How to Make a History Board Game

Whether you are a classroom teacher or if your family has a love for history, creating your own history board game is a fun and challenging way to study history facts, important people and important places. By creating a personalized board game, you can use it for a review before a test or it can be used as a general history game to be shared and enjoyed by family members of all ages. Learn how to recycle an old game board, simplify the point of the game and create a challanging goal as well as a series of setbacks along the way.

Salvage a game board from a game that has lost its pieces. Paint the board a solid color, covering the old game display. Allow the paint to dry completely.

Devise a design. Draw a design on scrapbook paper for some organized movement in the game. You may want to design a dirt road, bricked sidewalk or a grassy path. Whatever path you choose, plan to create a variety of obstacles and opportunities for advancement. When the design is completed, glue the scrapbook paper to the painted game board. Embellish the board by using stickers.

Set up rules. Keep the rules of the game simple. When playing with school-aged children, for example, the rules should simply state that if you answer the history question correctly, move the token up one spot. For the sake of a challenge, if the history question is answer incorrectly, the player should move back two spaces.

Set a goals and obstacles. As the player advances, the level of history questions should be more challenging. For an obstacle, on the game board design, you can create random spots, instructing the player to "go to battle." The player would then have to answer a series of questions concerning a historical war or battle. If the questions are answered correctly, the player should be "discarged" from battle, if answered incorrectly, player should stay in "battle" until it is their turn again.

Create bonus cards. On the game board design, incorporate spots that will instruct the player to choose a re-enactment card. On the card, the player will have to describe the listed historic event, important person, or finish a famous quotation. As a reward, the player who completes the bonus should be able to move up the game path.