Author Archives: stewarl4

Mysterium Reflection

The game we played in class was Mysterium. This has been my favorite game so far. I played as one of the psychics. I really enjoyed trying to figure out what the ghost was thinking about when they selected the vision cards. Often the things that stood out in the vision cards to me was not what they had intended to stand. This meant that I had the challenge of trying to think like the ghost. I think this game would be really fun with my family, as we all know each so well that I think it would be interesting to see if we can better understand what the ghost is trying to communicate.

There were two things I found to be the hardest parts of this game. One was since our group members did not know each other that well, it was hard for us to figure what the ghost was telling us. The other thing I found to be difficult was understanding the rules. For whatever reason, when I first read the rulebook, I was confused. However, after watching the video I found it to be easier to understand.

One of the leadership concepts that I feel this game exemplifies is “get off the dance floor and onto the balcony”. During the game, the ghost could not talk. This meant that once they handed out the vision cards, the outcome was out of their control. Once they stepped back after giving out the cards, they had to see if we choose what they meant for us to. If we did not they needed to re-evaluate how they were going about the situation and make changes for the next set of vision cards.

Forbidden Island Reflection

The game I played in class was Forbidden Island. I had never played a cooperative game before and thought it was really fun. I liked how it was not about competition, but rather team problem solving and brainstorming. It was fun to see how other players would go about navigating a situation. I think my family would really enjoy this game because it was fairly easy to learn. Additionally, some members of my family are more skillful at tabletop games than others and since this is a cooperative game it would allow for there to not be an unfair advantage.

The hardest part of this game was once the water level started to rise. At this point you had to decide which island tiles were worth saving and which one you could go without if need be. It took a lot of foresight to think about how you would make a path to the treasures you still needed and how to get all the players to Fools’ Landing at the end. It was also hard to figure out how to get all four of the treasure cards into one person’s hand, especially because you couldn’t have more than 5 cards at one time. It felt like a logic puzzle at times.

One leadership concept that this game relates to is challenging the process. All the members of my group were open to receiving suggestions from the others. If we felt that there was a better way to solve a problem, we were all open to changing our method. This allowed us to be able to accomplish the goal of the game.

Ultimate Werewolf Reflection

In class we played the game Ultimate Werewolf, and my role was as a villager. I really liked this game for a few reasons. One of them was because even when you got out of the game it was still very engaging. This is because once you were out, you got to keep your eyes open the entire time. This allowed for you to observe what was going on during the night phase of the game and got to see how actions other players made affected the game. Additionally, I liked how for the first class it involved the whole class in one game. This made it easier to meet people in the class. I that this would be a good game to play with tweens and teens in a camp setting. I think they would enjoy it more than mafia, which is a popular camp game because there are more roles, and it is more complex.

I would say the hardest part of the game for me was understanding all the different roles and remembering them all. I had only played Ultimate Werewolf once before this class. It was with a very big group at a League of Geeks event and since I did not know what I was doing and I was a villager, I did not participate very much. However, in class I felt more inclined to participate since it was a smaller group. That meant I really needed to understand the roles in the game.

One of the ties this game had to leadership was through the leadership principle of enabling others to act. During the day phase in Ultimate Werewolf, the village votes on one person who they think might be a werewolf. If someone strongly suspects a person to be a werewolf, they must get the majority of players to also vote on this person. This means that they must foster collaboration and build trust with the other players to convince them that they are not a werewolf.