Category Archives: Assignments

T.I.M.E. Stories Week 2




Our group completed the puzzles and won the game! We worked together to solve the riddles and combined our different skills and ideas. In this experience it was important to realize when it was best to stick together versus split up. You have a limited amount of time units to complete the game. If you do not you have to restart or possibly lose the entire game. While we made mistakes and followed the wrong leads at times, we were the only group able to “win” in the time allotted.
T.I.M.E. stories require players to assume many different team roles. Sometimes certain characters are better fitted to tasks than others, sometimes you must pair up in order to complete challenges. There are moments when the entire team must be present to even begin a round, fight, objective. While there are certain situations in which one person became the natural leader, all players must use leadership, communication, and compromise to succeed. For example, to move to a different location the entire team must agree. My team generally did a good job talking out concerns or motivations with choosing locations. Even when there was discourse my group stayed respectful and calm enough to correct any mistakes made.
I believe this would be a great game for my friends or any friend group to play. It is dissimilar to most games I have played but I found it very enjoyable. It is complex and frustrating at times, but it is full of interesting twists and requires you to problem solve. I was lucky to play with such a great and cohesive team, but I believe this game would be fun to play with anyone who is willing to cooperate and make mistakes.

Blood on the Clocktower Reflection

This week in class we got to play Blood on the Clocktower. I had been waiting for this one! Clocktower is one of my favorite games and I always love getting to experience playing it with new people. As far as social deduction games go, I prefer the experience Clocktower provides way more than any other game in the genre. I never enjoyed the player elimination aspect of other social deduction games. It felt bad on both sides of the spectrum. If you were good and got out early, you didn’t get to play the game. If you’re evil, you have to pick who you don’t want to play the game anymore. Clocktower’s ruleset, while higher on the scale of complexity, allows everyone to be included at all phases of the game. It also makes being evil easier for some as there is less guilt over eliminating other players.

A special quirk about Clocktower is the hightened importance of the Storyteller (the person running the game). I’ve been the Storyteller many times for my own play group, and I can say that the decision making aspect of the job can be really tricky at times! You are tasked with being the ultimate mediator, balancing both sides of the game to create the most interesting matches. This requires a very specific mindset. You have to learn to be impartial (for the most part) and create the best play environment for everyone.

Very rarely do I get to be the player and I thought that I was making the most of this opportunity… only to inadvertaintly lose the game for my team in both games we played. To anyone that didn’t believe, I apologize! Incorrect social reads got the better of me. A fun part of the puzzle of Clocktower is balancing out the ‘trustworthiness” you’re reading off of the other players and the actual info your character is getting. For example, in my second game, we had a Spy get very comfortable on the Good team because they both appeared to be Good when checked by three other people and read Good socially. When that happens, there’s not much else a player can do to work out that they’re getting duped, especially if they’ve been the Drunk the whole time (which I was)!

Overall, I suggest that everyone give Clocktower a try at least once, especially if you didn’t like other social deduction games for their player elimination aspects. I’d HIGHLY recommend it for people who have already played a fair number of tabletop games and want something that they can keep coming back to over and over.

Blood on the ClockTower


This week we played Blood on the Clocktower. This detailed role playing game involved deception, planning, and organization. Having never played this game before, I struggled to keep track of each possible role. Not all roles in the game were present in our round due to the number of players, but most roles had the potential to be present. I was selected to be the demon’s minion. I was a poisoner who once per night could interfere with another player’s ability. There were two teams in the game, the good and the evil. Of course, we did not know who was on each team. The goal is to discover each person’s role and for the good, find the demon and for the demon, kill the townsfolk. The game is divided into night and day. During the night action occurs from poisoning, murders, and divine intervention. During the day the town could interact, find information, and vote for someone to be executed. There were additional complexities such as the role of the drunk who would believe they were a townsfolk and claim such, but in reality were not. When the demon is killed, the minion assumes their role. This happened to me in our game. It may be obvious from my scattered explanation that the most difficult part of this game was keeping track of all the details and changing information.Despite mixing up details I managed to feign innocence for long enough to win the game.
An example of leadership I experienced personally was when I completely gave away my status as an evil character in the second round. Rather than expose my allegiances, a fellow player let the mistake slip because he had made similar errors when he first played this game. He could have won the game early but instead he chose to help me learn without embarrassment or judgement.
I believe this would be a fun game for parties, however it would be helpful if at least one person playing was able to help with the rules. Maybe it would be beneficial to play a practice round to ensure that everyone understands the many roles. I personally had trouble with this, but I imagine this would get easier the more you play the game. Overall, this was an enjoyable experience and I would love to play again.

