- Ultimate Werewolf is a very strategic, logical and fun multiplayer offline social game. The game will divide 10-20 players into two main camps, the evil side and the good side. The victory condition is that the good side defeats the evil side, or the evil side defeats the good side. In addition and will be subdivided into some small camps, such as Cupid let two people become a couple, and the victory condition of the couple is to ensure that both people can survive to the end of the game.
- For the evil side, the werewolves, they need to find their companions at night and kill all the good side characters. The good side needs to deduce who the werewolves are according to what happens during the night. It’s not like the righteous side can’t do something about it. All the characters except for the normal villagers have some skills to find out who the hidden werewolves are or to protect other righteous players from being killed.
- I really like this game because it is a great test of leadership. For the Justice side, the Justice leader needs to have a strong logical mind and good game character skills to guide all the Justice players to find the werewolf and execute him in daylight. And the leader also needs his firm leadership to prevent the werewolf side from challenging his leadership. The same goes for the werewolf camp. The werewolf camp leader role needs to lead the other werewolves to confirm the kill of the right target and needs to lead the other werewolf players during the day to mislead the other justice side players to join his camp to execute the justice side characters.
- The risk of this game is when the leader character makes a wrong leadership leading to the failure of the game, for example, if the righteous leader mistakes the villagers as lurking werewolves leading everyone to believe he is a werewolf and executes him during the daytime. Or the werewolf player leads other werewolves to kill unimportant non-important Justice side characters in multiple nights resulting in game failure. Or when leading other werewolves to mislead other righteous players to join their camp during the day, a failure due to a lapse in the logic level of the chat leads to the entire camp being suspected of being werewolves resulting in a failure.
- Personally, I am very willing to take risks and I like to be a camp leader. Because taking risks is a responsibility that a leader must take, and it will determine whether other people in the same camp will be willing to follow my command. Because when the game is won, I am likely to be the most recognized and popular character, and when it is lost, I am likely to be the reprimanded character. Risk is something I can take and popularity is something I aspire to.
Category Archives: Assignments
Leadership’s Like a Game Reflection
In a lot of games, you are on a team working to achieve a common goal. Being on a leadership team is a very similar experience. Everyone on both teams is usually assigned to a role and given specific tasks to complete. In games players typically have special abilities to help fulfill their role. On a real-life team people have real life skills that they excel in, making them better in certain positions. In both scenarios team members can help and support each other as needed.
Leadership and games also both include a lot of management. In many games you must manage what resources you have to avoid running out and accomplish goals within a time limit. As a leader you often are scheduling dates for events and keeping up with deadlines. Leaders also manage funds, deciding what to purchase or not, much like the resource management in games. Giving people orders and keeping them happy are goals that exist both in some games and for real leaders.
Another similarity between leadership and games is that you get better at them the more you practice. As you play games more you level up and learn better strategies to grow stronger. As a leader you must have practical experience leading to get better. Much like any other skill leadership can be improved with time and effort. So don’t avoid being a leader just because you think you’re bad at it. No one starts out as the perfect leader and you’ll never have a chance to improve if you don’t start.
Magic: The Gathering Color Leadership Quiz Results
My idea for a quiz was to relate the five colors in Magic: The Gathering to different styles of leadership. Every color in magic has an identity not just for gameplay mechanics but also thematic flavor. White is associated with government, using rules and laws to keep peace and order. So, for leadership I based the questions on a person who takes charge to create a structure and order to the group. Blue pursues knowledge and logic to solve problems. As a leader I created questions about making plans and strategies to approach the situation. Black was tricky as it has a heavy negative connotation. I attempted to keep the portrayal neutral with a desire for success and being unafraid to take risks. I still feel like I could have improved on making the choices feel positive. Red is quick to action and values freedom. This type of leader prefers setting a positive example through their own actions instead of ordering others what to do. Green was another challenging color as its desire for peace is like white. I decided to put in emphasis on a mediator who makes sure all the members of the group get along.
