FUNERAL DIRECTOR                                    

...A Race to Your Final Resting Place

HOW THE GAME IS PLAYED  Having died of Laughter, Boredom, Fright or a Broken Heart, etc., you now serve as your own Funeral Director. While piecing together your customized sendoff, you begin to explore different products and services available - this might ignite new thoughts and feelings about the funeral process. Players (best with four) move around the game board with their coffin markers, responding to Life, Debt and Last Will and Testament cards, while purchasing various Funeral Products (flowers, caskets, headstones, etc.) and Funeral Services (cosmetic care, cremation, transportation, etc.). Expect lots of nervous laughter as players reveal interesting stories, discuss personal "bucket list" dreams, etc. as they race to their chosen Final Resting Place (e.g. Eco Green Meadows, Family Farm, Sea Burial, etc.). The game encourages interaction among players, as everyone talks about personal funeral experiences, which are sometimes sad but often eye opening or humorous. Discussing embalming, environmental impact of cremations, land use, green burials, etc. and funeral costs will certainly raise the hair on anyone's back! This board game offers a simple but realistic picture of the funeral process, the funeral industry itself, and alternatives to the traditional system. And yet, it keeps the subject lighthearted non-threatening and yes...fun!

A FUN WAY TO ADDRESS A TABOO SUBJECT   In the past thirty years I have invented a variety of successful educational board games for families and those interested in social and environmental issues (e.g. Save the Whales, Back to the Farm, Rainbowland, etc.). My new game, entitled FUNERAL DIRECTOR... A Race to Your Final Resting Place, will not only appeal to board game enthusiasts, but also to family counselors, educators, environmentalists, clergy and funeral directors. People often have phobias about death and funerals; professionals all agree it can be a difficult and often "forbidden" area of discussion. With this game (currently a preliminary design in a playable format) I have taken these serious topics to a lighthearted level to make it not only informative, but to open players minds to this very sensitive subject. FUNERAL DIRECTOR is intended to reveal personal attitudes and beliefs about death and its rituals; it will generate considerable lively conversation. It's a tricky subject, but playing this game enables people to talk about it without the seriousness usually associated with this subject. Believe me this game experience is fun and speaks to human behavior. Even though we are often curious about the mystery of death, it's a subject most of us like to avoid; we would like to encourage people to feel open in discussing these issues. Hopefully our game provides a comfortable format.

____________________________________________________________

Below is my preliminary sketch slightly tweaked with color added.

HOW YOU CAN HELP MAKE THIS FLY  My immediate goal is to finalize our game (e.g. refine board top and card design and text, color and design all game pieces) and submit this playable prototype package to professional game manufacturers for mass production and distribution. I need to reach the required financial goal of at least $11,000 and with your help we can do it. If we exceed our goal, we will be able to contact many health, environmental and funeral organizations about the value and need for this game; they in turn, hopefully, will encourage game manufactures to "jump on the bandwagon" and produce the game. The current playable board game has proven to be a discussion inducing, joyful experience with everyone who has played it. I hope you will be intrigued and interested in helping with this important creative endeavor. Check out our Special Rewards: Your Personal Bucket List "brochure", game cards (signed), a copy of my preliminary sketch of the board top (signed), T-shirts, even a dinner for two at our home, ending in playing the game with my wife Jannice and me. We want to thank everyone who contributes by showing our appreciation with the rewards we are offering. Please pass the word to friends and relatives...it will help make this project a success.

REWARDS

When our financial goal of $11,000 is reached, donors pledging $100 or more will receive our playable prototype board game toward the end of 2012; but if a game manufacturer ends up producing the game, donors pledging $100 or more would receive the final version in 2013. We will keep you posted.

Your Personal Bucket List  A place to write out your dreams, also imagine them, and hopefully, you will get to do them. Keep track of the things you want to do on this folded down "brochure" (8"x4"). Keep it on your bulletin board, carry it in your purse or place it at your bedside as a convenient reminder. Time flies!

Grace and Harold are the main characters in the game. Harold, as the nemesis, tries to prevent other souls from entering their Final Resting Place. He often jumps into a player's coffin (marker) and rides along with them, slowing down their race. Harold is scary looking but just wants to keep you earthbound. Grace the Angel may also ride along in a player's coffin, but as a guardian angel. Grace (unlike Harold) helps players journey to their F.R.P. You may wish to carry Grace or Harold around with you depending on your mortal spirit. Harold is carved of ox bone and Grace is a gold plated pewter coin (known as a pocket angel).

______________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

These four individual cards are copies of my original sketches and signed by me. (Players draw a Grim Reaper Card at the beginning of the game to determine how they died.) Would you prefer dying of Boredom, Laughter, Fright or a Broken Heart?

We are offering the above T-shirt with the words Funeral Director Play the Game on the front side and on the backside a picture of a bucket beside the saying What's On Your Bucket List?

100% cotton in sizes S ,M, L, XL

______________________________________________________________

I'm offering a printed copy of my original pencil drawing of the playable board top. We used it to play the game with family, counselors, funeral directors, clergy, etc. The drawing is on 20-weight paper approximately "18x18". I will sign and number each one.

_______________________________________________________________

MY CLASSIC 1978 BOARD GAME This is a special reward for pledges of $500 or more. Save The Whales is my award winning (Parent's Choice Best Game Award) cooperative game. It was our top-selling game every year in our mail-order catalog Animal Town (1978-2001). In this exciting game, players work together to save eight great whales from extinction. It's sad but whales do die too. Ages 8 to adult.

____________________________________________________________

                                   Ken, Jannice and Rocket

PLAY THE FUNERAL DIRECTOR GAME WITH INVENTOR  This is a special reward for pledges of $1000 or more. Come play the prototype game with my wife Jannice and myself at our home in Northern California...dinner for two included. Arrange plenty of time to eat and chat about game inventing, movies, books, etc. I would also like for you to have a copy of my recent book, Peace, the Biography of a Symbol - the history of the iconic Peace Symbol (National Geographic 2008).

                                                THANK YOU

              What's on your bucket list?