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!