Of the ten responses I collected, counting ties as both colors, there was: one white, two blue, one black, two red, and six green leaders. The first and last white options were never picked, possibly because they were too generic compared to the others. The third and fourth blue options were never picked, maybe because they were too complex compared to the simpler alternatives. The second and fourth black answers weren’t selected and likely were seen as too selfish and mean. Every single red option was selected at least once and is probably the best written options that I wrote. Strangely the first green option, studying as a group, was never picked. The third and fourth green options were picked way too often and caused way more people to be green leaders than any other. These answers are probably seen as the nicest or most effective of all the options available. The first change I would make to my quiz is make the black options more appealing. Then I would give a few of the shared qualities of green to white.
Despite the problems of balance in responses people were generally satisfied with their results. Not all of them were familiar with the different colors in Magic so their response was based on the summary I wrote. I personally agree with most if not all the results as well. This could just mean the sample of people who took the quiz were biased towards green. Also, the five colors aren’t designed to equally represent all people so something like black probably is naturally less common than others. A flaw with the BuzzFeed website is ties always get the same result and there is no indication of how much you match with the other options. If I had designed a more advanced quiz, I could have included all ten color pairs as answers instead of just the five one color options. The issue of certain colors being less common in real people would only because worse though. I doubt many people would fit into green black or red black for example. Overall learning about the design philosophy for colors in Magic and creating leader types for them was an interesting assignment.
Attend & Reflect on a Campus Gaming Event-Recon
The on-campus gaming event I went to this semester was Recon from March 4th through March 6th. On Friday during Recon the first event I did was the geek seek scavenger hunt. The riddles were easy to solve and the final code being recon was a bit obvious after the second letter, but it was helpful to see all the different rooms events were being held in. I then participated in two rounds of werewolf legacy. In the first round I was one of the werewolves and we won. For the second round I was a villager and we unfortunately lost. For the end of the night, I was on a team for trivia, and we started off strong. For the first half of trivia, we stayed in the top 3 or so, but at the end we fell to fourth place and just barely missed winning a prize.
On Saturday I played in the Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Magic: The Gathering draft. For the draft I played a white and green enchantment-based deck and opened some nice cards. The best one was Boseiju, Who Endures, which sells for around $25-$30, which was the second most expensive card any got from the draft. Of the six rounds I played I won three and lost three. However, when split between opponents I won my second match (2-0) and lost the first (0-2) and third (1-2). After having dinner, I tried D&D beat the geek against Grayson. While the trivia was fun not enough questions were written ahead of time and the 30 minutes wasn’t enough for how many people wanted to do beat the geek.
I then played in the last 2 rounds of werewolf legacy. The final round was awesome. Daniel claimed to be the Chupacabra trying to kill werewolves. I lived till close to the end and decided to shoot Daniel since there either was no werewolves left and he needed to die for town to live or there would only be one more werewolf. That left only 4 players, one of which was cleared of being the werewolf by the seer. Ian had a special ability that if he died both people next to him also would. He suggested being voted out so only the one player cleared by the seer would be left. As the only survivor she won the game…as the Chupacabra! It turned out that Daniel was a werewolf trying to avoid being voted out by claiming a neutral role. The Chupacabra can’t be found by the seer and since everyone thought it was gone the end came as a huge shock to everyone. I then joined a game of normal ultimate werewolf. We were short on time and sadly had to rush the game to play it at all. It didn’t matter to much though as the apprentice seer immediately found all 3 werewolves and there was nothing they could have done to come back from that.
On Sunday, during my birthday, I played Two Rooms and a Boom. While fun the games were a bit small and not as good as the rounds we played during class. I then watched the officer swearing in ceremony for the new/returning League of Geeks officers. Finally, I used the tickets I got throughout the event to try to win a prize. I ended up winning a poster of Jessica Jones with the tickets. There was also the play-to-win board games which I had played a lot of them. From those I also won the board game Mare Nostrum: Empires, which was probably my favorite of all the ones I played.
