This week’s game was Betrayal at house on the Hill. It is a semi-cooperative game that switches from a cooperative game to having a traitor that is against everyone halfway through the game. You are people exploring a haunted house looking through the different rooms for omens, items, and events. The game is unique in the fact that the “haunt” (when a traitor is selected) is totally random and dependent on dice rolls based on the omen cards. The haunt is random each game and it usually involves monsters, magic, or any other crazy thing the house throws at you.

The hardest part for me was the ambiguity of the start game. I felt like it was too vague and I really didn’t know what to do other than to go to a random room every turn. It was really kind of boring unless we got an omen. Another challenge I found myself with was determining what attributes to enhance and what attributes to diminish as the game progressed. The haunt was very difficult and we were constantly having to pick attributes to lose every turn. The management of what to get rid of was very difficult to ensure you could live for as long as possible.

The group leadership skills are very present in this game. From the start, everyone is on a team and exploring the house. You want to spread out and maximize the layout of the house as early as possible. Communication is very important early on and that is also very important in leadership situations. Another important skill that you can learn from this game is to stick to a plan. After the haunt was revealed, the remaining players and I had to figure out a plan in order to win. These are some of the group leadership skills that I learned while playing this game.

I think someone that would enjoy this game is my sister, Anabelle. She would love the role-play aspect of this game. She is in theatre and she would act out all the cards and it would be so funny. In addition, she would like the fact that it is a co-op game.

This week’s game was Mysterium. It is cooperative game where one person acts as “the ghost” and is in charge of giving “visions” to players from the afterlife. Each round, the ghost gives cards to various players and based on the cards that the ghost gives them, they have to distinguish which entity their fortune teller is looking for (character, location, and murder weapon). The first round of the game is each person finding their character, location, and weapon in 7 rounds or less. The second round of the game is determining who the real killer is. The hardest part of the game was determining how to be on the same page with someone. As the ghost for one of the games, I had to determine the best strategy to give cards out and figure out how each person would perceive the different cards. As a regular fortune teller, I had to figure out what the ghost was thinking and pick my entities off of that.

There were multiple leadership skills involved in this game. As the ghost, you have to adapt your strategy to fit the players. If someone isn’t getting your clues correct, you need to adjust and figure out a way to convey who that person is. As a fortune teller, you need to communicate with the other players and figure out who you are. Critical thinking, communication, and other skills are all things that leaders should possess. The group dynamic is interesting because everyone is working on their own goal, but it is important to help other players in order to win. Working together for a common goal while not slacking off on your own mission is something that is very evident in this game.

I think someone that would enjoy this game is my brother, Channing. He is all about solving things and thinking outside the box. The uniqueness of this game is solving a mystery using different pictures and inferring stuff from it. He would enjoy that it is cooperative as well because he tends to enjoy those games.

This week’s game was Survive: Escape from Atlantis. It is a game where you are given a set of meeples that need to escape from a sinking island. Each Meeple is a different point value and you are given those points if you can transport them from the island to solid land. Transporting your meeples can be a challenge with limited boat space, sharks, and other sea creatures trying to stop you. The hardest part of this game for me was my meeple management. I totally forgot where my valuable meeples were and it was very difficult to figure that out. Another difficult part is creating lasting “alliances” with other people so they don’t hurt you later in the game. I probably had to be on a boat with each other player at one point during the game and do something bad to every player as well. Managing when do attack and when to help each player is very difficult.

As previously mentioned, creating “alliances” is a big part of the game. As a leader, you have to build relationships and sometimes tear down hurtful relationships. The balance of relationships and actions is important in this game and as a leader. In addition, Leadership is about creating a plan (or vision) and sticking with it (for the most part). In Survive, you need a plan from the start and it is to you benefit to have that plan considering the different point values on the meeples. Survive is all about managing when and how you want to complete everything you need to get done before the island disappears.

I think someone that would enjoy this game is my friend, Caitlin. Caitlin would love the ability to choose from different actions and the ability to pave her own path in terms of what she wants to do with each meeple. Creating alliances and internationally hurting people would be other components that she would enjoy.

