Author Archives: xuy53

Game of the Week Blog Reflection Week 10: D&D Week 3

This week we continue our journey to the D&D. We have played D&D for three weeks and this week is the final week that we play the D&D. Although I am eager to start a new game, I really want to explore more about D&D world with my team.Finally, we arrive the other side of the bridge. We won a huge Goblin last week. The process is not easy and everyone was injured to varying degrees. Because the battle with the huge Goblin was intense, the wall of the cave got damaged by the spells. After crossing the bridge, we realized the water was pushed into the cave and water swept us out of the cave. Everyone got the damage, and we were separated by water and need to regroup. I need to decide whether to find the rest of the team first or go alone. I believe the most important thing now is to find my team, so i roll the dice and use my spell to find my team.

Although this is a dice game, D&D encourages us to combine the strategy with individuals’ power to make decisions. If without my team, i can not win the Goblin and can not reach the deepest part of the cave. The hardest part of this game is that I need to come out with different ways to solve the problems my team encounters. Although sometimes we need some luck to win the battle, most of the time we need a strategy. A good strategy can help me win the game easily and therefore we don’t need to depend on luck.

The session went well and i think everyone’s idea is excellent. The most impressive thing during the play session was that Grayson successfully find a key that can help us find the final treasury. Although i am bad at rolling dice, i often use strategy to win the battle. For example, i ask team to separate into two parts, one part is responsible for attacking, the other is responsible for healing. i am happy that my team listen my idea and execute my idea during the battle with the huge Goblin. I really like playing with my team because everyone is friendly and helpful when other teammates got trouble.

To sum up, D&D is a team game and people can not only learn what is teamwork from this game, but also can enhance his/her relationship with others.I hope i can introduce this game to my Chienese friends and play with them.

Game of the Week Blog Reflection Week 9: D&D Week 2

This week we are continuing our play of D&D. This game is quite interesting now as we dig into the story. After training of the first week,I think I am now familiar with the game setting and I am ready to move further. Continuing where we stopped from last week, we roll the dice and snake into a black cave. There are some lights on the wall so we can see what is in the cave. When we reach the part where there are no lights, we use dark vision. We encounter a huge Goblin at the end of the cave. He seems not friendly to us and prepares to attack us through his hammer. After a short discussion, all my groupmates want to fight with him. Grayson uses intimidation to reduce Goblin’s armor, Xinpen throws a fireball, and I, as a Warlock, make medicines to heal the team. After a short fight, we decide to use deception to force the Goblin from a Union with us. However, we underestimate the Goblin’s determination. He does not want to join us and instead, he attacks us again. The game of this week ends as we kill this Goblin and across a bridge to the other side.

I like the battle parts of this game becasue I think the battle parts are exciting. We not only need to calculate the damages based on our attributions, but also need to consider strategies. For example, two people cast spells, one person make healing medicine and one person uses intimation or other spells to reduce the enemy’s armor. However, there is one part that I don’t like, that is the process rate. i think we spent too much time discussing, so the process is very slow compared to the other teams. Therefore, i help my teammates make decisions sometimes when they are hesitating. I think every time when i help team make decision, i show my leadership to them.

The game session went well. Everyone tried his/her best to contribute something to the team. We discuss the strategy with happiness. I really want to know what will happen as we move deep into the cave.

Game of the Week Blog Reflection Week 8: D&D Week 1

this week we have played d&d beyond. i think d&d beyond is one of my favorite types of the game because i am a fan of dota and world of warcraft. in d&d world i call myself anti-mage the vigo. this name is from a video game called dota and there is a NPC who is good at killing mages and therefore people named him anti-mage. vigo is my English name. my class is a warlock and my race is Dragonborn. i choose warlock as my class because my first game character in world of warcraft is a warlock and he can learn and spell almost all the magic talents.

the hardest part of the game? i don’t think d&d beyond is hard because i have played so many times before and i was familiar with the background of the game. i believe my video game friends will like this game because they are all the fans of the world of warcraft. warrior, mage, orc and elf, i can not be more familiar with all these types of race.

