the Yello Dello":
-->'''Strong Bad:''' What the crap kind of freaked-up sport are you guys playing anyways? I mean, you're on a football field, but you've got a basketball goal, and basketballs and footballs...\\
'''Homestar Runner:''' I know! It's America's pastime!
** Strong Bad later mentions a dice-and-cards-and-board game called "Three-to-One Marny".
* [[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/485251 A rare, "Playable" example of a Calvinballesque game.]]
** "I play the 9 in [[{{Yu-Gi-Oh}} Defense Mode]]!"
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''OzyAndMillie'' occasionally partake in House Rules Parcheesi. We never see much of the game itself, but we do see its aftermath: the room tends to look like a tornado hit it. [[http://www.ozyandmillie.org/comics/om20000713.gif Shout-out!]]
* Euchre is a game in RealLife, but in [[http://bukucomics.com/loserz/index.php?comicID=305 this strip]] of ''{{Loserz}}'' it's described in a way that it sounds like Calvinball.
* In ''DorkTower'', Igor insists on inventing '"house rules" for almost every game played, including rules for landmines in Candyland and a variation of Licence Plate Bingo that was so arcane the road trip was over by the time he'd finished explaining.
* ''MacHall'' has [[http://machall.com/view.php?date=2002-06-15 Australian Indoor-Rules Quiddich]]. The entire point of the game is to smack a ball with an LED light at people while playing in a blacked-out hallway. No score, no other rules. Just carnage.
* ''Boxer Hockey'' centers around a team of a sport, after which the strip is named. The basic rules are that players wear nothing but boxer shorts (not briefs, not thongs, not longjohns, boxer shorts), and they carry around any long, thin-ish implement which can be used for hitting things. This is because the object of the game is to get the ball, which is actually a gene-spliced frog that's had it's DNA cut with rubber, into the opponent's goal. Other than that, it's up to the players as to the strategies they use and nothing's forbidden. Beating your opponent into pulp is an entirely valid strategy, although I'm given to understand actually killing them is frowned upon. Killing a ''frog'' loses the team points, and a dead frog cannot be scored with.
* ''AnsemRetort'' used this nicely in one strip. Namine challenges Larxene to a card game where the rules are entirely made up, ''any card ever'' can be played, and there is apparently no real way to win. However...
-->'''Axel:''' What do you mean you lost? You were making up the rules!\\
'''Namine:''' She played a Monopoly "Get out of Jail Free" card. How am I supposed to beat that?
* [[http://www.adventurers-comic.com/d/20011119.html Septuple Scare]] from ''{{Adventurers}}!'' is portrayed this way. [[http://www.adventurers-comic.com/d/20050820.html Ardam is currently the only one who has figured out the rules.]] A clear parody of ''FinalFantasyVIII'''s Triple Triad (see above)[[supersecretspoiler: [[hottip:*: Aha! An infinite "See above/below" loop! [[EvilLaugh Moohahaha!]]]]]]
* From SchlockMercenary, we bring you [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20061001.html Munchkin-clix of Cataan]]:
--> '''Schlock''': Hah! Yahtzee! That's a critical hit!
--> '''Kevyn''': But my cleric is on a triple word score. He gets an attack of opportunity.
--> '''Schlock''': Can I burn a point of edge?
--> '''Kevyn''': No. I think you have to mortgage one of your hotels.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* In the ''WhateleyUniverse'', there's Dis-chess, which is something like 3-D chess where the rules change every few minutes.
* BaratsAndBereta, makers of the Man-tage, give us ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycM844Bfzsk Mouse-mate]]''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''{{Futurama}}'' has Blernsball, which is like baseball, but with so many new rules and gimmicks added -- including the ball being attached to a bungee cord, a "multi-ball" mode, and a giant spider that runs the bases -- that hardly anyone can tell what's going on. It's quite obviously a spectator sport, because it at least [[RuleOfCool looks really cool]]. Not to mention we see it twice... and it changes near-completely between viewings.
* On ''{{Garfield and Friends}}'', a U.S. Acres short involved Orson convincing the others to play a game of "pigball". We don't see how actual pigball is played, as Roy plays a joke by switching the actual rules with a set of increasingly absurd ones (like flipping a baked potato not only to see who plays first, but if the game is actually played at all) which instruct the players to score points by doing embarrassing and ridiculous stunts (like dressing in silly outfits or finding a live hippopotamus).
* At the start of the ''{{SpongeBob SquarePants}}'' episode "Squidward the Unfriendly Ghost", [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick are playing a game that involves bubble-blowing, moving pieces on a chess board with your breath, carrying rocks around, climbing a tree, and other crazyness. At one point, Patrick triumphantly shouts "I lose!", until [=SpongeBob=] reminds him, "But it's not Tuesday, Patrick." When an annoyed Squidward asks them what they're doing, they sheepishly admit, "We don't know."
