Monthly Archives: October 2020

Week 3 – D&D

This weeks game play went well. We were missing one of our players, but things ran smoothly still. It was interesting because we have the chance to explore a town, which we hadn’t gotten to do the last 2 times. It made me realize the amount of freedom one has in the game and how they can really choose to explore anything they desire. Griff did a great job of helping guide us in decision making when we were stuck or confused.

The hardest part about this week’s game was the amount of decisions we had to make. While I enjoyed the freedom of exploring the town, I also felt it was challenging to decide what to actually do once there because I have never played this game before. I thought this hard decision making tied to leadership because leaders are often forced to make decisions for the group and they aren’t always easy. A leader may be making a decision in which they do not know all the effects or consequences of this decision, but consider all their options and choose which they believe will lead to the best choice.

If I were to play this game again I think it would be interesting to play with my brother and his best friends. They are a great group of guys who enjoy making jokes constantly. Because of this I think they would make the game enjoyable and constantly have me laughing. They have never played before and I think it would be nice to play with other inexperienced players as it is less intimidating. Overall, I had a positive experience playing D&D for the first time.

D&D Week 2

This week, we continue to play D&D from what we left last week. I thought this week the process went much more smoother and exciting than last week. Since most of our group members are very familiar with the rules and spells now. For me, I think I have a better experience with D&D compare with last week. Because I have a better understanding of my spells as well as my strength and weakness. For example, I have spells called thunderclap and fireball which can hit the Goblin. I think the most interesting part about the game is once I used my spell magic missile defeat two of the goblin, I cannot succeed on my own. It is an outcome of group work, if my group member does not help me defeat the goblin for the first time, I can not succeed easily. Also, in the first round, I hit by a Gobelin and my health only remain for one point, so I hold my turn and my group members replace me and go first. It demonstrates teamwork, if we only rely on ourselves it is impossible to reach the final victory. So it is really helpful to have group members to play together.

The hardest part about the game I think is to decide to use which of the spell can hit the Gobelin but also protect myself and my team to be safe. So it is really important to roll the dice which can avoid the damage, this also has the element of luck. But my spells also depends on my character’s level. If I have a higher level, my spell can also cause more damage. Sometimes, I want to hit the goblin but my dice is smaller than the goblin, I will suffer the damage. So it is also the right time and right place to use the spell.

I would like to play D&D with my cousin because she is good at playing games like D&D. I think she will be very familiar with the rules and spells and she will be a good leader of the game, so I am looking forward to playing with her. I think the overall session of this week is going really good since we had successfully defeated the goblin.     

D&D Week 2

This week we played D&D again, continuing our game from last week. I thought this weeks game play went even smoother than last week. We defeated Cleric together as a team, which made us all work together. I had a better time this week as I began to understand a lot more of the rules and had a chance to start using spells. I liked using different spells as it kept me engaged in the game. The only thing I really don’t like about the game is that there are so many different rules it seems like it would be hard to really know all of them without looking different things up constantly.

The hardest part about the game is deciding what route to take. Being an indecisive person, having to make all these different choices is difficult for me. The open endedness of this game really allows for one to create their own story. I think this ties to leadership because a leader must make choices for a group. They are depended on to make a correct choice and lead the group to success.

I would enjoy playing this game with my sister. While she isn’t very into role playing games, she is very good at making choices. She has never been an indecisive person, so seeing her play this game would be interesting for me. I think she would enjoy being able to control the story line.

Incan Gold & Can’t Stop

In the fifth week of class, we played a pair of risk taking games, Can’t Stop and Incan Gold. Both games allowed for an interesting risk-reward system. From a mechanical stand-point, I would say both games incentivized risk taking much more than playing it safe, and while both approaches were certainly valid, there seemed to be a significant advantage to making riskier choices in gameplay.
The most difficult part of playing either game was knowing when to bail out and avoid further risk. In Can’t Stop, the instant gratification of traversing the game board is very tempting and the way the game was designed has made the feeling of defeat crushing regardless of how far in the game you are. With regards to Incan Gold, the power of the risk was even stronger, with the sort of “double elimination” or “two strikes” mechanic the game ran on. The desire to continue to compile points made the decision to go back just as much of a risk as moving forward, and I found that interesting.
In the game, and in my leadership, I find myself more likely to take risks. The importance of taking risks in my leadership style is exclusively for the sake of making the right choice as opposed to the easy choice. Overall, these are games I would actively recommend to any groups of people with contrasting personal philosophies or personalities.