My Top 25 Board Games
25. Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards
Cryptozoic Entertainment
Designer: Rob Heinsoo, Cory Jones
Owned: No
Why it is on the list: Epic Spell Wars has a fun combat system where you cast spells by combining different types of cards from your hand. Finding the right synergy for spells to deal lots of damage is satisfying. The main thing holding the game back is its NSFW humor.
Who may like it: People who like finding combos and fans of adult swim type of humor.
24. Tsuro
Calliope Games
Designer: Tom McMurchie
Owned: No
Why it is on the list: I’m still unsure if there’s actually a way to strategize in Tsuro. Each player takes turn playing a tile that moves their dragon to another spot on the board. Any player who falls off the board is eliminated until only one player remains. The structure the board ends up at the end of the game is so complex that I find it difficult to plan ahead, the game is always a blast to play regardless.
Who may like it: People who enjoy chaotic and unpredictable games.
23. Coup
Indie Boards & Cards
Designer: Rikki Tahta
Owned: Yes
Why it is on the list: There are plenty of hidden role games based on deception. Where Coup distinguishes itself is bluffing to perform role actions that you don’t have. There is large risk versus reward system that feels different from just hiding which team you’re on. Another benefit is that games are fairly short so you can easily play multiple rounds.
Who may like it: Fans of hidden role and deception games looking for a shorter game.
22. Specter Ops
Plaid Hat Games
Designer: Emerson Matsuuchi
Owned: No
Why it is on the list: Specter Ops is the only hidden movement game I’ve played so far but I found it very interesting. Both hiding yourself from other players and trying to find the hidden player are really cool mechanics for a game.
Who may like it: Fans of stealth games.
21. The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine
KOSMOS Games
Designer: Thomas Sing
Owned: No
Why it is on the list: The Crew is a trick taking game that is completely co-op. Each mission gives different objectives to complete but the players have very limited communication. I haven’t had a chance to play the new version yet but I could see this game jumping a few spots if the improvements allow for better variation in gameplay.
Who may like it: Fans of card games like Euchre and limited communication team games.
20. Moonrakers
IV Games
Designers: Austin Harrison, Max Anderson, Zac Dixon
Owned: No
Why it is on the list: Moonrakers is a deckbuilder where you are a mercenary upgrading your ship and crew. The aspect I prefer over other deckbuilders is the in-game politics. In order to complete missions you can team up with other players and then split the rewards, however they can then sabotage the check instead making you fail. This extra dynamic adds another layer to the game.
Who may like it: Fans of deckbuilders and in-game politics.
Unstable Games
Designer: Ramy Badie
Owned: Yes
Why it is on the list: This is more of a guilty pleasure of mine that I’ve played a surprising amount of. While the game appears to be a simple party game at first actually winning the game takes quite a bit of strategy to combo your cards. Plus the art is really fun.
Who may like it: Fans of silly card games and cute artwork.
18. Azul
Next Move Games
Designer: Michael Kiesling
Owned: Yes
Why it is on the list: Azul is one of the few game I enjoy that doesn’t have a very strong theme to it. The game more than makes up for it with very solid mechanics. The tile drafting gives players many different strategies to go for. Do you play slowly and optimize your picks, or do you quickly complete rows but lose some points for having extra tiles. The tiles themselves are also well made components that are nice to look at.
Who may like it: Players who prefer good mechanics over theme.
Stonemaier Games
Designer: Matthew O’Malley, Ben Rosset
Owned: No
Why it is on the list: In Between Two Cities you must build two different cities with the person on either side of you. While Between Two Castles is probably a more advanced version of this game I somewhat prefer the limitations of Cities. Often in Castles the highest scoring team just built a tower with every piece in one line, while Cities requires the tiles to be in a 4 by 4 square.
Who may like it: Fans of tile placement and drafting games.
