This week in EDL 290T, our class started a three-part Dungeons & Dragons campaign. As discussed in my previous post, Dungeons & Dragons is a role-playing game that allows for players to create their own characters from a variety of classes, races, and backgrounds. A Dungeon Master, or DM, guides players through their journey as they work through the campaign with fighting, healing, and skill checks being parts of the gameplay. There’s room for improvisation, too, since players can talk among themselves and take a story totally off the rails if they want to.

This week in the campaign, our group made it to the goblin cave and snuck across the river path. We then came across the wolf pit, where I had to bribe the wolves with meat since I was the group member with highest bonus in animal handling skills. Once we made it into the cave with the main bridge, our group tried to negotiate with the guard goblin, which didn’t go as well as we’d hoped, which resulted in us running back to the wolf pen; most of the group made it, but one other member and I got swept away in a tidal wave. After regrouping and making it back to the bridge, we fought the guard and won. We made it to the next part of the cave and had to fight off yet another group of goblins to advance to find the goblin boss. After that, we found one of the explorers we were following and talked through as a group what our next moves should be.

Some of the highlights of this week’s play session included interacting with wolves, fighting off goblins multiple times, and learning that goblins apparently have a scurvy problem. This was fun because some of it was part of the campaign script, while other aspects were off-script. The work we did in the campaign ties into leadership because having good teamwork skills can make people better leaders. I think my friend Alex might enjoy D&D because of the improv element mixed with fantasy.

This week in EDL 290T, our class started a three-part Dungeons & Dragons campaign. The assigned groups were stable throughout the campaign. Dungeons & Dragons is a role-playing game that allows for players to create their own characters from a variety of classes, races, and backgrounds. A Dungeon Master, or DM, guides players through their journey as they work through the campaign with fighting, healing, and skill checks being parts of the gameplay. There’s room for improvisation, too, since players can talk among themselves and take a story totally off the rails if they want to.

In the first play session for our D&D group, we introduced ourselves and our characters. I was a druid, but the group also had a barbarian, a sorcerer, a wizard, and a warlock. We encountered a group of goblins and rolled our d20s for initiative to see who would be first into combat; this time, it was me. After killing off most of the goblin gang, our group got the last goblin to surrender and cleared out the supplies. The goblin, Rushwater, helped by giving us information on the goblin cave where the explorers we were following were taken and worked out a plan to help us get back our leader and get Rushwater the freedom he desired.

I liked how interactive the game was and had fun getting into character by playing someone I normally wouldn’t play. I also liked that the DM for my group was good at explaining the different times for dice-rolling, since this was my first time playing D&D so I didn’t know what I was doing. The one thing I didn’t like was that I had some trouble tracking what was happening, but by the end of the play session I felt up to speed on what we were doing as a group. The D&D campaign we were partaking in ties into leadership because leadership means being hands-on and being able to adapt to a rapidly evolving situation, which were both things we had to do to play our characters effectively in the first part of the campaign.

I have several friends that are big into fantasy and creating characters, so I think setting up a shorter campaign with those friends would be fun as long as I wasn’t the DM; I don’t feel comfortable running a campaign on my own just yet.

This week in EDL 290T, our class had a Free Play week. I joined a group that decided to play Incan Gold. Incan Gold is a card game where players dole out treasure gems as they explore an Incan Temple, with the option to leave the temple at any time. If multiple players leave the temple at the same time, they must split any treasure in the game. If the players draw two of the same type of Hazard Cards, the treasure of any players still in the round must return to the bank and the round ends. The player with the most treasure collected after five rounds wins.

Some of the enjoyment that I get from games based on risk-taking like Incan Gold is that I get to do “risky” things like gamble on treasure, but there’s not real life consequences from doing so. I’m also a fan of games where I can chat with the other players while playing, which I got to do with my breakout room group while we discussed if we’d move through the temple or back out. This was a nice break from normal gaming for me since I was familiar with the game and I got to have some time to be social as well.

I’d recommend the game to anyone who enjoys risk-taking but isn’t super-competitive; Incan Gold can be competitive with the right group but was pretty laid-back for the most part when I played it. The gameplay is straightforward, so it’s appropriate for a variety of comfort levels with tabletop gameplay. Lastly, Incan Gold is a great game for people who want to play a game but don’t have a long time to play; a full game with four people takes about half an hour.

This week in EDL 290T, our class played two risk-taking games: Incan Gold and Can’t Stop. Incan Gold is a card game where players dole out treasure as they explore an Incan Temple, with the option to bow out once they feel confident on their treasure intake. However, if the players encounter two of the same hazards, the treasure of any players still in the round must return to the bank and the round ends; the player with the most treasure collected after five rounds wins. Can’t Stop is a dice game where players move markers across the board to claim columns on the board with the ability to quit when they choose; the first player to claim three columns wins, but if a player cannot continue they lose all moves they have made during their turn.

In my breakout room, we played two games of Can’t Stop and one game of Incan Gold. For Can’t Stop, I liked how straightforward gameplay was, while for Incan Gold I liked the theme of the game. There wasn’t anything I disliked about either game. The hardest part of Can’t Stop was the temptation to keep on going and risking losing everything, which happened to me and the other players in my breakout room a few times. The hardest part of Incan Gold was getting the hang of the UI, but gameplay was straightforward after I got the hang of it. I didn’t win any of the rounds I participated in, but I had fun regardless; both of my partners won a round of Can’t Stop and one of them won the round of Incan Gold we finished.

Risk-taking played a role in the game because the longer we played during rounds or turns, the more treasure we could acquire or the more progress we could make on columns, but it also made it more likely that we would run out of moves or encounter a hazard card. This applies to leadership because risk taking can pay off with bigger rewards, but risk-taking isn’t always the smart strategy; a good leader knows when risk-taking is a good idea and when they should refrain from taking a risk. I was less risk-averse than I thought I’d be but I was still the most risk-averse of my group, which lines up with my leadership approach because I’m not super into risk-taking as a leader but I will take risks sometimes.

I could see my niece enjoying Can’t Stop because the rules are straightforward and it’s a good way to teach younger kids about risk vs. reward. Whether or not I could keep a seven-year-old still enough to play is another matter. With Incan Gold, I could see my brother enjoying this because it’s a straightforward game that feels almost Jumanji-ish or like it could be themed after an Indiana Jones movie, and he likes both of those movies.

This week we only get to play Can’t stop. At the first, we were unfamiliar with how the game goes, but as soon as we started to play, we figured out the game rule and what to get and to give up. The game was overall pretty fun, and the hardest part of the game is, sometimes we were so close to the end of the line, so it is hard to decide either we want to take the risk of keep going or stop. Because by taking the risk of keep going, we might lose everything we had.

As we play the game, first each of us will have three sets of dice to roll, and the choice of choosing a line to put our spot to climb up to the top of the line, at the end of the game, the person who had the most of lines win. The session went pretty well. The part I dislike about the game is that as we getting closer and closer to the end of the line, we can’t stop! Several times I was getting lucky on rolling the dices and get to keep moving,, as I am getting closer to the end of the line, I usually will fail, but I just can’t stop. But most of the time I will most likely take the risk to keep moving to try to get to the end of the line.

I think it ties to leadership because the game gives us the choice to decide if it is time to stop or continue. Sometimes a team leader needs to also decide the team’s next movement, one simple order could decide neither the team will succeed nor fail. The team leader should consider the order thoughtfully before saying anything, to take the risk but with high returns or to go steady with low risk is what leadership ties to.