The Cones of Dunshire was a complex board game created by Ben Wyatt on Parks and Recreation. The lovable nerd played by Adam Scott had a wild imagination, and he harnessed that creativity to develop his own tabletop game. Although the complicated rules for Cones of Dunshire is played-up for comedic effect in the show, the actual game has a functional set of rules, and was even produced for the real world — but only for a brief time.
Ben's board game was first introduced in Parks and Rec season 6. After leaving his job at Sweetums and before starting at the accounting firm, Ben used his time off to invent Cones of Dunshire. He used his creation as a surprise for his wife, Leslie Knope, who was less than enthused. Worried that the rules were too complicated, Ben left the game behind for the employees of the accounting firm. In season 7, Ben discovered that there was a professionally-produced version of Cones of Dunshire. The accountants who he left the game to had the game copyrighted under Ben's name, giving him a large sum of profit. In a flash-forward, it was revealed that Ben developed a sequel to the game called "Cones of Dunshire, The Adventure Continues: The Winds of Tremorrah."
When Ben first presented Cones of Dunshire to Leslie, he described it as "a brand-new gaming experience [for] eight to twelve players." The game-players included two Wizards, two Warriors, one Maverick, one Arbiter, one Corporal, and one Ledgerman, who served as a scorekeeper, but got to wear a special hat. The main goal of the game was to collect cones, and the first to collect four cones wins. Players could acquire cones "via trade, purchase, advancement, and scavenging," but it stemmed from building civilizations. The specific rules were not described on the show; instead Ben mentioned various elements of the game, such as Spirit cards, playing the game "in reverse," and the need to "roll 3 dice to see how many dice you roll." The exact rules were never deemed necessary since Cones of Dunshire failed to hit the real world.
A Version Of Cones Of Dunshire Was Made Playable In 2014
When Parks and Rec wanted Ben to develop his own strategy game while laid off, they contacted Mayfair, the table-top game company that created Settlers of Catan. The company was tasked with creating the props used for Cones of Dunshire, but they went multiple steps further by making it playable. The game itself was extremely complicated in terms of rules since it included elements of Dungeons & Dragons and Settlers of Catan with its hexes and resources. On top of that, there were gems, civilizations, dice, trivia cards, and of course, cones. The team at Mayfair had to keep adjusting the rules because Scott improvised many of the details surrounding the game in the sitcom.
No kind of mass-produced versions of Cones of Dunshire was ever released, but the game was made available to play for attendees at GenCon in 2014. A copy of the rules has even found its way online, showcasing the vast complexity of the rules and gameplay. A Kickstarter was later created to relaunch Cones of Dunshire but the attempt was unsuccessful. Unfortunately, those looking to play the table-top game from Parks and Recreation will need to take inspiration from Ben and build their own version to enjoy Cones of Dunshire.