This week we played Ladies and Gentlemen. I’ve played this game one other time, and I think I enjoyed it a lot better the second time than the first time. The first time I think everyone was a bit more confused, we did not really know what we were doing, but everyone seemed to have a better understanding of the game this time, and so did I. It felt good to be able to somewhat guide people through the game, at least the people playing the ladies role. Both times I played this game I played the lady role, and I am completely okay with that. Although I haven’t played the gentleman’s role, their role seems less fun for what type of game I would like to play, although I do appreciate the competitive aspect to it.
I think this game reminds me of being a kid in a way, almost like an adult version of Pretty Pretty Princess. I like that this game is interactive and as someone who played the lady role, I get to go to different shops and pick out fun outfit pieces. I am a very visual learner and I just appreciate good visuals in general, so looking through all the fun outfit pieces is my favorite part of the game. The first time I played this game, I really did not have any strategy for it. I just kind of tried to pick outfit pieces that looked aesthetically pleasing together and had a high amount of stars, I did not focus on the designer aspect of it too much. I also did not purchase any servants the first time I played this game, I did not understand that they can actually really help you win the game, and that having them can be super beneficial if you know how to play the game. The second time I played this game, I did use the servant cards, and I focused more on receiving high points for my outfit pieces, rather than color coordinating and matching. Although, I do think that would be a fun element to add to the game, to give people bonus points for some kind of color coordination aside from just having pieces from the same designer.
I think in regards to the hardest part of this game, I think for me it is knowing what needs to be prioritized. My lady that I was playing, ended up going to the ball without shoes. To me, this seems like a big issue, but according to the game, this was fine and we ended up with a lot of points anyways. I struggled to know which stores to go to as well. I thought the ½ off rule was a little confusing and I kept forgetting to apply it or when I should. I kept forgetting if I received a discount from an item if it came from my store, or someone else’s. For leadership, I think out of all the games we have played this semester, this one ties the least to leadership. It is very individualized, every person is playing competitively against everyone else and nobody is really leading the team or helping each other. I think to a degree I saw a few people demonstrate that they seemed to genuinely understand the rules of the game, so they helped everyone keep things straight and on track, but aside from that, I did not witness many leadership qualities. With this being a very animated game, I think this game would be fun to play with my friends that I studied abroad with, or maybe my coworkers at work. I think this game is meant for people that genuinely want to play a somewhat competitive game, and might enjoy the theatrics of the stereotyped gender roles associated with the game.

This week we played Survive- Escape From Atlantis and overall, I enjoyed this game. The game itself is very simple and I like that it implements so many aspects of other games into it, such as Battleship and Sorry. Getting started with the game was difficult at first because of the different elements to the game set up. There’s some pieces that are a part of the expansion pack and we weren’t totally sure which pieces we needed and which were part of the expansion pack at first but we were able to figure it out. We had a little confusion as to where to put our pieces on the board. It seemed strategic to put all of our pieces as close to us and our dock as possible, but yet we wondered if there might be an advantage to spreading them out more. We all ended up putting our pieces close to each other and our dock, which I think was somewhat a good strategy. I had played this game before, so I did think that I had the upper hand on how to win the game originally, but that proved to not be true. Everyone else seemed to pick up on the game strategy rather quickly.
As far as game play, I had planned to load a full boat and take it quickly to my shore, which did not work out for me. I can’t remember what happened to my first boat, I think a whale hit it. However, I was able to quickly load 2 other boats and was working on taking them back to my shore when a whirlpool hit both of them at the same time. In hindsight, I wish I would have left some of the people that were far away and would have just immediately taken a not full boat to shore just so I could get at least a few points. I only escaped with 1 point, which was not very good! However, I think it was a good strategy to not put too many people on the tiles that were supposed to be eliminated first. A lot of other players ended up in the water and eaten by sharks due to putting their tiles on the first eliminated ones. There were a lot of interesting game play dynamics and I appreciated that people were simultaneously working in favor of themselves, while also somewhat in the favor of others, and somewhat against them. For one turn you might be working with someone, and then the next turn you might be working against them. This can happen by choice or just by the nature of the game.
Next time playing the game, I think I would really like to try it the normal way again and see how my fate changes. After playing once more and getting the hang of a new strategy and game play, I would like to try to play with the expansion pack because that seems like it would add even more interesting and intense game dynamics. I think this game can relate to leadership easily because there’s a lot of multitasking happening at all times. While you’re working to save your people and get them back to shore, you’re also concerned about what is happening to your players all across the board that might experience difficulties getting back on shore. The players also need to demonstrate leadership by being dedicated to their own mission. I don’t agree with this, but some styles of leadership are very dominant and people will actively step on others in order to get what they want. This game brings out the competitive nature in people and in order to survive, one must engage in the cutthroat aspects of the game and stay dedicated to each personal mission. It’s also important in leadership to learn how to reroute when things don’t go according to plan, and that’s something we did a lot in this game.
I think this is a game that not only I would play again, but I would also want to play with my ex boyfriends’ family from back home. This sounds odd, but we used to play a lot of games together and I think they would enjoy different aspects of this game. I think the turns take too long for my friends at school, they would probably get bored waiting on people to make decisions for their turn, but my ex’s family doesn’t mind long or complicated games.

The game we played this week was Fiasco part 1, and we started by rolling dice and setting up some necessary elements, like locations, objects, and characters’ relationships. While we were setting up the elements, we also had to write them down on index cards. There was one more card for each person to write down some other detailed information and goals. After setting up everything, we moved on to Act One and Act Two. The steps in these two acts were the same: each player had to start or end a scene in two rounds. If a player decides to start a scene, then this player can set up the scene and other players can decide if the scene is going to end good or bad. But if a player decides to end a scene, then other players can set up the scene for this player and he/she can decide if the scene is going to end good or bad.

