Author Archives: Veronica

Game of the Week Blog Reflection: Fiasco Week 1/2

For week’s one, two, and three we played the game Fiasco. I was completely unfamiliar with the game and how to play and so that was the biggest challenge overall. I played with Alyssa, Grayson, and two other students who fluctuated in and out of the game. My character was a plumber who was non-binary, different from my own pronouns which are she/her, so that was also a bit challenging as people would often misgender me, unintentionally, as they forgot to call me by my character’s name or would address me as ma’am.

This game was amazing for leadership as it was completely improv and roleplay and therefore everyone involved had the freedom to include themselves in a situation, i.e. starting or resolving a situation. Another way leadership factored into this was when it came time to determine whether a situation was resolved or not and whether to give a character a positive or negative token, in which most cases we couldn’t agree and someone would eventually decide for the sake of progressing the game/storyline.

I think this game would be really enjoyable for a lot of people, age groups, and is non-detail specific in that each individual decides how much to reveal about their character, including their backstory, and can limit their involvement in the story if they are more into being a group member rather than a leader for that specific situation.

All of our sessions went very well, the storyline was really fun to build, and as we got more comfortable with our accents and remember each character’s names and pronouns, the game was quite enjoyable. There were a few moments where it felt as though I was playing a game with a group of my closest friends and there were no fears of embarrassment or judgment whatsoever.



Game of the Week Blog Reflection: Roll Player and D&D Character Creation

For my D&D character, I had absolutely nowhere to start as I had never played the game before and therefore knew nothing at all about races, skills, weapons, proficiencies, etc. Upon watching a few videos and reading a few forums and other blogs about the game and the best ways to set up your character for the best gameplay, I started to build my character.

My character was a double race/class, a tiefling monk, and a rogue. https://www.dndbeyond.com/profile/veethedestroyer/characters/34636310

The hardest part about the game was adjusting to natural gameplay as the game is both roleplay and tabletop related, so finding a balance between referring to the handbook and die rollers while trying to keep track of the storyline and all the moves other people made was quite difficult. I struggled most with keeping up because everyone in my group save for one person who had little knowledge of the game and had played once before, I knew nothing about the game and had never played and felt as though I was slowing down the game and frustrating my teammates in the process.

This game is excellent at propagating opportunities for leadership as each scene or moment of gameplay is unique to what moves, skills, and weapons each player has, and therefore is customizable, like Fiasco, to allow characters to take on bigger, more leader-like roles in different rounds, depending on their comfort level.

I know this game is incredibly popular and has been for decades and I can definitely say that this game would be most enjoyed by groups of friends or individuals who are really into improv, developing storylines, and creating characters and situations that are totally made up but detail specific and require background knowledge to play. DnD is an amazing game for individuals who love to lead and create and control situational factors as well as the role of dungeon master is just that, they record and playout each scene from their handbook utilizing a set of rules and tools specific to each character, dependent upon their race, class, skillset, etc. This game is also perfect for people who are detail-oriented and enjoy making very detailed storylines, i.e. character backgrounds.

The sessions overall went well, the most frustrating part was that I struggled to keep up and often made moves that were the same or weren’t considered to be creative as I wasn’t completely confident in my character’s abilities, including what I could and couldn’t do at that moment in the game, i.e. being out of range or not having enough strength or the right weaponry to attack