16. Trapwords
Czech Games Edition
Designer: Jan Březina, Martin Hrabálek, Michal Požárek
Owned: No
Why it is on the list: There are lots of popular word guessing party games like Codenames but Trapwords is my personal favorite. Not only does it have a D&D theming to it but the mechanic to set ‘traps’ that the other team can’t say is great. Clue givers end up describing clues in very creative ways to avoid saying anything that could be a trap.
Who may like it: Fans of word guessing party games.
Gamelyn Games
Designer: Sam Aho
Owned: No
Why it is on the list: Tiny Epic Dungeons is a dungeon that is rather difficult but a lot of fun. The tiles for the dungeon are placed randomly so the layout is different each time. There is also a large selection of characters to pick to play as which all have a unique ability or two.
Who may like it: Fans of dungeon crawlers and team games.
14. Picture Perfect
Corax Games
Designer: Anthony Nouveau
Owned: No
Why it is on the list: Picture Perfect is a very unique and intriguing game. You gain points by placing figures in a family photo according to the desires of each person. Players only start with the info for a few people and have to try to trade for the others.
Who may like it: Something unique and different.
Ravensburger
Designer: Stefan Feld
Owned: No
Why it is on the list: In Castles of Burgundy you buy tiles in order to build a kingdom to earn the most points. Which tiles you can buy is determined by rolling dice but the game does have mechanics to manipulate the number. I enjoy attempting to build the best kingdom with limited places to put tiles.
Who may like it: Fans of tile placement and euro games.
12. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong
Jolly Thinkers
Designer: Tobey Ho
Owned: No
Why it is on the list: The major different in Deception to other hidden role games is the forensic scientist is giving hints of who the traitor is. However there are limitations on what hints they can give allowing the traitor to shift blame towards others. I prefer this over games like Avalon because there is much clearer evidence to figure out the traitor.
Who may like it: Fans of hidden role games and limited communication.
Avalon Hill Games, Inc.
Designer: Chris Dupuis
Owned: Yes
Why it is on the list: Betrayal is one of the first two games on this list I played. The Betrayal mechanic gives the game so much replayability. The Baldur’s Gate version of the game is both more refined and flavored more to my interests.
Who may like it: Fans of D&D(or horror movies for the original) and games that play different every time.
10. Vagrantsong
Wyrd Miniatures
Designer: Matt Carter, Justin Gibbs, Kyle Rowan
Owned: No
Why it is on the list: Out of everything on this list Vagrantsong is the one I desperately need to play more of. It is a co-op campaign game where you move through a train fighting off ghosts. The artwork and style for the game is phenomenal and drew me into the game immediately.
Who may like it: Fans of team based games and amazing artwork.
9. Viticulture
Stonemaier Games
Designer: Jamey Stegmaier, Alan Stone
Owned: No
Why it is on the list: Of the worker placement games I’ve tried Viticulture has been the most impressive. The game covers every aspect of winemaking from planting to fulfilling specific orders. There are many different locations to place workers separated into seasons, so planning ahead each turn is important. There are also several decks of cards that each do different things which I like for replayability. There is even a fun and unique mechanic for determining turn order each round.
Who may like it: Fans of worker placement games and wineries.
ASYNCRON games
Designer: Serge Laget
Owned: Yes
Why it is on the list: In Mare Nostrum each player controls an ancient empire competing to rule the Mediterranean. At first glance it appears very combat focused, but its mostly about building up your economy. While attacking allows for stealing resources or slowing down other players victory is mostly achieved by building the best economy.
Who may like it: Fans of ancient history and asymmetric factions.
7. Marvel Villainous: Infinite Power
Ravensburger
Designer: Prospero Hall
Owned: Yes
Why it is on the list: Villainous is an asymmetrical game where you attempt to complete a villain’s evil plan before the other players. Each villain plays very differently which is great for replayability. While there is an argument that the Disney version has better mechanics(it certainly has more expansions) I’m enough of a die hard Marvel fan to prefer that version of the game.
Who may like it: Fans of Marvel and asymmetric win conditions.
