ZonK

Oral history is a key to conserving culture and history. It is also how the game Zonk has managed to survive over the years.
Jonathan Archer and Travis Trotter make up the electronic band Zonk, which takes the name from a stoner dice game. Their debut album is also named Zonk.
This is no coincidence of course. Archer and Trotter not only made their first album a soundtrack to Zonk the game, but their actual CD comes with everything you need to get started. The CD spine holds five green dice that are needed for every turn and the album sleeve is a detailed list of the rules.
“We wanted people to not only listen to the music but take part in it,” said Archer
Words such as “Bloads,” “Vanna,” “Strudel,” and “Double Strudel” all mean something in the game. Ideally played by four to eight players, the game runs until someone hits 10,000 points and is declared the winner.
It could be a Hasbro game except for the fact that it is usually played around a bong. Players get a hit every 1,000 points and bonus hits are at 4,200 and 6,200 points.
Of course, you could omit weed all together and play the game innocently. Trotter also suggests you use switch out a bong for shot glasses, but warns players will probably drop out of the game half way through.
Drinking games are a dime a dozen. They have crazy names and crazy rules and crazy outcomes, so Zonk should really come as no surprise.
Archer and Trotter have been friends for over 15 years. Originally, they played in a band called The Autopsy Report, which was “industrial type slow rock.”
Both are now sound engineers but they met in Norman, Oklahoma, where they first heard about Zonk. It was there, in the mid 90’s, when their friend Ragan first taught them to play. The game was passed to them by word of mouth and they continued the tradition, if you will, of teaching anyone who wanted to play. With this new album, they are now introducing it to a new generation who might not have heard of it in this new web world.
“If you had a couple of friends, it was kind of a cordial thing to do, play a game of Zonk,” Archer said.
The game has plenty of twists and turns, complicated exceptions and silly rules, but it’s fairly easy to follow along. It’s also really laidback and social. The same could be said the music as well.
Zonk the band is influenced by Aphex Twin and Download.
“When we set out to write an electronic album we wanted to have it from a clean slate, especially having old equipment and homemade synthesizers,” said Trotter.
Trotter got into making homemade synthesizers years ago and they are used on the album. He said he encountered an underground synth DIY electronics community out there with people who designed and sold circuit boards. Trotter bought the kits and soddered them together himself.
“We have a few synths build, a few little noise modulars and some effects processors,” Trotter said. “They all work in the music and a lot of the sounds we made directly using them or sampling them.”
That’s not the only thing they sampled in the album. While Zonk is an all-electronic album, there are human voices heard throughout. Archer and Trotter recorded themselves playing Zonk with their friends and sampled them throughout the album.
From start to finish, Zonk is fun and has pops of videogame and arcade sounds. It blends well together and is a great backdrop to a game that takes some getting use to.
Every Zonk game starts with a theme. A greens keeper is assigned to tend to the weed and re-load the bong, and a score keeper keeps track of the points. Then, pick a theme and chose an alias.
“You don’t want to use your real name when playing because not everybody is legal to smoke, so you’ve got to use an alias,” said Archer.
Ultimately, Zonk is a game of chance. Five dice are rolled and you hope to hit fives and ones. Three of a kind is face value and you zonk out when you blow it and miss a turn.
With a small group, a game should last 45 minutes, but the larger the group, the longer the game. It’s also a bit tricky when it comes to adding up points in the thousands.
“It doesn’t get bad until seven or eight bong hits in and math becomes a little harder and you have to check it with somebody,” said Archer.
The rules are far more elegant in the album liner notes, and they are the rules Archer and Trotter learned when they first played. Of course, they both agree their rules are not the official rules.
“There are basic rules but everybody can modify or change things,” said Archer. “It was funny because when we were playing we met a guy from New Jersey who played differently. He had all these sorts of rules and we were like, ‘Its’ a stoner game, man. Let’s make as little rules as possible.’ We called his East Coast rules and we had West Coast rules.”
Being the seasoned veterans they are, Archer and Trotter say they typically make it through the game without much trouble at all. Admittedly, they both smoke less than they use to and usually play just for fun.
But for newbies, they advise players to not cheat (you always end up getting a bong hit either way) and to not be shy.
“Go for the gold,” said Archer. - College Times