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Also, the trope does not include games to which every single rule has not been given. If the basic structure of the game is laid out it is not an example of [[Calvin Ball]]. After all these are fictional games which appear in some kind of narrative, and we should not expect a full manual of rules to interrupt the flow of the story.
 
Also see [[Pac -Man Fever]], where writers create Calvinball out of video games (intentionally or not) -- all we know is that most involve levels where you [[Ultra Super Death Gore Fest Chainsawer 3000|kill everyone]] with lots and lots of [[Button Mashing|button mashing]] and joystick swinging -- ''far'' more than what a game should have. See [[Screw the Rules I Have Plot]] when the premise is [[Merchandise -Driven|all about a specific game]] but they end up turning it into Calvinball. When a known game or sport is played like Calvinball, then it's not Calvin's ball, but [[Gretzky Has the Ball|Wayne Gretzky's]].
 
{{examples|Examples:}}
 
== Anime & Manga ==
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*** In fact, one of the rules of Munchkin is that it's both legal and acceptable to cheat, provided [[Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught|no one else catches you at it]].
*** If read literally, a Cheat card allows you to play a card ''someone else has already equipped''.
* ''We Didn't Playtest This At All'', and its sequel ''We Didn't Playtest This Either'', from Asmadi Games. The objective of both is to play a card that lets you win the game. It's possible to have multiple winners, but it's also possible to have no winners at all. Each card you play has an effect or introduces a new rule. There are "Bomb" cards that cause everyone to lose if there are four or more bombs in play. There are cards that make you lose because you got eaten by a dragon, sucked into a black hole, or [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|blinded by a laser pointer]] (and cards that counter those cards). There's the "Spite" card, which makes you lose the game, but also makes a player that would have otherwise won instead lose. There's a card that forces players to say "Ahh! Zombies!" before they're allowed to play a card, unless they have a banana. There are cards like [[Eddie Izzard|"Cake or Death"]], whose effect changes depending on how many players picked one option over the other. There are cards that make all the players still in the game play [[Rock -Paper -Scissors]] or pick numbers between one and five, except only the player who played the card knows what will happen (everyone who throws scissors loses, or you win if the numbers everyone picked add up to a prime number, for example). There are cards that make it illegal to point at anything, or to say certain pronouns. There's a card that counters other cards by having them intercepted by a ''kitten''. Then there's the Chaos Pack expansion, where a randomly-chosen "chaos card" affects the game, such as one that changes all cards that say certain words to instead say other words (for example, swapping "even" and "odd" or "cake" and "death").
* With every expansion, the [[Star Wars Customizable Card Game]] had new rules.
** ''A New Hope'': epic events (destroy planets/Death Stars), squadrons, trench rules, destiny of π, forfeit of 1/2, imaginary power, immediate and mobile effects, dejariks and holograms
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== Fan Works ==
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: theThe Abridged Series (Web Video)|Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series]]'' often portrays the titular "children's card game" this way, mostly as a way of making fun of how complicated the game actually is, and how [[Screw the Rules I Have Plot|the original show clearly doesn't even use the same rules]].
** Episode 107 of the actual show plays with this as well. After a duel shifts to a dice game, it is declared that the roll of a die will alter each monster's strength. The protagonist declares that his roll doubles his power, while his opponent's...
{{quote| '''Nesbitt:''' A five! That must be good!<br />
'''Duke:''' Actually, ''that'' cuts your monster's power in half.<br />
'''Nesbitt:''' ''What?!?''' That doesn't make any sense! Are you making this up as you go along?!? }}
* In [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4502785/6/Scordatura chapter 6] of ''Scordatura,'' an ''[[Ah! My Goddess (Manga)|Ah My Goddess]]'' fanfic by Davner, Urd is forced into an actual game of Calvinball against her sister Skuld in a sequence that parodies the Thunderdome sequence of ''[[Mad Max]]: Beyond Thunderdome''.
* The [[Trope Namer]] is frequently played in ''[[Calvin and Hobbes The Series (Fanfic)|Calvin and Hobbes: The Series]]''.
 
