Anarchy Bocce is based on Bocce Ball but with a few twists. It is less formal, has fewer rules, and those that it does have are designed to make it as little like traditional Bocce Ball as possible. Playing by our rules, or any derivation thereof is likely to incite derision from old Italian men world wide.
Consider yourself warned.

Items for play:

• 2-4 Players.
  • We suggest Humans, preferably of the Friend variety.
  • Anyone who takes themselves, or competition, too seriously is poorly suited to the nuances of this game.
• 2-8 Bocce balls.
  • Plastic, wood, metal, usually about 100mm diameter.
  • Normally 2 per player, or per team.
• 1 Jack.
  • Wood, plastic, about 35mm diameter.
  • White, or similarly visible color.
• 1 Park.
  
  • Preferably with a diverse amount of terrain; Grass, sand, woodchips, concrete, wading pools, buildings, shrubs, playground equipment, etc.
• 1 Whiskey.
  
  • This can be a bottle, a cup, or a single unit of 1 Whiskey divided into several flasks. For early morning play consider a 1:3 mix with coffee.

Sequence of play:

• All players sample The Whiskey, confirming it is of acceptable quality and proper coloring.
  
• One player or team, designated arbitrarily, takes the first throw.
  
  • The player throws the Jack to any location they desire.
• Another player begins by throwing one of their balls toward the Jack, attempting to have their ball end up as near as possible to the Jack without touching it.
  • Each player in turn does the same, until all players have jettisoned all their balls.
• Players converge on the target zone, sample The Whiskey, and judge the winner of the round.
  • The player whose ball finishes closest to the Jack without having touched it at any time during the round, wins the round, takes control of the Jack, and is entitled to begin the sequence again with their own throw of the Jack.

Commentary on Rules:

• The Fundamental rule of Anarchy Bocce is 'Follow the Leader':
  
• If the player whose turn it is to engage in Jack Dispersal throws the Jack over a fence, the players must similarly jettison their balls over the same fence in order to be qualified for victory.
• The Jack Disperser is free to call any handycaps or additional requirements they see fit that all players must abide by for that round.(see also "HORSE")
  • Example: The Jack may be only 4 feet away from the players starting area, however if the initial toss of the Jack sent it on top of the roof of a near by park pavillion, which it rolled off of, and then landed in the grass nearby, then each ball must be similarly jettisoned onto the same roof, roll off, and then be judged.
• If a ball fails to meet that round's requirements, it is disqualified.
• If a ball touches the Jack at anytime, it is disqualified.
  
• Defensive and Offensive Play:
  • Players may make contact with each other's balls in play. If a player succeeds in a collision which sends an opponents ball farther away from the Jack than it was before, the play is valid, the player is awesome, & The Whiskey should be sampled.
  • If a player instigates a collision which sends an opponents ball into contact with the Jack, the opponents ball is disqualified, the player is awesome, & The Whiskey should be sampled.

Victory:

• Play ends when there are no more sub-units of The Whiskey available for player consumption.
  • No one, and simillarly, Everyone, wins.
• If you desire a zero-sum contest, you could add together the number of rounds each player won and weigh them against the total rounds won by opponents, and come to some conclusion about contextual primacy. However, the space needed to cary stenographic tools to record the running tallies, or conversely the mental faculties needed to accomplish the same would be better spent on additional units of The Whiskey. Furthermore you'd be missing the point.
  
  
  
  

• An example of a good Anarchy Bocce play:
  
  • The Jack has been thrown into a sandpit, which limits the balls ability to roll.
  • Accuracy becomes key.
  • The Player who dispersed the Jack mandates that no ground can be touched that is not sand.
  • Players must throw from the X and clear the grass and sidewalk, landing in the sand.
  
  Although Blue#1 is closest, it is on the curb, and thus disqualified. Green #2 landed squarely in the sand and is thus the winner.
  
  
  

Some noteworthy plays by the ZK AnarchyBocce crew:

• playground catwalk shot(Quicktime 6.5MB)
  
• See our bocce music video in the vault
  

Suggested Strategies:

• Throw it REALLY FUCKING FAR.
• Throw it really short on fast terrain (concrete, hard packed sand/baseball diamond).
• Land the Jack somewhere that is not visible to the players (needs someone to watch the ball landings, to ensure the against DQs)
• Land the Jack against a wall. Over powered shots will bounce away.
• Bank shot off of walls, trees, trashcans, Parks Dept. vehicles, etc.
• Use roofs, pathways, stairs.
• Use slides, bridges, catwalks.
• Players must throw both balls at once.
• Players must throw behind their back.
• Players must compose a sonnet extoling the virtues of their throw.

Regarding the traditional yelling of "Bocce!" when one player's ball strikes the Jack:

• Any player or spectator (including passers-by) who yells "Bocce!" (and this will happen, strangely) if and when any player's ball inadvertently contacts the Jack should be penalized in some way. Possibilities include
  
  • All other players must sample The Whiskey
  • Player (or spectator) must remove his/her shoes
  • Player (or spectator) must don a blindfold for the next round, etc
  • This penalty could, perhaps, be called by the winner of the previous round.
• To boost the difficulty of this optional rule, especially for players previously unfamiliar with bocce-play, "Bocce!" should be yelled quite often throughout the game - as a curse, as a chant, as a persuasive prayer, even - so that the inadvertent call of "Bocce!" at that one inopportune moment might become more frequent.

Sources for balls:

• Bocce sets can be obtained from many retailers, ranging from fairly cheap to much more expensive.
  
• This is the kind of thing that many people have in their garage and never use, so we recomend checking out garage sales and thrift stores, as well as Craig's List and FreeCycle.
  
• Bocce sets are commonly found on ebay.
• Slightly smaller and heavier metal balls are widely available on ebay too, search for 'petanque'.
• If none of these is available to you, a reasonable approximation is possible with softballs and a golf ball.
  
  

If you are in the Seattle area and would like to challenge the ZeroThousand crew to an afternoon of whiskey Anarchy Bocce throw down a gauntlet!

Anarchy Bocce may be played on a much larger and more dangerous scale when combined with a ZeroThousand Industries brand Trebuchet. Please see the Blueprints section of the site for construction guidlelines.

As with all other contents of the site it is recomended you at least familiarize yourself with your local laws. Whether you obey them or not is of course up to you, but if your local park has exceptionally draconian rules about what you can do, you maybe should be prepared to explain your actions to officials, upset parents, and local drunks. Many municipalities have proscriptions regarding public possession and/or consumption of The Whiskey. Alternatively you could just run, but really its all about having fun however you like, regardless of whether it is an approved method of Fun or not. Hold your ground and play on!

Proper credit must be given to the freaks of tke at Beloit College from 93-97, whose dedication to mischief and misuse of college facilites laid the groundwork for what has today become Anarchy Bocce.



Anarchy Bocce is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.