I, Gemini6Ice, originally discovered 1KBWC in an article in GAMES magazine back in spring of 2002 and started the Blankers deck in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex in Texas. In September, 2002, I took part of the deck to begin an offshoot in Boston and left the rest intact as Blankers (in the care of Rabidsnowbunny). That offshoot deck, Bob, is a 1KBWC deck currently maintained at Boston University. After one year of games, it got very close to the 1000-blank-card benchmark, and Bob has since exceeded it, closing in on 2000.

The game of 1000 Blank White Cards was apparently invented by Nathan McQuillen of Madison, Wisconsin when he noticed a box labeled "1000 Blank White Cards." No hint was given regarding how they were to be used. So he encouraged people to draw on them and things went on from there. The game was brought to Harvard by Aaron Mandel. It has since been featured in GAMES magazine and now even has an entry in Hoyle's big book of card games.

Take a lot of cards (although the size doesn't matter, playtesting has found that it is best to keep one's deck of a consistent card size), and, if they are large enough, cut them in half (hamburger style, not hot dog). A game begins with the "prologue" phase, where players spend about ten to fifteen minutes creating some new cards for the game. For a deck's first game, this phase may need to be longer. Shuffle the new cards with a desired amount of old cards from the deck, and then deal five (or more or less) to each player. Choose someone to begin playing.

Play usually goes clockwise with each player drawing one card from the draw pile and then playing cards. This is how I like to explain playing cards: you can put a card into play, you can play a card as an instant effect (and then do with it whatever seems reasonable), you can put a card into play on a player, you can play a card on a player, you can put a card into play on another card, and, yes, you can even play cards on other cards. There aren't any steadfast rules, but taking extra cards just because you want to is usually frowned upon. The creation of new cards during gameplay is both explicitly allowed and encouraged! So, instead, create a creative card whose play entitles you to take extra cards.

We don't like to destroy cards, even if they suck, so we have a notecard box called The Suck Box. If a player feels a card is boring and useless to gameplay, e will nominate it for admission to The Suck Box. All players present then vote (sometimes lobbying for their cases), and the card either goes into The Suck Box or gets to remain in the primary deck. Ironically, when The Suck Box was introduced, one player created a card for the express purpose of adding it to The Suck Box. However, the rest of us felt that it was too amusing a card and had to remain in the deck.

The only rule enforced with an iron fist is that you must do your best to be creative!