The third game we played during EDL 290 was called Betrayal at House on the Hill. Betrayal is a game where players begin by cooperating with one another in order to explore a haunted house. Each turn a player will move to explore new rooms and collect items or omens. When a player tiggers an omen, it has the potential to start the second phase of the game. The phase where one player betrays the rest of the players and works to kill them. Fortunately, I was the traitor in this game and it was interesting to see the dynamics of the other players change as they worked to beat me.
The hardest part of this game was the strategy. While it is true that it is a cooperative game in the beginning, and thus it helps to help the other players, it is also true that no one knows when the traitor will be revealed, or if you are prepared to stop them. As such, one must also keep in mind that one has to make sure that they themselves are properly equipped and make choices that are beneficial to them, but also be aware that true leadership comes is formed when your teammates can trust you. One does not want to burn bridges, or disadvantage a potential teammate either, otherwise, one’s self interest can lead to the downfall of the team.
I think this is a game my friend Angus would enjoy. He is a kind of person who enjoys the intricacies and complexities of games and figuring out the appropriate steps to take. He would really enjoy playing through all the different scenarios and experiencing each haunt.
The second game we played in EDL 290 was called Hanabi. A cooperative card game with a simple objective– players must create the perfect fireworks show by placing the cards on the table in the right order. The trick, however, is that each player can only see the cards of the other players hands, and not their own Moreover, the other players can only give him ambiguous hints as to what card to play that will assist in completing the teams objective. Players must act as a team in order to win the game, and if they cannot, then they will lose after 4 mistakes.
The hardest part about this game is that one must be able to listen carefully and trust/cooperate with the other players in the game whom you may have never met until sitting down to play. With the handicap of not being able to see ones own cards, players must learn how to cooperate with each other to reach a shared goal.
Cooperation and teamwork are an essential part to leadership. Leadership is more than just the ability to take control, or to organize others. Rather, leadership encompass the ideals of listening to your teammates and trusting their own judgement to complete your shared objectives. Hanbai is a game where one has to trust the others around them and listen carefully to one’s teammates.
This game would be a perfect game to play as an icebreaker to incoming first-years. It is a simple to learn game that will allow players who may not know each other, get to talk and learn from one another and they can take that with them as they continue on in the residence halls.
The game I am choosing to modify is Ladies and Gentlemen in order to teach the topic of how socio economic status reflects what choices you are able to make. Ladies and Gentleman is a game about gentlemen controlling the stock market so that they may buy the best clothes for their ladies to wear at the ball. The ladies never know how much money they have, and then gentlemen never know how many stars (how you win the game) the team has. A lot of the gentlemen’s moves are based on speed when selecting items, and ladies must think of how they can create the best combination of clothing and servants. Each team will be randomly assigned a different status, and up to 2 teams may have the same status. The different options are: poor, middle class, and wealthy. The poor teams will start with $100, but are allowed to have up to 3 designers and are not allowed to have more than 1 servant. Middle class teams will function as in a normal game (starting with $500, can have up to 2 designers), and rich teams will start with $700, but are only allowed to have 1 designer and cannot have any items below 3 stars. For the gentlemen, the poor are only allowed to fill one contract per turn and are not allowed to have the first pick token. The wealthy are allowed to pick up to 4 resources per turn and are not allowed to have the 4th pick token, and are also allowed to use 2 hands (their father offered to help them start their own stocks). The middle class remains the same. For the ladies, a poor woman will always pick from a shop with multiple people last, and is only allowed to pick 1 item from that shop (if she goes to a shop on her own, she may pick 2) and she does not get 50% off if nobody goes to her shop. The middle class remains the same. The wealthy ladies always have first pick at a shop and always have 50% off at her own shop (her father owns it, and would give anything to his little girl). Other than these rules, the game functions as it normally does.
I hope that the modification of this game is able to help explain to people how easy/rough it can be when randomly placed into one of 3 socio economic categories. Based on how the game is set up, it is nearly impossible for a poor team to win, especially if there is a corison in play. I want these modifications to show people that although everyone has free will of what they want to use their money for, there are a lot of restrictions when it comes to a person’s economic background that may hold them back to achieving their full potential or a win in the game. I think that if this was how the game was actually set up, nobody would want to play (unless they were wealthy) because it simply wouldn’t be fun, so this modification is best used as a teaching tool rather than an actual expansion of the game. This modification aims to teach those who believe that “poor people are poor because they’re lazy” that there is much more to a person’s life than the effort they put in, and that a lot of how you started really plays into what you can do with your life.
