How to Create Your Own Board Game Online

Choose a theme for the game. It can be about sports, computers, movies, or anything that interests you.

Write trivia questions and answers related to your theme on your index cards. Write five questions on each card's front and five answers on the back. Create as many cards as you want.

Design a background for the game. Go to the NGAkids Art Zone at http://www.nga.gov/kids/zone/zone.htm and select the "Collage Machine" link. Drag and drop collage elements from the palette at the right onto the canvas at the center of the screen.

Try out alternative drag-and-drop backgrounds from the NGAkids Art Zone home page. Sample the 3D Twirler, Mobile, Pixel Face and other pages. Choose the background maker that complements the theme you've chosen.

Print the background when you're satisfied with it and affix it to the board of an existing game or on a sheet of cardboard.

Design a game path. Go to http://www.toolsforeducators.com/boardgames, browse the various themes and create game paths related to them by clicking the "create game board" links. Choose a theme, print its game path and affix it to the top of the game board.

Design the player tokens. Go to http://www.meez.com/main.dm and design characters with different hair, clothes and other features. Print the characters, paste them onto a piece of cardboard and cut them out of their backgrounds.

Choose a starting player to roll the die and move her token along the game path by the number she rolled. She then must answer one of the trivia questions. She rolls again if she answers correctly, but loses her turn if she doesn't.

Play the game until the last player has correctly answered a question while on the last square of the game path. The winner is the first player to finish.