The hardest part of this game for me was to understand the rules and things I needed to do. I was very confused while reading the rules and during the setup sections. The whole process of rolling the dice and selecting only the numbers that appeared to be set up was a little confusing. However, after seeing how other players did and trying once on my own, it became more reasonable. I think this game taught me to think from other people’s perspectives, and it is a very important skill of leadership. Leaders usually have to consider everyone’s thoughts and ideas before making decisions so that their final decisions are comprehensive. Therefore, it is very important for leaders to understand why some people have these thoughts and why others think in another way.

I think my friend Landis would enjoy playing the game because he loves to come up with very interesting stories. He is also very creative, so his stories may be very intriguing and I think he can also help other players to come up with some great scenes when they run out of ideas. I really like this game when I let other players set up the scene for me because other players usually have some ideas that I never thought of, and I am very interested to hear these ideas and maybe add a little of my ideas during the acting part. The part I don’t like about this game is sometimes it is too hard to end the scene with a bad ending, especially during the first 1 and 2 rounds, and that is another reason why I want other people to set up the scene so that I can choose how to end.

The game we played this week was Mysterium, and the hardest part of this game was trying to understand why the ghost, the person behind the board, gave you these cards. I played a very similar game before with my friends, and that was easier because I knew what my friends were thinking about. However, this is my first time playing this type of game with my classmates who I never talked to before, so it took me a long time to figure out what the ghost was thinking.

There were two leadership concepts tied into this game: comprehensive thinking and paying attention to details. In this game, all players had to think comprehensively so that no component was left out, and details were very important in this game too. For example, one of the characters in this game is a chef with a chef cap, and there is a card that has a fork and a knife. Therefore, if the players paid attention to the details on this card then they may be able to guess the character they get is the chief.

I think all people who like reasoning and psychology would like this game because the most important strategy of this game is to analyze the ghost’s mind and thoughts and make your decisions accordingly. I think someone who learns psychology would be really good at this game and also enjoy playing it.

Some parts of the game were already set up before the class started, and some parts had to be set up depending on the number of people playing the game. When all the setup processes were done, we started our first round and the ghost gave different cards to everyone. Then we made our actions and got some feedback from the ghost, and the first couple of 2 or 3 rounds all of us didn’t get anything right. And when the ghost first nodded meaning someone was right about their answers, we were so happy! This is also the part I like about this game, I saw and felt teamwork, and everyone in the group was trying to help each other to figure out and provide thoughts on what they may want to consider. The part I disliked about this game was the sand clock did not make any sound, therefore, when we were focused on understanding the cards none of us would pay attention to the sand clock. I would suggest bringing some alarms when playing this game so that nobody would ever ignore and forget the time limit. But overall, this is one of the games I like the most in this class.

I played two games this week, and they were Pandemic and Forbidden Island. But in this blog, I am going to focus on Forbidden Island. The hardest part about this game is to think ahead and decide what you want to do. Forbidden Island is a team game where if one person dies the game is over, so when I was playing this game I was very careful with all the steps I had to make which took me a lot of time to think through. However, the time for us to play was very limited so I was also worried that our group would not be able to finish in time.

As for leadership concepts, I think a leader in this game is very important because this is a 4-player game and people’s thoughts are usually not the same which could be a potential problem in this game. But if there is a leader that can lead the group to make some decisions when the group struggles, it can really help the game to process better. My friend Cam would enjoy playing this game because he likes to think before he makes any decisions. He is also good at critical thinking which is a very necessary skill to have when playing this game.

Our group started playing Forbidden Island before any other groups, and we finished in around 30 minutes which I was not expecting to be that quick. Then we started to play Pandemic and that game lasted till the end of our class. The part I loved the most was how we finished the game, Forbidden Island, so quickly which made the second game, Pandemic, seem to be “so” long! There was nothing in this session that I didn’t like, and I think it was fun and enjoyable because it was not an intense game.

In the World of Viridian’s Last Mission, high fantasy meets classic spy and heist movies. Megalomaniacal villains vie for world domination, while international intelligence agencies send in secret agents to thwart their plans, with no shortage of high-tech gadgets, death-defying stunts, and high-stakes games of baccarat. At the core of the world, however, is magic: Whether that be arcane-powered technology, minotaurs and goblins populating the cities, or a family of powerful elvish druids, secretly sealing away a nightmarish power that’s ripe for exploitation by an enterprising villain.

Your game may lean more into the supernatural and fantastical elements, or stay more grounded in classic super spy troupes. Whatever direction your Fiasco ends up spiraling, I hope this setting provides great inspiration for your games.

This document is based on a world I created for an old fan project. The specifics of that project aren’t super important, but if you’re wondering where the name came from, it’s there.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TYnPE5nwKAN6Z8gPlbtC0Hedqg95hRHQ1rehZQDJb9k/edit?usp=sharing

We played Escape from Atlantis and I found the hardest part of it to be trying to figure out if I wanted to play passively or aggressively. The game takes leadership skills in order to convince the more aggressive players not to sabotage you while also keeping an eye on the players who are playing passively. If you aren’t paying attention they could potentially sneak over many of their people.

I think my Dad would like playing this game because he enjoys board games that involve strategy. At the beginning of the play session, one of the players I was with immediately got cocky and was playing aggressively. The rest of my group worked together with the common goal being to make him lose. We succeeded in that goal and I ended up winning by playing (mostly) passively. I was only aggressive when the reward outweighed the risk.

I really liked that in Escape from Atlantis you could choose whether you played aggressively or passively. Both directions could win you the game if you made the right choices, therefore neither method felt more powerful than the other. I loved the board and card design. My only complaint about the game is that some of the directions were a bit tricky to understand, especially the ones about when certain cards could be played.