6. Ultimate Werewolf: Deluxe Edition
Bézier Games
Designer: Ted Alspach
Owned: No
Why it is on the list: Another classic that I couldn’t resist leaving off my list. There’s a reason this game is played so often at League of Geeks events. Both trying to figure out who is a werewolf and staying hidden as a werewolf is exhilarating. While dying early is disappointing there is still plenty of entertainment in watching how the rest of the game plays out.
Who may like it: Fans of hidden role and social deception games.
5. Nemesis
Awaken Realms
Designer: Adam Kwapiński
Owned: No
Why it is on the list: In Nemesis the players are trying to repair their spaceship while hiding from the aliens hiding aboard. Most of the rooms are randomized allowing for some exploration like Betrayal. The traitor objective also has a nice twist, part way through the game each players selects one of two personal objectives to complete which may or may not interfere with the other players. This allows players to somewhat pick for themselves to be a team player or a traitor. There is also a setting to play purely co-op as well.
Who may like it: Fans of Alien and hidden role games.
Fantasy Flight Games
Designer: Bill Eberle, Jack Kittredge, Bill Norton, Peter Olotka, Kevin Wilson
Owned: Yes
Why it is on the list: Cosmic Encounter is a wild game with tons of variability even without the expansions. The uniqueness of each alien race ensures no two games ever feel the same. The politics of convincing other players to help you and even being able to win together adds a lot too.
Who may like it: Fans of silly game breaking abilities and in-game politics.
Fabled Nexus
Designer: R. Eric Reuss
Owned: No
Why it is on the list: In Spirit Island the players are spirits protecting an island and its natives from colonial invaders. There are plenty of different spirits to pick from and play very differently. There are a lot of moving parts in the game that make you feel like you’ll be overrun immediately but as you grow stronger it feels great to wipe the island free of invaders.
Who may like it: Fans of difficult team games.
2. Cryptid
Osprey Games
Designer: Hal Duncan, Ruth Veevers
Owned: Yes
Why it is on the list: Playing Cryptid feels a lot like trying to solve to solve a logic puzzle. Each player has one hint that when combined allows you to win the game. The trick is figuring them all out without revealing your own.
Who may like it: Fans of Clue and other deduction based puzzles.
1. Sentinels of the Multiverse
Greater Than Games, LLC
Designer: Christopher Badell, Paul Bender, Adam Rebottaro
Owned: Yes
Why it is on the list: This list has a lot of co-op games on it but my favorite is Sentinels of the Multiverse. With all the expansions there is an impressive number of heroes to play as that all feel unique and plenty of villains to overcome. There is also a surprising amount of lore that I’ve spent a fair amount of time reading about as well that deepened my appreciation of the game and characters.
Who may like it: Fans of superheroes and team based games.
What Type of Gamer Am I?
Game of the Week Blog Reflection (For Class on 4/21/2022): T.I.M.E Stories Part 2
During our last meeting, my group from the prior week got together to finish our game of T.I.M.E. Stories. T.I.M.E. Stories is a cooperative card-based game that requires the players to travel throughout time to uncover and prevent faults in time itself. Your team works together by possessing the bodies of people present at the time and location in question and using their abilities to investigate the area and find the source of the fault. To do this, your team will have to spend Temporal Units, a resource that determines how long your team can remain in that time. Once it runs out, you will be forced to start over, only keeping certain cards and the knowledge you gained during your first “loop”. For this session, our team started on our second of these loops, and used the knowledge we gained from our previous loop to try and locate the source of the fault.
Over the course of this second session, I would say that the most difficult thing that we ran into would be the final puzzle we had to solve before we could enter the last area of the game. Without spoiling the puzzle itself, the main difficulty of this puzzle came from the multiple layers that were involved in it. Our group had to gain knowledge from several, seemingly unrelated clues spread throughout the entirety of the scenario, before finally reaching a specific location. Once at that location, our group had to use all of these clues to finally piece together the solution to the puzzle so that we could advance and complete the story. While this puzzle was certainly difficult, it was very satisfying to piece it all together, and was only possible because our group was working together and combining our knowledge of everything we had seen up until that point.
