Author Archives: gunsetjj

Game of the Week Blog #2

In class yesterday, we got to play two different games. One was called, Secret Hitler, and the other was called, Hanabi. Secret Hitler was another hidden-role game that had two teams pitted against each other. The point of Secret Hitler was if you were a Liberal, you were attempting to figure out who the other Liberals are and who is Hitler. If Liberals can get five Liberal policies passed, they win the game. The Liberal side can also win if they kill a player and they happen to be Hitler. The Fascist side has to try and get ~five Fascist policies passed or successfully elect Hitler as the chancellor, (only after three Fascist policies are passed).

The other game, Hanabi, played much differently than Secret Hitler. Hanabi is a cooperative game where the goal of the game is to have all the player work together and build a firework show. Players are given random cards that they hold up so everyone can see them, but themselves. Thinking out tactics and giving other players hints is the key to this game.

Both games definitely had elements to them that would give them a challenging trait. From the couple of times I’ve played Secret Hitler, the hardest thing about the game that I noticed would be that sometimes having information on the other players can be difficult to acquire, since some games do not provide much talking or information about the game in progress. For the other game, I find the entire game to be created against the players. When you play the game, you have to decide what your best option is, because one wrong move can make a huge impact on how many points you and your other teammates can score.

Although having some hard elements within the games, both provide good leadership opportunities. Secret Hitler is very similar to Avalon, as players need to make choices of who to follow and trust and who should be the leader. As for Hanabi, everyone has to step up and give it their all if they want to be successful in this game. Unlike some games, you are constantly at the forefront and making moves to help lead everyone to an ultimate score.

These games are definitely parts of different gaming genres, so I selected two different people that would also enjoy playing these games. For Secret Hitler, I feel that my brother, Jesse, would love this style of game, as he likes to be aggressive and deceitful in games. For Hanabi, I believe my mother may enjoy this game. My mom absolutely does not like games where you can target people and hinder their progress. Since Hanabi encourages the activity of working together, I feel this would be a good fit.

Game of the Week Blog: Avalon

In class, we had recently played the game called, Avalon. Avalon is a hidden-role game that has two sides competing against each other for all the glory! Each player gets a role and then has to try and convince a king player who he or she should choose to go on missions. If a mission is cleared to go, the people in the mission secretly chose whether or not to succeed or fail the mission. The good people team wins if they can get enough missions succeeded and not have a specific player killed, (Merlin), and the bad people team wins if they can fail enough missions and/or kill Merlin. That is the all of the basics to the game, (although there are more rules and steps that make the game more interesting and strategic).

In my opinion, I would say that the hardest part of Avalon would be that not one player has full trust in all the players playing. Regardless of what role you get picked for, there is going to be at least one role that you do not know who has it. Seeing through other player’s deception is not only the main part of the game but I would also say is the hardest part of the game.

Avalon also encourages leadership throughout the game. Normally, when the king player needs to pick people to go on a mission, multiple situations can occur. For example, someone who is not the king player this turn may see it in their advantage to go on the mission. The person would have to speak up and make a claim of why they should be going on the mission. Another situation where leadership can be seen would be the king player themselves. The king has to talk with everyone else and make the final decision of who should go on the mission and who shouldn’t.

Once I figured out how the game of Avalon functions, I think that my younger brother, Jesse, would like this. Jesse loves to trick people and I feel he would get a huge kick out of this game, as the point is to deceive everyone.