I've actually known about this for awhile, but thought I'd take a moment today and point out Duchess, a board game invented and perfected in the 1980s and '90s by Australian computer programming professor Alan Blair (who among other hobbies is also involved with the "Robocup" robot soccer league -- I love it). Duchess is a sorta modified form of chess, at once simpler than the original game and more difficult; its main selling point, however, is that Duchess is a group game as well, and can be played with two teams of either two or three players apiece. Oh, and both the set and pieces are made out of paper; you can download the patterns there at the site for free.

I don't know why, but I'm just fascinated with people who end up inventing their own games, and always have been; I can remember what rapt fascination I was in during grade school, for example, when first learning the history behind the board game Monopoly. I'd love to try out Duchess sometime, too, but can't find three to five fellow nerds in Chicago who will sit down and actually play with me! Ah, do I smell another CCLaP social event soon? Hmm!