Monday, November 30, 2009

Ddakji


When I was little our family went to Korea (my first time) when I was about 8 years old. We stayed with our grandparents and it was there that I learned the game ddakji with the neighborhood kids.

Ddak-ji is a popular Korean childrens game played using specially made cardboard disks. The disks resemble Pogs but are perhaps thinner and slightly curved. Unlike the games played using Pogs, Ddak-ji uses no 'slammer' piece. Only the ddakji themselves are used.

In the basic version of the game the throwing player is chosen by 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' and the losing player places their disk on the table. The active player throws their disk down on it in an attempt to make the inactive player's disk flip over. The curvature of the disks makes finesse an important part of the technique. If a disk is flipped, the player who flipped it gets to keep it. Variants of this play style exist. (taken from boardgamegeek.com)

Back in those days we made our own ddakji with paper and would decorate it. The newer versions are made with popular characters like Pokemon and Maple Story and is hugely popular right now with kids in Korea.

We recently picked up some ddakji for Little Seouls and introduced them to our boys. They were very intrigued and actually ended up really liking the game.

Try it! It's only $.99 for a pack of 7 pogs. I warn you...your kids will get hooked!