For week 5, I had the pleasure of playing the game Cursed Court. The artwork was nice, and I really enjoyed the mechanic of placing a card face-down between each set of neighboring plays. This quirky mechanic, however, led me to my biggest hurdles during the game. During a few rounds, my 2 cards were the same, such as two Priestesses. Obviously, two other players knew that at least one Priestess existed. So, the challenge was to not call attention to the fact that two points would be given on the Priestess tile instead of one. I couldn’t be too bold and put a lot of chips on the square—lest my opponents would know—nor could I bump people on that tile for too much because it would draw suspicion. Timing was also another factor. How many tiles would I be willing to keep for the whole game just to get those two points? That’s where decision-making comes into play…
Cursed Court ties into leadership in that it constantly necessitates skills like awareness, flexibility, and decision making. You need to be aware of people’s emotions and how they put down their coins. Do they make the action immediately or take time in their response? It gives you a sense of what cards they have around them. Cursed Court also forces you to be flexible, especially when you are bumped off a tile that you really wanted. Sometimes you have to cut costs and plan for failure / being taken over by opposing players. Lastly, this game requires many decisions during each round. Sometimes players choose to consistently bump each other, leading to long chains of asking oneself “What is the best course of action for me NOW?” This attribute of the game additionally ties into flexibility which was mentioned above.
I think my uncle Kevin would really like this game because he really likes to mess with people in a fun, lighthearted way. This game would be a perfect opportunity for him to completely throw games and have the biggest bluffs in board game history.

For the second half of my Fiasco game, one of our group members did not show up for class. We decided as a group that this would be a new character, and quickly established character relationships and needs. This time was a little easier than the beginning, but it was still probably our biggest challenge. Getting acquainted with a new member took time, and we slowly but surely learned their play style.

As we went along, we found that the Tilt to be very helpful for our group because it helped us decide where we wanted to take the story. An overarching narrative was established, and the clock was ticking. Because we struggled with decision-making last session, we made it a point to keep things succinct and focused to move the narrative forward.

There were a lot of fun instances, including a scene where two characters had an intimate experience. To preface the scene, we asked each player to make sure they were comfortable with the subject matter, and after clear consent was given, we proceeded.

During one of my scenes with our new character, Tibolt, I was pleading for them to help me cover up a murder. I was given a black die and expected my character to be denied help. But to achieve the most amount of intrigue in the story, Tibolt decided to give me a conditional ‘yes’ rather than a stunted ‘no’. I was picturing a black or white response, but was met with an exciting tint of grey. This was a great example of flexibility and negotiation in leadership, coming up with a solution that satisfies all parties involved. My teammate found a fun way to still give my character something to work towards while also honoring the color of the dice.

The biggest issue my group had was the setup of Fiasco due to our collective indecisiveness. Because we weren’t really familiar with each other and did not know each other’s preferences, we were unsure as to what play set and character relationships to choose from. Who was comfortable being in a marriage or being enemies with another player? Due to our hesitations, we did not reach Act Two by the end of the class period, as JS had expected us to. As a leader, it is important to take decisive action to solve complex problems more efficiently. Honing decision-making skills is vital in a role where you manage hundreds of team decisions on a regular basis.
Additionally, despite watching the videos on Canvas of how other people played the game, the setup was not salient in anyone’s mind and we had to consult the guide several times. We picked character relationships, needs, locations, and objects based on what we wanted, not what the dice pool foresaw. Our note cards were also all over the place and did not do a great job establishing who was related to who or who needed what from who.
However, as we played into our game and realized a few mistakes were made along the way, we adapted. I remember telling the group “if we are having fun, then we are playing it right.” Ultimately, that was our end goal, and we did. Two characters were at the grocery store, and one made an off-hand comment about the amount of bananas the other character was buying. Soon Jeff the Monkey was introduced and became an integral part of the storyline. Being able to adapt to change is another key feature of great leadership. With so many things happening at once, a great leader must be able to think on their feet, embrace unexpected changes, guide the group toward a shared goal, and find success through collaboration.
I would recommend this game to my brother, Matthew. He is very quick on his feet in improv settings and also regularly plays as GMs in D&D sessions/campaigns. I think he would take great pleasure in a table-top roleplaying game where all players are the Game Masters instead of just one.