In a development surprising only because it’s taken this long, a Kickstarter has sprung up to create a real-life version of Cones Of Dunshire, Ben Wyatt’s overly complicated board game from Parks And Recreation. In keeping with the attention to detail that makes Parks one of TV’s great sitcoms, the producers approached Settlers Of Catan creators Mayfair Games to create an outline that seemed plausible, but was also the sort of ridiculously intricate idea that could only come from an obsessive nerd like Ben.
After playing the game live at GenCon last summer, Mayfair is teaming up with the all-too-aptly-named Cone Hill Games to produce a retail edition that’s well-timed with Parks’ recent season premiere. Like its fictional counterpart, the real-life Cones includes all 17 game characters, including the Arbiter, the Provost, the Farmer, and the all-important Mountebank. The set also comes with a 10-square-foot board, coins, cards, and naturally, lots and lots of cones. Knowingly purple prose announces, “A mountain of coins… such that if they were real coins, you would be very rich,” and, “Then there is the box! Oh what a box this is going to be!”
Besides usual Kickstarter swag like posters, shirts, and messenger bags, donor rewards include a velveteen dice bag, a wooden “Cone of Decision,” and a Ledgerman Hat—worn by the all-important player who does not compete among the cones, but keeps careful score. So far the Kickstarter is well shy of its ambitious $300,000 goal, so with nearly two months to go, will the Internet be able to produce enough nerdy obsessives to… you know what? I think we can just assume they’re going to meet their goal.