the session went well and the leader in our group gives us the most impressive experiences. he can use many types of voices. for example, he can talk in the way that elf talks, he can talk in the way that goblin talks. i really enjoy playing with my leader. he is kind and when i was in trouble understanding, he is always willing to help me out and gives me advice. for example, when I drive the car with my other four teammates and when we encounter a group of goblins. when i was not sure whether or not should i cast spell on goblin or just stay in the car and use my talent to make medicine to heal my team. my leader helps me analyze the situation based on my attributes and directs me to the right path.

i really like this game although i am not the one who is the strongest. this game will be continued next week and i think can not wait. the most interesting part of this game is interrogating the arrested goblin. although we do not believe this goblin now because he attacked us , we still decided to let him direct us.

to sum up, this game is just like world of warcraft which i have played before. although this d&d beyond is a table game and world of warcraft is a video game, both of them have same settings and backgrounds. i can not wait to play the game next week.

Game of the Week Blog Reflection 6: Free Play Week 1

this week is free play week and my group chooses incan gold to play because many of them played can’t stop last week. each player will get a set of 2 player cards and a tent at the very beginning of the game. five cards are placed in the center of the table and the start player will start the card which is placed in the center of the table named one. the goal of this game is to get the treasures as much as possible and there are four basic categories of the treasures that each account for different values. for example, turquoise only has one point but gold worths 10 points. the player with the most wealth wins. incan gold consists number of turns and each turn has different rules. for example, first turn is based on players’ choices and players need to decide whether they are going to leave or not. this game ends in two ways, either all players leave the temple or the second hazard card is drawn and scares all the players away.

the play session went well and everyone was trying to get as much treasuries as possible. the hardest part of the game i believe is to decide whether or not to take the risk or just leave the temple. i think my father will enjoy this game because he likes playing cards and the chess. I believe incan gold will be one of his favorite games if i introduce the game to him. as for leadership, i remember there was a Chinese girl in my group and she was shy and did not talk so much. moreover, she said she was not very familiar with the game rule when she introduced herself. I want her to participate more in the game, so i actively ask her question and help her when she was in trouble. i believe that by helping others and leading them to the right path, i got my leadership. i think there is nothing that i don’t like, and because this week focus more on the enjoyment, everyone in the game was happy.

to sum up, the session was wonderful and impressive when everyone contributes and participates. i really like incan gold and i hope i can play this game with more people and introudece this game to more people.

Game of the Week Blog Reflection 5: Incan Gold and Can’t Stop

this week we are playing i can’t stop on the tabletop simulator. can’t stop is one of the most exciting games i have played because its name illustrates everything: can’t stop! its rule is very simple. people just need to roll the dices and if the dices match the route you chose, you can go, if not, you will lose everything you have done in your turn. in this week’s game we have four players.i think i am the type of person who is willing to take risks because i don’t want to stop if i gain lots of the advantages in my turn. however, the result is not always fun. because i like taking risks, which means i never stop when i get the dices in my turn, i always return to where i was when the dices turn out to be not matching my route.

i like this game very much because you need some strategies to win the game. however, compared to the strategies you use, i think the most important factor that can determine whether you are going to win or lose is luck. if a person always gets what he or she wants, he or she will definitely win because this game is essentially a luck-based game. the session goes well because every player in the group is eager to win. moreover, because this game is not that hard and the rule is very simple, people in my group get familiar with the game in a very short time.

in my opinion, there is only one thing that i don’t like during the session, that is communication. because this game does not require much communication, people in my group are silent most of the time during the play session. i don’t criticize that my group is not talking, i just want they talk more to make the game more interesting.

this game is like speculating stock in the stock market. the dices are just like the stock, if you believe your are lucky, and your chosen stock’s price will increase in the future, you will earn the money. if not, you lose all of your money. because i am a finance major student, this game helps me realize the weakness i have. as for leadership, i think the leadership in this game is to tell people when to stop and when to take the risk. because this game does not entirely depend on the luck, people also need to use strategies to help them win the game. therefore my leadership here is to tell people when to take the risk and when they should use strategy to win.

