Monthly Archives: September 2024

Voices in my Head

This week we played voices in my head. It was a challenging but fun game where we all try to gain control of different parts of the brain. For the game, I was Selfishness. Which means that I wanted there to be equal or more innocent than there were guilty verdicts. Luckily, that is what happened. The guilty and innocents tied, so I ended up winning the game. It was me and another player who won, but two other players lost.

This game really taught me about collaboration. At first, I was in it to get control. We don’t know who’s who, so the beginning rounds are played with the most self-interest. however, at some point, I figured out who was who but didn’t stop trying for complete control. My mindset was so stuck that it was me against everyone, that it was difficult to switch up even though I had a good idea of who everyone was. Eventually, I saw the errors in my ways, and started working with the player who was on my side.

I think the hardest part about the game was that we were all brawling for control at the beginning. It’s hard to play when it is against everyone, but once teams start working together, things start to feel more progressive. I also think it is hard being on the innocent side because there are two players who fight for guilty and one for a certain amount of indecisive. And it’s really hard going against the prosecutor.

Overall, this game was fun and I recommend anyone else to play it at least once. I am definitely going to try to convince my family to play, if we ever get the game.

Fiasco Week 2

On the fourth week of class, we finished up Fiasco. My group and I zoomed through it. We finished up the game in 45 minutes and spent the rest of the class time watching the other group play theirs. It was a very fun experience, and all our stories were hilarious.

Our story ended with my character shooting my crime partner. But to retaliate, my crime partner shot me back, but only grazed me from two feet away. I couldn’t have him live, but I felt so guilty killing him, so I decided to erase his memory with a device that was hidden in the pile of guns. I failed, but I didn’t know I failed, so I called the ambulance over (even though we are in the Antarctic) to take us out and treat us. Our third player was having a life in another dimension because they got trapped in their owned portal experiment. Because of that, I framed them for blowing up the science building we all worked at (even though I planted the bombs) and for shooting me and my crime partner. For the montage at the end, I ended up being great. Injuries were fully recovered, I made a book about the whole incident and got a lot of money from it. I was rich. Meanwhile my partner was in two comas which lead to him forgetting his memory. But I paid for his medical bills because I felt bad.

This week was a lot easier. Since we had practice from the first week. We all had an easier time creating scenes. I pretty much learned the same things I did last week (improve skill development, teamwork, communication). But I think a new thing I considered was storytelling. I was conscious of how the story was progressing and tried to create twists and turns to make it more interesting (i.e. me shooting my partner…but then I felt bad, so being evil didn’t last long). Although I wasn’t too successful at it, I was conscious of the story progression, which can be a key skill when communicating with other people.

The hardest part about this week was finishing up too quick. We didn’t know what to do with all that free time, so we ended up watching the other group and having a blast. It was a week of fun and laughter.

Fiasco Week 1

During the third week of class, we started playing Fiasco. This roleplaying game was my first time playing a roleplaying game before, so it was all new to me. I struggled a bit during the act, but that was primarily because I forgot to learn how to play 🙁 So I was winging it. But this game really makes you use your creative storytelling, teamwork, and planning abilities. A lot of the time you just have to go with something, and you have no clue how the other players are going to react or even what they will tell in their scenes. It’s a good game to practice improve and skills that make you think on your feet.

The part I struggled with the most was creating the scene and characters. It’s really hard to come up with something on the spot. Not to mention, use all the relationships and items that we chose. One relationship I had was sentimental, and the object we were sentimental about was a stolen can of beans. This pretty much got forgotten in the game, but I tried to implement it towards the end. Didn’t do much though. The start of the game was very much learning how to story tell, since I’ve never done so before. Not to mention Fiasco is a lot more extreme, so this is not your Disney kind of story (I was an ecological extremest who put bombs in the Science building). But I think the chaos is what makes this game fun.

I also want to say that playing with a group of strangers was also a little difficult. I felt timid with my storytelling, and not knowing what I was doing didn’t help. But when watching how they described their scenes, it was very interesting how different people’s stories were. Our scene was in the Antarctic, located in a Science Building. We were all scientists researching portals, however, I quit a week ago once I learned of how dangerous those portals were. I played the role of a suspicious person with a plan. My storytelling was mostly logical, with some random curveballs. One of my members had more of a sci-fi storytelling style. They introduced the portals, xenomorphs, and spaceships. Another player was also more on the logical side, but was very good with the details, and adding some flair with accents. It was, overall, a fun experience.

Ultimate Werewolf

In the first week of class, we played Ultimate Werewolf. I was already familiar with the game, but I have never played the physical version before. I used to play the game in my teen years on my phone with some random strangers. There were less characters, but I definitely remember a seer. No sorceress though. I think the hardest part about the game, online and physical, was that there was no way to hint at who could or could not be a werewolf. So the real massacre was during the voting rounds. One difference between the online version, however, was that you could not vote for anybody (so no one was voted out). Meaning there was a better chance of figuring out who a werewolves were.

It’s a fun but sometimes frustrating game. If you like logic, then this game might make you rage because no one has a good reason for voting you out. You talk to much, you get voted out. You breath too much, you get voted out. You kinda just have to except it. I also think this game is best played with a lot of players. Although it can get pretty boring for those who are dead or voted out early on. You can only watch until one side wins. But an interesting thing I learned about leadership is mob mentality. I thought it was interesting how a leader is not a leader until one person joins them, then the rest follow suit. In reality, it’s the second follower that holds the power (although if that’s the case then would you say the leader is in the second follower?).

I found the game pretty hard since I am no risk-taker. I couldn’t vote anyone out unless I knew they had something to be voted out for. So most of the game I just watched as other people voted. But by doing this I realized something very interesting. Humans in the game are kind of bad. The story of the game is that werewolves enter the town and start murdering villagers and to protect the town, the villagers kill? banish? 1 person from the town. But ya’ll couldn’t do a buddy buddy system or something? You couldn’t be each other’s witnesses, you just go back to your home alone and wait to see who is killed the next day then banish someone for being too quiet? I don’t know, it just seemed like the villagers just wanted an excuse to get rid of their least favorite neighbors. I guess fear can beat the best in us.