Fiasco

In the second and third week of games, we played Fiasco. I thoroughly enjoyed the idea of the game, some of the most fun stories that are told are those of criminals and how their plans go awry, so I was excited to try and have a similar experience. I think one of Fiasco’s strengths is also one of the parts of the game that is hardest to master, that being the improvisational nature of the storytelling, with each scene and the direction of the story being entirely up to the players, with no facilitation from a designated game master. It was difficult to get into the flow of the game, but by the time my group hit the tilt, we seemed to have a pretty good grasp of how it worked.
For Fiasco, the ties to leadership are most prevalent in establishing the scenes in which the game is played. The player needs to take a lot of initiative in crafting their own game world and in establishing the story, there are no real rules for what you can and can’t do within a scene. It’s a very amorphous and free-flowing game, where the players’ choices will control not only the narrative but also the rules to some extent.
For the first week of Fiasco, the important task was to understand how one’s values would come into play over the course of the game. Over the course of the first session, I found more and more that I was allowing myself to play the character and set my own personal values aside. Personally, I am not someone that would engage in sports gambling or other types of acts, and yet I was perfectly fine to play the character of a bookie. I think the important thing to remember in the case of role playing games, like Fiasco, is to allow yourself to separate what you do from yourself because you are playing a character.
During the second week of Fiasco, the “tilt” took place. During the tilt, my character was taken hostage by organized crime. And while the game did not end well for my character from a consequences perspective, the flow of the game was greatly improved and expedited. Overall, my experience was incredibly positive. This is a game that I would recommend for team bonding exercises.

Game of the Week Blog Reflection Week 8: D&D Week 1

this week we have played d&d beyond. i think d&d beyond is one of my favorite types of the game because i am a fan of dota and world of warcraft. in d&d world i call myself anti-mage the vigo. this name is from a video game called dota and there is a NPC who is good at killing mages and therefore people named him anti-mage. vigo is my English name. my class is a warlock and my race is Dragonborn. i choose warlock as my class because my first game character in world of warcraft is a warlock and he can learn and spell almost all the magic talents.

the hardest part of the game? i don’t think d&d beyond is hard because i have played so many times before and i was familiar with the background of the game. i believe my video game friends will like this game because they are all the fans of the world of warcraft. warrior, mage, orc and elf, i can not be more familiar with all these types of race.

the session went well and the leader in our group gives us the most impressive experiences. he can use many types of voices. for example, he can talk in the way that elf talks, he can talk in the way that goblin talks. i really enjoy playing with my leader. he is kind and when i was in trouble understanding, he is always willing to help me out and gives me advice. for example, when I drive the car with my other four teammates and when we encounter a group of goblins. when i was not sure whether or not should i cast spell on goblin or just stay in the car and use my talent to make medicine to heal my team. my leader helps me analyze the situation based on my attributes and directs me to the right path.

i really like this game although i am not the one who is the strongest. this game will be continued next week and i think can not wait. the most interesting part of this game is interrogating the arrested goblin. although we do not believe this goblin now because he attacked us , we still decided to let him direct us.

to sum up, this game is just like world of warcraft which i have played before. although this d&d beyond is a table game and world of warcraft is a video game, both of them have same settings and backgrounds. i can not wait to play the game next week.

D&D Week 1

It is our first day play D&D and also my first time play D&D. I think the overall experience toward the first week D&D is went well. Because we have a leader who is the expert of the game came to our group and help us get started. For me, the hardest part about the game is to understand the rules and what kind of skills my character have and what is the right time to use it. Also, D&D is driven by imagination, it is open to us to determine the consequences of the adventures’ action. Each of plays roll a strange dice to resolve whether their attacks hit or miss or whether their adventures can scale a cliff, roll away from the strike of a magical thunder clap. I think the leader of our group also takes the role of the Dungeon Master, the game’s lead storyteller and referee. The DM creates adventures for us as the characters also roll the dice to decide which paths to explore. I think he really helps a lot and lead us to defend the enemy, so I really like this part of the game.    

At the first place, the rules and my character creation sheet really confused me a lot, I will lose track and do not know what I should do. For example, I am an elf, I need to understand what is my strength and what is my weakness. And since I only have one spell which is thunder clap, I also needs to consider when is the perfect to use it and hit the enemy. But as the each run pass, I start to understand what I should do is combine my intelligence and dexterity these two advantages together cooperate with my group member to defend the enemy.