Game of the Week Blog Reflection: Fiasco Week 2

this week we are continuing Fiasco because this game requires us to spend lots of time on it. we resumed what we have left last week. because i am not the type of person who are good at making story. as the game continues, i realize my ability of making story is decreasing. to sum up, this game is just a story-making game. people need to make story based their background and logic. however, i realize that people are getting less and less dependent on the logic but more and more on the feeling as the game goes into deep. i have to admit that this game is very interesting, people are getting more familiar with each other when they interact with each other. however, this game is racking my brains so hard. because i am not a native speaker, i need to first come up with some ideas about the story and then translate them to English. i think this is the hardest part of the game, especially for our international student. however, playing Fiasco is also a good way for me to improve my logic and speaking.

as for leadership, i have to admit that in this game, i am the one who are led by other players because of the two reasons: one is that i am not quite familiar with this game at the very beginning and therefore need someone to explain the steps of the game. the other reason is what i just mentioned. i am not a native speaker and my understanding is limited sometimes regarding the subjective other players talks about.

the session goes well because people are getting more familiar with each other and are not shy anymore. moreover, because the other three players in my group are girls and they are good at talking, our discussion is filled with fun and laughs. and forget to mention that the winner of the game is Garrison. i think her story is the most interesting story and her logic is always easy to understand. i think this game is also popular in China due to the challenge it presents. to sum up, this game is really good and i hope to play with my friends in the future.

Game of the Week- Fiasco

this week we played Fiasco, which to me seems like a role-playing game. people design the relationship with each other by rolling dice. there are six basic relationships, and my favorite one is crime relationship because i can make lots of stories on this role. relationship is the most important thing in this game, at least, it provides us the foundations of how to develop the story. the hardest but also the most interesting part is making stories. i have to brainstorm, but it does not mean i can make whatever i want. still, i need to make the story logical and appealing.

this game would be funny if you play with your friends, especially for those who you are the most familiar with because you do not have to be shy to tell the story at least. moreover, this game is quite difficult for international students because sometimes their expressions will cause misunderstanding, or the logic is not as perfect as native speakers. However, telling a story is also a good way to practice speaking.

the play session went well and everyone is willing to share the story and try hard to make the story funny but logical. i have to admit that sometimes it is quite hard to understand the implied meaning behind the story told by my American teammates. but my American teammates are always willing to help me out. there is one thing that my group did that is different from other grounds. that is we were using excel to play the game instead of going to the table simulator. here i need to thanks to Grayson because she brought up this idea. why did not we use table simulator? because my steam was broken during the class time and i had no way to fix it. i feel sorry to my group.

my favorite part in Fiasco is telling the story and guessing what logic is implied behind the story told by other people. Although i lost the game, i learned some things from the game. first, do not be shy to tell the story. everyone is here to hear your wonderful story. second, helping others when they have trouble. if you have some ideas and you want to share with your group, do not hesitate. because I got a Chinese groupmate who was not quite sure of the rule of the game. i helped him out when he got trouble. in my opinion, when i helped people, my personal value came out. moreover, personal value also ties to the leadership. when people are afriad of telling story, all you need to do is encouraging. i think leadership can be illustrate from many different perspectives and is not limited to lead people to do something.

Game of the Week: Roll Player

Roll player is quite hard for me at the beginning of the class because it involves many rules that i still do not quite understand. however, i really enjoy the game we played together last week because it brings me with other students who i have never seen before. i admit that playing game together is a quite easy way to get understand of other people. someone in the game shows them as aggressive people and try hard to win the game while someone is peaceful.

last week we played roll player, the most important thing i wanna mention here is the leadership people display during the gameplay. there was a boy that did not quite understand the rules of the game. I was always willing to help him out, when the boy encountered problems like what he is going to do next. in my opinion, helping people and leading them to the right path is, or maybe, what professor Bragg called leadership that we need to learn from this class. people who do not understand the game don’t hesitate to ask questions because everyone here is friendly. Although i was shy at the very beginning of the game, i had been changing during the game and talked more and more. but anyway, i enjoy the roll player and definitely goona introduce this game to my friends.

the hardest part in the roll player i think would be matching and picking the attribute. people need to think about what is the quickest and easiest way to get the advantages. in my opinion, my father will like this game because he likes playing the board game and especially those involve strategies.

the play session went well and everyone was trying hard to win the game. However, the only thing that i do not like is that i think the face-to-face game will be more interesting. online gameplay lacks enthusiasm.