During week 6 of Tabletop game and leadership, we played the game Ladies and Gentlemen. I have never played anything like this before and at first its theme was a bit alarming. However, that is precisely the beauty and fun of it.
There are 2-5 teams comprised of a lady and a gentleman and each role plays an entirely different game. The ladies open their shops every day with new items and head to other shops to buy new dresses and accessories for a ball coming up. The gentlemen are battling it out in the stock market trying to make as much money as possible. At the end of each day, the ladies ask the gentlemen to buy items for them and the men have to decide what they can or cannot buy that day. At the end of the game is a ball, and the best dressed lady wins for her team.
As I said before, each team has a gentleman and a lady and these two characters are married. During the game it is part of the rules to act out your role and never fully reveal exactly how well you are doing to your partner. This was the hardest part of the game for me. I am completely comfortable in this type of setting only if I am playing with all of my friends. Even if I was paired up with a girl as my gentleman, there is a kind of humor in that and I would be more comfortable. This game is meant to play off of this heterosexual relationship of rich white people and cause humor and I think that is absolutely brilliant. I only wish to play it later with people I know better.
This game is tied to leadership specifically because of the identities of this game. As a leader, you are almost required to understand the identities that are important to the members of your team. You need to know this not only as a human, but also as their leader. Giving the respect your team deserves is as important as everything else. This game forces you into a new identity and allows you to play within it. This makes you think about your own identities and which are most important to you.
I think my friend Maggie would absolutely love this game. She find humor in everything and relaxes everyone around her. She would love to be the gentlemen because one, she is very aggressive and would pick up the best items the fastest, and two, she would have so much fun role playing a husband and have even more fun if her wife was male. She would enjoy making jokes about this game the entire time about straight white rich people.
At the end of the game, I wasn’t the prettiest at the ball, but I would love to try this game again now that I know what I’m doing and come out on top!
30-21. Wow. In this list we hit the top quarter of my list of games. In this segment are some amazing games….two of the top 10 games of all time according to boardgamegeek.com. Another game each from two of my favorite designers. Possibly the most fun pirate themed game ever made. Looking-this chunk of games is REALLY good. And seeing as there are 20 higher on the list than this…this is an impressive list of games.
30. Dead of Winter Plaid Hat Games Designer: Jonathan Gilmour, Isaac Vega Owned: Yes
Why it is on the list: I love the Crossroads system. While the mechanics of this game are great, the Crossroads system is what makes it standout. While I haven’t played Gen7 (another Crossroads game) The system where the person to your right has a card and if something on it triggers they stop you and an event happens-that is awesome. I love events that change the game and this is one of the better ways to implement it. This game would actually be a lot higher if it wasn’t for what is my #1, which I will play every time given the choice between the two games. Also-while I love a horror theme zombies have never been a top monster to me. When I get the two expansions this may jump higher…I really want to try warring colonies.
Who may like it: Do you like The Walking Dead? Or zombies in general? This is the game for you. Also…there is sparky. And you want to play as Sparky.
Don’t roll the tooth…you don’t want to get bitten by the zombies. Image from boardgamegeek.com
29. Gloomhaven Cephalofair Games Designer: Isaac Childres Owned: NO
Why it is on the list: I have started this game twice with the same group of people-one of the groups I most enjoy playing with. However, the first time we started I hated the experience. There was a ton of quarterbacking and things that stopped me from playing how I play. I like to experiment, explore, and do weird things. There was a lot of “don’t do that…it isn’t an optimal play and we will fail.” Just made me not enjoy the game. The second time was much better-a ton of fun discussions and a chance to just enjoy the game. I really want to play this as a solo game also as it seems like a ton of fun.
Who may like it: This is a story driven campaign based game. It is also really tough with a high likelihood that you WILL fail.
28. Tapestry Stonemaier Games Designer: Jamey Stegmaier Owned: Yes
Why it is on the list: I’ve only had the opportunity to play Tapestry four times but have fun playing an experimenting in this game. Haven’t had a chance to play since October, but really enjoy this game and want to play more. It is a civilization style game. It also has a bit of chaos which I love. There are times you can potentially break parts of the game.
Who may like it: People who enjoy civilization building games but are find with chaos and unbalanced combos being possible. Things can happen that may swing the game heavily in one direction…you just have to smile and congratulate someone for finding a fun combo.