Decorum Game of The Week

I thoroughly enjoyed playing Decorum. I have not played many board games that had similar premises to this one. In this game the players are decorating a house together. Each player has specific design objectives they must reach and together the team must create a space that satisfies the needs of everyone. Rather than stating what you need, you must make sly comments and use compliments or passive aggressive comments to communicate your contentment with the current design. So while this game centers around communication, everything is indirect and thus you must try to keep track of each person’s specific reactions, comments, facial expressions, and body language. This game is deceptively simplistic and I remember one of my group members commented early on that we were going to complete the game within minutes of starting. In the end, we did not even finish the game despite having the entire class period dedicated to its gameplay.
There was not necessarily a designated leader in this game, but rather we seemed to divide into pairs who would work together. Throughout the game there were several heart-to-heart discussions in which we could share information with one other player. I am unsure what the best way to share information would have been, but we mostly shared with a partner who would then work to try to meet both of our needs when completing their turn. In some ways this was extremely advantageous as we could cooperate to progress further in each of our individual turns. At the same time, not having any information concerning the other pairs’ needs led to a lot of undoing of each pair’s progress. The frustration and miscommunication that resulted from this unequal information was the most challenging part, however it also seemed to drive our motivation to succeed.
Overall, I enjoyed this game because it was intellectually interesting because you had to keep track of many details and think about different possibilities in order to complete a “simple” task. There was unequal information however the goal is to work together rather than to sabotage one another. I think this game would be a useful exercise for people who do not know each other well but must work together in a group or on a project of some sort. It forces you to be aware of each other’s communication styles and be patient and thoughtful with each action rather than simply trying to do what will help you individually succeed.

Fiasco Week 1 Review

We played the role playing game: Fiasco. My group chose to play the Ice edition, however there are different “playsets” or settings to choose from. This game relies heavily on character building and player decision making. As is the case with many role playing games, the hardest part was actually getting started. When reading through the directions and setting up the game, it seems a bit overwhelming. Many decisions are made before gameplay occurs and these initial choices will impact the plot, characters, and relationships of the entire game. All this to say that game setup was a daunting task and I felt a bit unsure how to initiate the improvisation scenes.
Once we actually dove into the gameplay the experience was much less intimidating and seemed to flow naturally. I enjoyed the player interaction and the way that we bounced ideas off of each other to create a scene. It reminded me of the improv game “yes and” in which players do not reject each other’s ideas but rather add to and twist their interpretations. Some of my classmates expressed their preferences for games in which there is more randomness and less player decision. Personally, I felt like this game had randomness because you never knew how your teammates would react or interpret a scene.
Fiasco requires communication and cooperation between characters, while leaving room for individuals to create unexpected plot twists. One thing that makes this game unique, is the need for different players to take a leadership role depending on the scenario. This ensured that all players were able to take charge of certain parts of the overarching storyline. I believe that our gameplay went pretty well as we were able to trust each other and have fun with our situations. I believe this game would help with confidence in acting classes while making sure that all players got to design, participate, and lead certain scenes.

The Crew Reflection (Mechanics Week)

This week, we were given an overview of various types of board game mechanics and then given free reign to choose one of the many different games scattered about the room to play. Initially I gravitated towards Vagrant Song for its very unique art, but a glance at the rules revealed that it would take quite a while to learn. Instead, I ended up playing The Crew with 2 other students.

The Crew is a co-operative trick-taking game which has some campaign elements to it. I was very interested to see how it was possible to make a co-op trick taking game as the concept initially did not seem feasible! I mean, how is it possible to have a game mechanic built on beating all of your opponents mesh nicely into a co-op experience? Well, after playing The Crew, I have to say that they did a pretty phenomenal job.

The Crew solves the issue by giving the players various goals that they either must complete or avoid completing, such as winning a trick using a specific card or not winning any cards of a specific suit. From here, it is up to the players to work together to play their cards in such a specific sequence as to complete all of the goals assigned to them. Winning each individual trick has little purpose; it’s all about those GOALS!

One player is assigned the role of Captain and gets to choose the first goal as well as play the first hand of the game. The Captain typically ends up setting the pace for the round by nature of choosing that first goal, as every other player must then work around that choice. The game prevents most forms of communication so a lot of the time you are working off gut feelings and card counting. In my opinion, a smart captain will choose a goal that will be difficult for the other members of the team to complete rather than a goal that is easiest for them to complete.

Overall I would say that the game isn’t for many people. While I enjoyed the mechanics presented, it felt like a novelty after a few rounds. The limited communication aspects really soured the experience for me, as I wanted to coordinate more with my team than I actually could. Without being able to talk, sometimes it felt like some goals were completely unachievable.

Ultimate Werewolf Reflection

In week 1 of class, we played Ultimate Werewolf. I had previously played the One Night variant of the game and had played Mafia in the past, but playing the longer form of Werewolf was a new experience for me, especially with the size of the group we played with! I believe that we had around 25 people if my memory is correct, so the game ended up taking a very long time to complete. As someone who had only previously played the One Night version, the sheer length of the game surprised me! We were even being timed at only 1-2 minutes per day, which meant that discussions had to be very short. Now, there usually isn’t too much going on in a single night of Werewolf besides the nightly death, so this timer ended up being not too bad to deal with.

For this game, I was assigned the role of Bodyguard. This, from what I came to understand via play, was an EXTREMELY powerful role. I held within my hands an ability which could completely stop the evil team in their tracks, provided I was smart about it. In the beginning of the game, this was a very difficult task. There were so many people and so many unknowns that I was basically shooting in the dark. I decided that the best course of action was to stay quiet and let the more vocal members of the group draw attention to themselves, at which point I could start trying to protect them. After the first couple of days, the “leaders” of the game were firmly established from a Cupid confirmation chain. They stayed vocal and directed most of the discussions. This let me stay protected for a very long time.