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* ''[[The Goodies (TV)|The Goodies]]'' had the game of "Spat", which seemed to be made of rules that led to Bill always losing and being injured.
** I believe it's mentioned in the commentary that Bill really didn't have any idea what the other two were doing.
* ''[[Friends]]'' featured Cups, a card game invented by Chandler to transfer money to Joey. [[BeginnersBeginner's Luck]] is a vitally important feature.
** And later the quiz show ''Bamboozle!'' which involves "Wicked Wango Cards" and "The Wheel Of Mayhem".
*** This actually becomes a plot point in-show, as the [[Executive Meddling|studio execs]] want to change it to a more conventional quiz show because it's too complicated for the audience to follow.
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*** That's Numberwang!
**** Is it? [[Mind Screw|How can you tell?]]
* ''[[MashM*A*S*H (TV)|M*A*S*H]]'' had Double Cranko, played with a poker deck, a chess board, dice, and [[There Are No Rules|no rules whatsoever.]] When Colonel Potter finally turns the tables on Hawkeye in it, Hawkeye proceeds to invent ''Triple'' Cranko. (An earlier episode had Hawkeye and Trapper playing a similar venue, but as a [[Drinking Game]].)
* In ''[[Stargate Atlantis (TV)|Stargate Atlantis]],'' Ronon introduces Sheppard to a "traditional Satedan sport" that is a sparring session where the rules change with every round. After picking himself off the floor a few times, Sheppard complains that Ronon is just inventing this as an excuse to kick his ass. He good-naturedly indulges Ronon though, possibly because he's used to it by now (his teammate Teyla regularly kicks his butt while attempting to teach him her fighting technique).
* Okay, so technically, Counterfactuals from ''[[Big Bang Theory]]'' isn't a Calvinball game, since it has specific rules and cards, but "freestyling" it in RL would probably do. The game involves extrapolating an Alternate Universe from a certain concept and answering a bizarre question about it. For example, in the show, a question was, "[[In a World]] where mankind is ruled by beaver overlords, what food does not exist?" The answer? {{spoiler|Cheese Danishes}}. ([[It Makes Sense in Context|Watch the episode to learn why.]]) In the show, the answers are rigid (as befitting Sheldon's personality), but if you "freestyled" it, making up the questions, then the answers could be literally anything, as long as it could be explained.
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** In Series I Episode 2, it's explicitly stated that "nobody in this universe understands QI's scoring system," except for one person working for the company that provides said scoring. His name is Colin.
* And ''[[Mock the Week]]'' host Dara O'Briain has said on show "yes I do just give the points out randomly".
** But what about ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway? (TV)|Whose Line Is It Anyway]]'', "The game where everything is made up, and the points don't matter"?
* ''[[Bottom]]'' has Eddie's card game "One Card Slam". In which Eddie flips out a random card from the pack, slams it on the table, and demands twelve quid from Richie.
* On one episode of ''[[The Burns and Allen Show|The George Burns/Gracie Allen Show]]'', Burns makes up a card game called Klebob as he goes along to psych Gracie. {{spoiler|This backfires when Gracie easily figures out the rules to the game--partially because she's a [[Cloudcuckoolander]], and partially because it's just like the game George made up last week.}}
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* At ''[[WWE]] Backlash'' in 2001, William Regal challenged Chris Jericho to a Duchess of Queensbury rules match, which Jericho readily accepted, despite having no idea what "Duchess of Queensbury rules" entailed. It turned out that Duchess of Queensbury rules simply meant that Regal got to change the rules whenever Jericho was about to win. Jericho attempts to pin Regal? Oops, the match is divided into two rounds, and round one just ended. Jericho gets a submission? Oops, submissions aren't allowed!
** This wasn't the first time this kind of match was used; this one is a popular, albeit seldom used kind of [[Zany Scheme]] for heels in [[Professional Wrestling]].
*** And when the General Managers or Vince himself gets involved, their reason is automatically [[Screw the Rules, I Make Them]].
 
 
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== Video Games ==
* Many of the Zoq-Fot-Pik from ''[[Star Control]] II: The Ur-Quan Masters'' (specifically, the Pik, much to the annoyance of Zoq) are obsessed with Frungy, the "sport of kings". Naturally, the player is never given an opportunity to learn the rules of Frungy.
** When the [[Word of God|developers]] were asked by the fans how Frungy is played, they gleefully replied "''[[MathematiciansMathematician's Answer|with gusto!]]''"
* The ''[[Zork (Video Game)|Zork]]'' series featured Double Fanucci, a card game with 15 suits and absurdly complex rules (which are never given in full).
** Even though in one of the games you have to ''play'' it.
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** ''Ultima Underworld II'' has a game called White Rock Black Rock, with fairly simple rules: if you pick the white rock (by choice, not by chance) then you win, and if you pick the black rock you lose. However, the game's rules become very bizarre when you play it in the Ethereal Void later on: fish, limbo and peas are somehow involved, among other things.
* Subverted in ''[[The World Ends With You (Video Game)|The World Ends With You]]''. It looks like Tin Pin Slammer is going to be [[Affectionate Parody|something that just parodies Yu-Gi-Oh]], but then you [[Game Within a Game|actually play it.]]
* [[Wide Open Sandbox|Forge Mode]] in ''[[Halo Reach]]'' and ''[[Halo 3]]'' has a propensity to devolve into this. Unless a single person or dedicated group is trying to create something specific (thus keep everyone on task). It seldom takes long before everyone starts aiming gravity lifts to hurl [[What Do You Mean ItsIt's Not Awesome?|Scorpion Tanks]] at each other. Targets of these Monty Python style attacks then spawn walls to block the incoming tanks. When its realized how they sometimes bounce errantly from a certain angle it becomes an accuracy challenge to land the tank on top of a rock over an ocean. So on and so forth, until the map has been filled with whatever caught the occupants fancy in their item spawn frenzy. These maps are almost always deleted and the blank canvas is restored until another nights session.
* "Thrashball" in ''[[Gears of War]]'' is basically Blernsball as applied to NFL football rather than baseball; in many ways very similar to a familiar sport, but in many others bizarre and incomprehensible. There's a guy with ''shields'' in the backfield.
* "Wolfball" in ''[[Battle Realms]]'' apparently involves [[Noodle Implements|a solid iron ball, a walled-in arena and a pack of rabid wolves]], and is fatal to play for those not of the [[Healing Factor|Wolf Clan]]. No rules are forthcoming, but it speaks volumes that one of the playing positions (the "hurler", who has a gigantic two-handed Atlatl) does double duty as a military unit in-game.
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