Technologies from Tapestry. Image from boardgamegeek.com
27. Dice Masters Wizkids Designer: Eric Lang, Mike Elliott Owned: Yes
Why it is on the list: I can easily be sucked into collectible games (I do have one MUCH higher on the list) and enjoy how this one allows for some fun combinations of characters. Would you like to form a team with Iron Man, Nightwing, a bard, and Seth Rollins? This is the game for you. It is much more than just a collectible card game-the dice add something and the mechanics are extremely solid.
Who may like it: I don’t like Smash Up….but in a way with the different IPs ahtat are part of this game this is sort of smash-up for different IPs in a collectible game.
26. Shadow Hunters Z-Man Games Designer: Yasutaka Ikeda Owned: Yes
Why it is on the list: As I’ve mentioned party games aren’t my favorite…and while I LOVE hidden role games I hate some of them like The Resistance because i just don’t get to play…people just don’t trust me. This is, at heart, a hidden role party level game that is actually a lot of fun. It has generated a ton of memories and stories and is one of those games where players have a lot of options and different ways they can approach the game.
Who may like it: Artistically this game is interesting and definitely anime inspired. It is a relatively short game that features player elimination and you have to be ok with that.
25. Villainous Ravensburger Designer: Prospero Hall Owned: Yes
Why it is on the list: Take the Scythe action selection mechanic, add in a Disney theme and allow the players be the villain trying to live out their evil scheme. Make it fully asynchronous with not only different abilities, different card decks, different win conditions…that makes this game fun. The base game gives six top tier villains. The expansions have one and two lesser known/lower villains. Next up: Marvel Villainous…which sounds exciting until you realize Marvel’s villains are kind of bad, especially compared to DC’s villains.
Who may like it: Are you a fan of Disney, and in particular the evil side of Disney? In this game you can be Prince John trying to get money…or Jafar trying to get the lamp…or Cruella de Ville trying to kill and skin puppies. Wait…what?? But Disney (and soon Marvel) fans LOVE this game.
Components of Disney Villainous. Image from boardgamegeek.com
24. Libertalia Asmodee Designer: Paolo Mori Owned: NO
Why it is on the list: Everyone starts with an identical hand of cards. Each turn someone plays a card and actions happen based on the cards in the order of numbers on the cards you play. After several rounds of this you all draw the same new cards…but you no longer have the same cards as different people chose to play different cards through every early round. Now suddenly things are slowly changing. This make for, while not the most authentic pirate experience in a game, what may be the BEST pirate themed game.
Who may like it: Everyone. I’ve never had anyone who doesn’t enjoy this game. This is a weird one where EVERYONE who has played it loves it but only one person I know owns it.
23. Star Wars: Rebellion Fantasy Flight Games Designer: Corey Konieczka Owned: Yes
Why it is on the list: The Empire JUST needs to find the Rebels secret base and wipe it out to end the “threat” of the Rebels to restore their rule. However, operatives from both sides are doing missions, completing objectives and working against the other side. This game is the closest you can get to retelling the story of the original Star Wars trilogy. Important note: DO NOT play the game without the expansion. It fixes the main issue (combat) that was a problem in the base game.
Who may like it: Do you like Star Wars, especially Rogue One and the original trilogy? This is the game for you. This is Star Wars in a box and is always a close, engaging game.
Why it is on the list: Rincewind. The Librarian. DEATH. All here as you visit the chaos and comedy that is Ankh-Morpork. While I’ve heard Martin Wallace has released this game with a new theme since the license is gone…I don’t want that. This game is Discworld (or at least the Ankh-Morpork part) and I love it for that.
Who may like it: Fans of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series would love it…if they could get their hands on it. The problem with games based on IPs….and this list is full of them…is that once a license expires the game is gone.
Why it is on the list: Sid Meier’s Civilization is my favorite and most played computer game of all time. 2, 4, 5, and 6 I have played 1500+ hours each. So a Sid Meier’s Civilization board game is right up my alley. I received the opportunity to playtest the beta of this a few years ago and gave my feedback…which was that it didn’t feel like a Sid Meier’s Civilization game. It felt like civilization game, just not a Civilization game. However, over the past 6-8 months with some new plays and some new experiences, this game has climbed on my list and will, likely, climb a bit higher soon.
Who may like it: Fans of civilization building games who aren’t expecting the full computer experience.
Red and blue in a battle for territory. However….it appears blue illegally placed one of their cities….uh oh…. Image taken from boardgamegeek.com
One thing I’m working on now-which designers and which companies appear most frequently in games I list. One of the top companies/designers will come as no suprirse to people who know me/have followed the list.
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