Late into the game, the good team became more clear and I was finally able to start getting a couple of saves. That first save started a powerful chain reaction as I was able to prove one of my neighbors as well as myself as good due to nobody dying. We very nearly pulled out a win but a sneaky Wolf Cub death sealed our fate, as it left me with a 2 in 3 shot of picking a correct person to save, which I unfortunately did not get. Pretty much at all points of the game I felt like I was taking risks. I was always choosing between whether to save myself to ensure my power was safe or to take a chance trying to save someone else to prove that they were on the good team.

All in all, I think Werewolf is a game that has a very broad audience. The basic concept is very easy to understand and the mechanics of the game are not very complex besides remembering different character roles. This issue could be solved by giving players reference sheets. One thing that I don’t like about Werewolf is the player elimination aspect. While I didn’t experience it in this game because I made it all the way to the end, I think I would have been very bored sitting on the sidelines for the rest of the game, especially if I got out very early.

Blood on the Clock Tower

Happy Halloween! In this spooky night, we played Blood on the Clock Tower. There was around 13 players; 4 knew how to play and the rest did not. I was one of the few who did not know how to play, and I also happened to be the town drunk, which did not help me learn what I was doing. In other words, I was the empath (on the good side). I had the ability to know if anyone sitting next to me was evil. However, I was also secretly the drunk so my ability was void throughout the game and I didn’t even know it. So the whole time, I thought my two friends were good, but one was actually the poisoner (awkward).

(hardest part) The game itself was a little confusing because the roles were a little vague and it was a lot. I couldn’t keep up with some of the player’s logic (the one’s who have played before). But I definitely would want to play again. I’m not entirely sure if I like blood on the clock tower over ultimate werewolf. But I do love that it takes more time and you can talk with people separately. I also like the aspect where certain conditions (recluse, drunk, saint, ect.) can be given to good players and they don’t even know it.

Not really sure how this game demonstrates leadership. I could argue it has the mob mentality, like in Ultimate werewolf, but I didn’t really see that in our game. What I did notice was that people who have experience with the game can notice/talk about details. For instance, I was the empath, so someone asked me how many numbers I got (from 0-2) indicating how many next to me are evil. I was expecting them to ask me if there was anyone next to me that was evil, so I was expecting to give them a name not a number (or a yes or no answer). The game was lead by someone who knew the game very well. So I got to witness an experienced leader, and compare it to an inexperienced leader (myself). Hands down, experience wins. They can see and think in ways I could not. But by being around an experienced leader, I slowly started to understand the tricks. Thus, it never hurts to have someone with experience lead. In fact, it’s probably more beneficial for everyone.

Ladies & Gentlemen

In class, we played Ladies & Gentlemen, and I chose to be a gentleman (I brought a fake mustache and everything). The concept of the game was different for the ladies and gentlemen. For the gentlemen, our goal was to earn enough money to purchase lovely items for our wives/the ladies. The ladies role was to purchase as many items and servants as possible so that they can have the best outfit for the ball.

I think the hardest part about the game was roleplaying as a 1850’s British man. It was hard to stay in character, mostly because I have no clue how people acted during that time (I just generalized what I’ve seen in movies). Plus, I am not a man. Another hard part of the game was to keep things secretive from your partner. Because of this hidden element, I didn’t know what my partner needed. I tried to buy whatever they gave me, but there were times when money was low.

This game relates to leadership because it is about understanding different perspectives. Although I only played as a gentleman, I think the goal of the game is to see what it is like to be both the gentleman and lady. By acting like a female and male in the victorian era, we can start to understand their behaviors, feelings, and beliefs a little better. Although not a perfect interpretation, by trying to understand we can find new ways to problem solve and work together with those who are different from us.

Decorum

This week we played decorum, a game about cooperation with interior designing. It was a very fun game. I played with one other person, and we worked together to find the right balance for our rooms. We managed to go through 6 rounds; each round was a set of requirements we each had to fill (and our requirements were different from each other). It was difficult at first because we were trying to navigate how to play, but steadily we got the hang of it.

The most difficult part of the game was when we had to interpret and memorize our requirements. As we move on to each round, the requirements get harder and harder. Stuff like “rooms with warm colors can only have objects with cool colors”. Which sounds easy, but oftentimes you can miss it because you are juggling it with other similar requirements. We messed up two rounds because a requirement was not fulfilled when we thought it was (oops). But even so, we had a lot of fun reading out scenarios and discussing what we liked or hated. I’d say it was a success.

As far as leadership skills, I think this game requires a lot of communication, and management skills. You are trying to juggle a lot of requirements at once, without missing any, and you are trying to communicate with your partner what you need. This kinda showcases how different people with different goals can find compromise while still finding ways to fit their needs. It was very interesting. This game also requires an open-mind because what you need in a certain room may not fit your partner’s requirements. You have to be able to find different ways to meet your needs.