Designing a traditional game: Initial Thoughts

Hmmm... a traditional format game, eh? Interesting. There's certainly a lot of scope for interesting games in those formats, as one of my favourite non-electronic game studios, Cheapass Games, has shown time and time again. Some of em are even free. What I especially love about their games are the hilarious concepts they're based on- like that of their game "U.S. Patent Number 1," where everyone plays a scientist who's invented a time-travelling machine and are travelling back in time to the opening day of the US Patent Office to secure themselves the very 1st patent ever given out for their time machine!

Anyway, I guess I just love a bit of comedy with my games. So naturally I'm going to try to put that into the game I design. I'm also thinking of how to design a game where cheating is part of the game. Which presents quite a conundrum because how do you make cheating part of the rules? If it's in the rules, it's not cheating anymore! Unless I design a game with a set of rules which makes opportunities for cheating rife, though not within the rule-set of the game. The actual game being played, then, would be sort of a meta-game constructed around the game I design, where players would think of creative ways to cheat without being found out by other players. Sort of like bluffing in Poker...