And throughout the game I also realized that each time we faced an enemy, the DM ask us to choose which role you want to be in a team. Like be in front, directly faced the enemy or at the middle protect other characters, or at the back to support other characters. The decision in this part is very important to make because I think it is like we work in a group, and we should understand what we good at and choose the right place to actually works best here. I think the best place for me as a elf is in the back to support other characters who are good at fighting. This game I would enjoy playing with my roommates since we have different characteristic so our character will be different and it is really fun to play it.      

Game of the Week Blog Reflection 6: Free Play Week 1

this week is free play week and my group chooses incan gold to play because many of them played can’t stop last week. each player will get a set of 2 player cards and a tent at the very beginning of the game. five cards are placed in the center of the table and the start player will start the card which is placed in the center of the table named one. the goal of this game is to get the treasures as much as possible and there are four basic categories of the treasures that each account for different values. for example, turquoise only has one point but gold worths 10 points. the player with the most wealth wins. incan gold consists number of turns and each turn has different rules. for example, first turn is based on players’ choices and players need to decide whether they are going to leave or not. this game ends in two ways, either all players leave the temple or the second hazard card is drawn and scares all the players away.

the play session went well and everyone was trying to get as much treasuries as possible. the hardest part of the game i believe is to decide whether or not to take the risk or just leave the temple. i think my father will enjoy this game because he likes playing cards and the chess. I believe incan gold will be one of his favorite games if i introduce the game to him. as for leadership, i remember there was a Chinese girl in my group and she was shy and did not talk so much. moreover, she said she was not very familiar with the game rule when she introduced herself. I want her to participate more in the game, so i actively ask her question and help her when she was in trouble. i believe that by helping others and leading them to the right path, i got my leadership. i think there is nothing that i don’t like, and because this week focus more on the enjoyment, everyone in the game was happy.

to sum up, the session was wonderful and impressive when everyone contributes and participates. i really like incan gold and i hope i can play this game with more people and introudece this game to more people.

Week 8: D&D

I think overall playing D&D for the first time went relatively well. The hardest part for me was understanding all the different rules. The game itself is so open-ended, but there are certain rules one must follow. Our leader of the game kept the game moving and helped to ensure all of us understood what was going on, which made it more enjoyable.

I like that you get to create your character in this game, but I have already realized the character I created is not the best and if I were to go back and try to create another character it would be much different then the one I did create. What I don’t enjoy about the game is that it seems to require some creativity, which seems to be the trend for all role playing games. I think I struggle with these games as I am not very good at diving into the character I create. I am hoping as the next couple weeks of play go on I become better at this skill.

This game ties to leadership because you are becoming a character and must lead that character throughout the game. Particularly in our game play we had one character be in the front when we walked together and continually made decisions and lead us to where we ended up. This requires both strategy and intelligence.

I think my cousin would enjoy playing this game with me because she already regularly plays this game. When I told her we were starting this game in class she was thrilled for me to learn because no one in our family does play. It will be nice to be able to talk to her about it and relate and maybe even play together.

Free Play

This week we are free to play the game we want, and our group decided to play Incan Gold which we left and have no time to play it last week. I think it is very flexible that we can choose what we want to play. Luckily our group members are all first time playing with it but all now the rules. Incan gold is a very fun game to play in which each player pushes their luck as we head into the ruined temple and our goal is to find the most jewels. Each turn, a card is turned over which shows that increases the gold found in a temple or shows a hazard. Hazard cards like fire, snack, mummy, giant spider are what we want to avoid when we played. Because when the hazard card comes up more than twice, the disaster will occur and the round ends. All the jewels of players who have not returned to the camp are recovered. I think it is the riskiest part of the game. Every time when we want to explore new territory, more gems and dangers appear. If we choose to leave, those who remain in the temple may acquire a bigger share of jewels. 

Overall, the process of playing Incan Gold is very smooth because every group members have a chance to be the ultimate explorer and the winner with the most treasure. So it is very critical to decided when to stop since the hazard card will take out all you have acquired. It is related to me when I make some critical decisions, I will consider the consequence and then weigh the pros and cons when I made the decision. But usually, I am a very cautious person not willing to take any risk, and it is reflected in the Incan Gold. It is also tied to leadership since a good leader needs to make the decision based on the information we have. And the leader needs to consider the impact of the decision on the entire organization, so the balance of risk and safety is very important. 

Finally, I will definitely recommend this game to my family members, I think my parents would like to play Incan Gold and we will have a very exciting play process. The game is accessible, and a very high fun factor as a result of the press-your-luck element and simultaneous selection mechanic. And it keeps fun for everyone.