This week’s game was Ladies and Gentleman. In this game, you are split up into teams of two people each. One person is the lady who has to shop for the dance and has to deliver the “goodies” she wants to her husband. The other person is the gentleman who has to collect money from the stock market in order to buy things for his wife. The game is interesting in the sense that the lady and gentleman are playing two separate games in order to achieve the most points by the end. The hardest part of this game is the lack of communication that is present in this game. When I was the lady, I had to find a way to manage what I really wanted and strategically plan out what was important in order to get the most elegant dress possible. As the gentleman, I had to get the best stocks possible to provide the most money for my lady while also helping her out with the numbered tokens. In both scenarios, I had to learn how to play my own game and not let my team down while also prioritizing what was important at different times.

The leadership skills are very evident in this game. The idea of working together to complete two completely separate objectives is very important in this game. As a leader, you need to focus on your own tasks while making sure that your team objective gets done. In addition, you need to prioritize what is important and when to act (ladies need to prioritize when they get certain clothing and gentleman need to prioritize when they get certain resources). This task management over the course of the various rounds is very important because of things like holding an item or waiting to complete a stock until it gains more money on it.

Someone that would really like this game is my mom. She would enjoy the simplicity of focusing on one thing and the ability to “shop”. In addition, she would enjoy the fact that it is short and the fact that she would have a teammate. My mom enjoys games that don’t deal with too much strategy and this would be right up her alley because you don’t need strategy in this game to have fun.

This week was a week where we could pick what we wanted to play. I picked a game called Spector Ops. In this game, there is a ghost who has to complete objectives in secret and escape before he is caught. The rest of the players are hunting the ghost and trying to kill him before he escapes. The hardest part of this game was the unknown. As a regular character (I played as the wolf), you don’t know where the ghost is and you have to find him. In addition, there is a traitor among the players and that was easily the hardest part. As the ghost, you have to map out your movements to the point that the other characters can’t find you. Being the ghost was terrifying because you have no idea where anyone is going and at any point they could find out where you are.

The biggest leadership skills in this game deal with communication. The team needs to properly communicate in order to find the ghost as quickly as possible. As a team, making sure everyone is heard and coming to a clear understanding is very important. In addition, each person has a unique ability that can benefit the team in a unique way. As a leader, it is important to evaluate the strengths of each team member and assess when to use each ability.

Someone that would enjoy this game is my brother, Graham. He loves games that deal with mystery and figuring out who everyone is. In addition, he loves games that are fast paced and have various character abilities. This game is perfect for him because he would love the role of the ghost or a regular character. His favorite part would be the traitor element though and that would keep him intrigued throughout the game.

This week’s game was Ultimate Werewolf. This is a game where everyone is a different character (for the most part). There was some werewolves who want to kill everyone except themselves, while everyone is trying to hunt them down. Throughout the game, people are being killed, hung, and interrogated in order to figure out who everyone is. The hardest part of this game was being a villager in the first game. Out of the twenty people or so playing, there were roughly four people that have no power or special ability. Those characters are the villagers. I did not like this because I had to way to determine who anyone was except by listening and determining on my own who people were.

The leadership skills in this game are unique. The werewolves have to kill everyone, but they can’t talk much strategy or they will be discovered as the werewolves. Everyone else has to determine who the werewolves are solely by their unique ability and interrogating who everyone is. The importance of this game revolves around trusting individuals off the information they give you and building relationships that will last until the end of the game. These are important traits that a leader needs. In addition, persuasion and convey why you are “good” is important in this game as well as a leader. It is especially important in the game when people are voting to hang people. Conveying a message to everyone so they will vote with you is important in order to win because you need a majority of people to vote on who to hang.

Someone that would like this game is my friend, Dylan. He really enjoys the game Mafia and this game is very similar. Ultimate Werewolf provides more unique cards that Dylan would like. He loves interrogating people and would love to figure out who everyone is. The unique cards would allow him to implement more strategy in the game, which he would love.