** "Tuesday" being, of course, a reference to one of the few known rules of [[StarTrek Fizzbin]].
* There's an episode of ''FairlyOddparents'' in which Timmy and friends play "Timmyball". Same principle.
** Compared to Wandaball, which uses a cinderblock.
* The ''EdEddNEddy'' episode "Urban Ed" opens with the Eds getting Johnny to play a game consisting of seemingly random stunts (like shooting peas through a straw to pop balloons, or throwing marshmallows into a tuba bell). When the last step turns out to be "put a quarter in the jar", Johnny sees through their BavarianFireDrill and walks off, saying "Nice try, Eddy."
* ''{{Chowder}}'' has "Sniffleball", which is basically baseball played with giant gloves on one's head, a ball of slow-moving green snot, and twelve bases that are located underwater, in the sky, and [[SuperMarioBros in Bowser's castle]]. Really.
** And later on there was "Big Ball" (the actual name being [[OverlyLongName ridiculously long]]). Apparently if one team were to actually win, the game would literally be trashed by Bowser (what's with all the Mario references?).
*** Wait, it's bad luck not to say the whole name: Field Tournament Style Up and Down On the Ground Manja Flanja Blanja Banja Ishka Bibble Babble Flabble Doma Roma Floma Boma Jingle Jangle Every Angle Bricka Bracka Flacka Stacka Two Ton Rerun Free for All Big Ball.
* Subverted on an episode of (where else?) ''TheSimpsons'', where Homer, Lenny, and Carl are playing a chair-hockey game. They disagree on not only the rules, but what game they're playing (Homer claims it's called "Cincinnati Time-Waste"). At first, it would seem that this would fall into Calvinball territory, but then Carl opens up an official Cincinnati Time-Waste rulebook....
** Played straight in another episode:
--->'''Bart:''' You sunk my scrabbleship!\\
'''Lisa:''' This game makes no sense.
* ''{{Recess}}: School's Out'' includes something called "Battle Tag".
* The F Games on ''PhineasAndFerb'':
-->'''Phineas:''' That's two points for recycling! The girls' score is now the square-root of pi while the boys still have a crudely-drawn picture of a duck. Clearly, it's still anyone's game!
**"Let's Take a Quiz" is a game-show version of this trope; the only rule seems to be "answer quickly, and answer often", and Candace is still fairly baffled at first.
* An episode of ''KingOfTheHill'' had a B-plot revolving around Peggy's attempt to develop a mock game show based on all the things people like most about TV game shows. The result is an incomprehensible game called "Spin the Choice"; "On your turn, you can choose to spin, or you can choose to choose. If you choose to spin, you spin the Wheel of Choice..."
* ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' had Pai Sho and that one weird game on sticks that Aang played in the second episode.
**Don't forget the game they played on the air scooters, which Aang couldn't play because he was then known as the Avatar.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Precisely.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mornington_Crescent_%28game%29 Mornington Crescent.]]
* So, you know Rock-Paper-Scissors? That game, with three gestures? Well, people made five-gesture versions that added "Lizard" and "Spock" (but disagreed on which beats which). Then someone made [[http://www.umop.com/rps7.htm a version with seven gestures.]] [[http://www.umop.com/rps9.htm Then nine.]] [[http://www.umop.com/rps11.htm Then eleven.]] [[http://www.umop.com/rps15.htm Then fifteen.]] [[http://www.umop.com/rps25.htm Then twenty five.]] [[http://www.umop.com/rps101.htm Then ''A Hundred And One''.]] By the time there are 5,050 possible outcomes, it probably qualifies as Calvinball. It is even possible to play Rock, Paper, Anything, in which one need only come up with a ridiculous item and spend the next fifteen minutes arguing with their opponent over whose item is more powerful.
** Whenever an argument was to be settled by Rock-Paper-Scissors in elementary school, there was always the smartass that whipped out dynamite.
*** Scissors cut fuse! Hahaha, chew on that!
** Similarly, on ''TheColbertReport'', Stephen Colbert challenged opponents to "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Cheney." He would always play Dick Cheney as his move, and apparently, Cheney beats ''everything''.
** A rock covered with paper can still smash open your skull, whereas paper cut up by scissors is useless, and scissors smashed by rock is a pile of debris. If anyone whips out paper on you, just punch them in the gut with your rock-fist, and say "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought since paper beats rock, paper would protect you!"
* This troper has played a board game where the most important rule was to [[LogicBomb ignore the entire contents of the rule book]].
* In the philosophical treatise ''Finite and Infinite Games'' Professor James Carse divides games into two kinds -- finite games, where the rules are fixed and the object is to win, and infinite games, where the object is to continue play and the rules change in order to prevent the game's end. It's deep philosophy, but it fits the trope since infinite games just wind up sounding like more fun.
* ThisTroper has played a game involving a [[NoodleImplements dodgeball, a tricycle, 3 skateboards]], and very poorly explained rules. Best. Game. Ever.
[[/folder]]
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