However, what could this particular puzzle teach us about leadership? For one thing, our group was only able to finally reach the solution to the puzzle by combining all of our viewpoints and our ideas of what the various pieces of the puzzle could be referring to. Not one of us knew the entire solution, even with all of the clues, and we needed to combine our knowledge and logic to reach the solution. Similarly, a leader could not possibly succeed on their own, they need to work together with their team in order to reach their goal. Every member’s viewpoint and skills are just as important to the team as any others, a fact that a good leader must always remember if they want to lead their team to success.
Overall, I definitely enjoyed my time with T.I.M.E. Stories. I was a bit uncertain of just how much I would enjoy it after running into issues with the rules during the prior week, but now that our team was more certain of what we were doing, it was a lot of fun! Piecing together that last puzzle was certainly the greatest highlight of our time with the game, and the journey to finally reach that solution featured a lot of interesting scenarios and discoveries that kept us glued to the game. I would definitely be interested in trying out the second story in the T.I.M.E. Stories series just to see if it has any puzzles similar to this one, along with whatever scenarios it might involve.
Game of the Week Blog Reflection (For Class on 4/14/2022): T.I.M.E Stories
In our most recent meeting, our class met to start playing T.I.M.E. Stories, a cooperative, card-based game that sees a team of player’s traveling to a specific point in time to uncover and prevent a fault in time itself. You and your teammates will be placed into the bodies of people present at that time and location, each of which will have their own specialties and limitations that affect how the team performs. Bear in mind though that every action you take to investigate the area, interacting with cards, traveling to new locations, completing tests and participating in combat, will require you to spend Temporal Units, a shared resource that determines how long you can remain in this time. The base cards at the start of the game will inform you just how many cards Temporal Units your team begins with, and reaching zero Temporal Units will force you to flip over a failure card before resetting the game and starting over. However not all items will be reset if this happens, and your own knowledge of the events can be kept.
However, the most difficult part of playing this game for our team was not any of these mechanics specifically, but rather the rules of the game itself. T.I.M.E. Stories is a very complex board game, with a lot of various moving parts that make it quite intimidating for first-time players such as ourselves, and the rule itself does not do a good job of explaining things. There were multiple times while we were playing where we were uncertain of how something functioned, or of how a particular mechanic worked. The rule was unfortunately not very helpful on this mark, it feels poorly organized, and some things that you would expect to be explained in the rulebook are actually only explained on cards, meaning that you won’t actually be able to fully understand how the game plays until you start playing it yourself.
With this in mind though, what does T.I.M.E. Stories have to do with leadership? Personally, I believe that one of T.I.M.E Stories best contributions to leadership is its emphasis on teamwork. Given that Temporal Units are in such short supply, the players are heavily encouraged to strategize before deciding anything, determining which team members should interact with which cards. Sharing information is also critical if the players hope to advance through the game, as clues acquired at one location are possibly required to complete tasks later on. Similarly, if a leader hopes to accomplish any of their team’s goals, they need to ensure that their team members are working together and cooperating effectively. If a team does not work well together, progress on whatever project or goal they may be working towards will slow to halt, so a leader must ensure that their team members compliment each other.
Overall, I do think I had fun with T.I.M.E. Stories, though the issues that we ran into with the rules certainly did make it more stressful than I expected it to be at times. Now that our team has a better understanding of the rules and how they fit together, I would like to see if we could make more progress next week, as we saved our game at the end of our first “run”. I would also be interested in trying out some of the other Stories that have been created for the game, as one group in particular was actually playing the second Story, and it appeared to function very differently from the Story that our group was playing.