This week’s game was Captain Sonar. the game is a competitive team game of four people trying to sink the other team’s battleship. Each person has their own unique objective and it is all in real time. The hardest part for me was the real time aspect of the game. It goes so quickly and you are constantly having to make decisions on the spot while remaining focused and calm. I was each position at least once and each one had its own challenges. The hardest part of radio operator is when the opponents submarine goes silent. It happened to me multiple times in one game and it was so hard to navigate it once they moved silently. The other position’s hardest part was communicating the plan for the submarine.  Each person had to be on the same page at all times in order to win and that was very difficult.

The leadership skills in this game are very important. Working on a team is the most obvious skill in this game. Communicating and figuring out how to work together despite another team trying to kill you is very hard to do. In addition, critical thinking skills, and listening skills as the radio operator are both things that a leader should have. The balance of when to deploy an ability is another struggle because that can win or lose you the game based on the radio operator’s knowledge. The central skill of having a plan of “attack” is another important aspect of this game. Lastly, Timing is very critical in this game. The real time feature relies on the speed of each member while communication is flawless throughout.

Someone that would enjoy this game is my brother Reilly. He would love the real time mode of this game and how fast paced it is. He would also enjoy that each person has their role and that the team has to work together in order to achieve victory.

This week’s game was Hanabi. This is a cooperative game in which you have to “build” fireworks on the table. The hard part about this game is that you cannot see your cards and your teammates give you clues as you play. In addition, you only get three strikes (or you blow up) and your team only has so many clues. I love playing this game with my family because we have certain strategies and we know how each member of our family plays.

The hardest part for me is trying to think like other people. When giving a clue, you have to give a clue that makes sense to the person that is receiving that clue. Like during class, I had to give clues to people that didn’t do what I thought they would do. Learning to adjust to the players that are playing as well as adjusting based on what cards are dealt is very important. Learning that you must be patient and learn to work together takes some getting used to.

As far as leadership skills, this game has plenty of good examples for that. It takes advantage of group leadership, where there is no clear leader. Everyone has to pull their own weight and everyone is responsible to communicate and work as a singular unit. In addition, it thrives when people take on separate roles throughout the game. Learning to fit into a role is important in a group setting as well as in Hanabi. For example, I knew at one point I had terrible cards, so I had to start discarding cards on my turn in order to help the team. It is important to be good at your role in order to be successful as a team.

I think someone that would enjoy this game is my friend Cory. My favorite part of this game is giving clues that are challenging to understand and almost count as multiple clues given the circumstances like what cards are present and what cards other people far. I think Cory would be really good at that. In addition, his mind and approach to games like this are very similar to mine which would make playing this game with him very fun.

This week in class, we played the card game Avalon. It is a game where everyone is given a hidden identity at the beginning of the game. Set in a medieval or fantasy setting, players can get characters like Merlin, Percival, or the Assassin to name a few. The goal of the game is for you “team” to win the majority of quests that occur throughout the game. This is all happening in real time where communication, memory, and negotiation is key. I love this game and have played it many times before coming to class. I love trying to solve the mystery of what character everyone is and getting more information periodically throughout the game.

For me, the hardest part of this game is always being a “bad guy”. I can’t lie very well and I don’t like to do it either. My strategy for being a bad guy is to try and create chaos which works about half the time. I was the assassin for the first game and we lost, but I was to guess who Merlin was correctly and win. The real fun for me is being a good guy and using communication to try and figure out who is on your team. Picking quests becomes harder rather than just picking randomly if you’re a bad guy.

This game is excellent for leadership because it forces people to use communication as well as individual goals to be successful. At the start of the game, everyone has a mission and it is up to you to communicate and get your teammates to be on your side. The end goal is for the team to achieve a common goal without entirely knowing who is on your team . In addition, it is important in this game to be able to take risks and to not be stubborn.  I think those are two skills that are important for a leader to have.

I think someone that would really enjoy this game is my friend, Noah. He would love the “puzzle” that is trying to figure everyone out. I think he would also be intrigued with all the special characters and their abilities.