Game of the Week Blog Reflection (For Class on 4/7/2022): Ladies and Gentlemen
During this past Thursday, our class got together to play Ladies and Gentlemen, a cooperative board game where players are split into teams of two, a Lady and a Gentleman, who each have very different roles in the game. The Ladies are playing a card drafting game as they attempt to set up boutiques and create the best outfit for the upcoming ball. Meanwhile, the Gentlemen are playing a dexterity game as they race each other to try and acquire stocks in goods to sell or fulfill contracts. Once both the Ladies and Gentlemen have completed their tasks, the Ladies then pass over the garments and accessories that they picked out to buy during the day for the Gentle to either pay for, pay a much smaller amount to put them on hold until they can acquire more money, or discard them.
I personally played as a Gentleman during our session, though I could tell just from observing the other side of the table that the Ladies had a much more complex side of the game. During the entire time they were drafting their boutiques, shopping for their outfits and choosing which ones they wanted to ask their Gentleman to pay for, they had to consider how many elegance points these pieces had, whether they had a piece of that kind already, and whether they had too many designers or not. With all of those things that have to be considered at any given time, I would certainly say that drafting and choosing what cards to place in their boutique is the hardest part of this game, both due to the sheer amount of things that have to be considered for it to be accomplished successfully, and for the fact that all of that effort may end up being wasted if their Gentleman just simply wasn’t able to make enough money to pay for it. This difficulty in planning and drafting is only exasperated by the blind nature of the game, as Gentlemen are not allowed to share just how much money they have with their Lady, and Ladies are not allowed to share what clothes they are planning on trying to buy with their Gentleman until they are ready to pass them over.
However, while this planning may be the most difficult aspect of the game, it may also be an excellent window into what Ladies and Gentlemen can teach us about leadership. For one thing, Ladies and Gentlemen requires the Lady players to be able to plan out their turns without knowing exactly what resources they will have available to them, and to possibly make contingency plans by grabbing extra articles of clothing and accessories. Similarly, unexpected issues or shortages of resources may occur when working on a project, and a good leader will need to be able to plan for these possibilities. This could include contingency plans to work around those issues and shortages, or gathering more resources ahead of time to work around any shortages that may come up. Either way, a leader and their team creating plans like these ahead of time will help mitigate any issues that come up during whatever project they may be dealing with.
Overall, I very much enjoyed playing Ladies and Gentlemen as a Gentleman. The game can be quite tense if you struggle to find resources you need for contracts or if another Gentleman manages to fulfill a contract first and take your bonus. From everything I saw, the Ladies half of the game may be even more tense, and if given the opportunity I would be very interested in playing Ladies and Gentlemen again just so I can see what that half of the game feels like to play in comparison to the Gentleman’s half. However, even if I wasn’t able to attempt the game’s other set of rules, I would still most certainly be willing to play the game again to experience the chaos of a fake stock market.
Game of the Week Blog Reflection 8: Specter Ops
For the free play week I ended up playing Specter Ops. The asymmetrical and hidden traitor aspects of the game were familiar enough, but the hidden movement feature was new to me and was very interesting. The agent tracked their movement on a piece of paper while the agents, including myself, moved around the board trying to track him down. Unfortunately we ran out of time to finish the game but based on the game so far the agent was likely to win the game. While I am very interested in playing the game again I wonder if the agent only had such an easy time because we were all new to the game. With all experienced players I am unsure how the agent would stand a chance.
The main challenge of Specter Ops is figuring out where the agent is as a team. You only have so many actions to locate the agent before they move and you have to start over again. Each character has their method of tracking the agent that when combined can be very effective. Or at least they would be if there wasn’t also a hidden traitor. I was initially the most suspicious player of being the traitor due to the agent using an item to sneak past me when I would have otherwise caught him. It wasn’t until just before we had to end that I regained the trust of my teammates.
The unique character abilities in Spector Ops highlights how people on leadership teams fulfill different roles. Everyone has their own set of skills best suited for different tasks. Tracking down the agent requires careful planning of where to look and when to use which abilities to use. The agent also has a special leadership role in how they interact with the traitor. Any open communication between the two would blow their cover. There is also a balancing act of not always lying about the traitor’s info to protect them. Poor leadership as the agent greatly increases the difficulty of the mission.