Category Archives: Games

Ladies and Gentlemen

Ladies and Gentlemen was an interesting take on representing identity in games, it allowed the players to step into the role of Victorian caricatures and through two different, but related gameplay loops attempt to outperform the other teams to be the richest guy and the prettiest girl at the ball. Overall, the loop of the ladies side of the game, the side that I was able to play, was fun and if not taken seriously this game has a lighthearted tone with very strong parody elements to its aesthetic and how it treats itself.

The hardest part of the game is trying to not only strategize with your partner,but also to take yourself seriously with such a silly premise and tone. With the limited communication between teammates until the purchasing stage of the game, the “lady” must not only think about what will score the most points but also what is affordable, while the “gentleman” needs to get as much “money” as possible to take advantage of the “lady’s” choices for the sake of scoring more points.

I think this game can work for any group of people that are comfortable with each other, I think part of the fun is playing into the silliness and that definitely works best when people are comfortable with one another. This game ties into leadership because of how it addresses and circumvents the idea of identity by making a mockery of the Victorian stereotypes it uses as its aesthetic.

Dungeons and Dragons

In class, we played Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition for three weeks, it was an interesting experiment in roleplaying and an interesting way to demonstrate leadership. Having played Dungeons and Dragons before, both Fifth Edition as well as spending about 5 or so years toiling away with the Revised Third Edition, I would consider myself fairly experienced with D&D, I always think the hardest part about D&D is the role-playing, especially when the game is played over the internet, whether it be a voice call or a text chat. It is difficult for many players to step back from themselves and into the role of a character that has (likely) never existed before. The mechanics of the game can be taught and learned by anyone, roleplaying on the other hand is more difficult and depends on the person, it will come more naturally to some than it will to others, but it can be learned with practice and time. All of that said, D&D is a fun game, I enjoyed the three short sessions I played in class.

I think D&D is a game for everyone, every player will get something different out of the experience, and with 5th Edition especially, it is a nice introduction to Tabletop RPGs. I think the main drawback to attempting to play D&D in a classroom setting is that the sessions felt a bit rushed, each time a question arose of what to do and where to take the party of characters next, there was a solid minute of staggering silence. While this would not normally be an issue in D&D, the shortened time frame to accomplish the goals of the session made the lack of decisive action a bit frustrating. I had resigned myself to a background role, as I wanted to make sure that other players had a chance to take the spotlight more often, given that I consider myself experienced and I would hope that everyone who was playing for the first time would have a good first experience.

On the other hand, I understand that roleplaying with a group of people you don’t really know can be intimidating and that there is a bit of shyness to the first couple of sessions. I had never attempted the “Lost Mine of Phandelver” module, so I was going in blind, but the game was run well enough by our guest DM and I had fun with my Blue Dragonborn Tempest Cleric, and I figure that’s all that really matters.

Honey Heist RPG

Honey Heist is a rpgwhere the players are bears that are trying to pull off a heist to get honey. The complication is that the two stats each character has means that they are only a few rolls away from betraying and abandoning the crew and becoming a criminal full time or going full bear and possibly eating the crew. 

I was very happy with my bear since they were able to balance the ridiculousness of both pure criminality and pure animality. Stealing some lovely honey, but eating it out of a hat. Each of our characters were unique and contributed hilariously to our cause, stealing a honey fountain. Our luck in rolling die meant that none of us went full bear or full criminal.

Working together to infiltrate the gala led to some wonderful displays of leadership, such as an impromptu cover of Wonderwall, a dance with a security guard, car theft, and a beary large brawl. All of this somewhat coordinated since the rpg was focused on being a crew that planned out a heist so we really had to talk it out and work together to reach the clear goal of honey. Reacting to the various conflicts and traps that we came across meant we had to adapt quickly together and still make sure that we did not expose our sticky paws. We were extremely chaotic and utilized it by aiming it at our shared goal, honey.

Dungeons and Dragons

Once again, a key part of my experience is how it was impacted by being virtual. It made it hard to work together and see how the others felt about each group decision. It was extremely amusing to see my fragile warlock get down to 2 and 0 hp in the first two sessions, with a long rest in between. I knew my warlock would be soft when I made him, but since it was my first time playing a character that is primarily a magic user I wasn’t expecting that level of squishiness.

We spent time enjoying my near state of death and trying to get closer to the solution to solving the issue of where all these goblins came from. No one was quite willing to be the one to speak out and offer a course of action. Likely due to not being able to see the reactions of the other players and their reactions to different options. At least, that was why I kept fairly quiet. It wasn’t fair to our DM and definitely increased the uncomfortableness, but it was hard to get over it when trying to not speak over anyone. 

Overcoming these obstacles happened more easily and more often towards the end of the three sessions. While we still struggled to communicate, the plot motivated us to work better together and get involved and invested. Leadership was shown when everyone trusted our DM and each other and put in the effort to try and work with each other to have fun and follow the goblins.

Ladies And Gentlemen

Though we got off to a delayed and scrambled start, by the time we got to the second day phase we were all trying our best to figure out how to play and have some fun with the voices. We had fun trying to address each other in outrageous posh voices and attempt to understand our partners.

I started playing as just the gentleman, but then partway through, after it would have taken too much time to start over with the odd person playing the courtesan, a player playing a lady seemed to lose all connection and after several attempts to bet in touch with them I played the part of their lady as well until they could either return or time was up. I was pleased that everyone was so willing to work around misunderstanding parts of the game at first and relax together to have fun.

Leadership in this game was a little less obvious to me than in previous games. To me it came through in having to be able to trust your partner to pick up on your cues and pick the best choices. It was a balancing act of preparing and trying to make the most of your side and trusting that your partner will do the same.

Free Play 2

This weeks game play was a free play and my group of 4 chose to play Among Us. I actually downloaded the game as an app on my phone and found it pretty easy to use in this format. Our game play went extremely well and I think we all enjoyed ourselves. We played multiple rounds with different numbers of players each round. We had a chance to type in the chat with strangers and it kept us entertained.

The hardest part about this game was keeping it a secret when given the role of the imposter. Since we all were on the zoom call and chatted throughout the game, often I found myself almost giving away my role or having a hard time speaking when I was the imposter. I really liked that this game was easy to play and easy to learn. I did not know the rules of the game coming in to today and I learned within 5 minutes.

This game ties to leadership because you are part of a team. Whether an imposter or a crewmate you are responsible for making your team win and that requires leading your teammates to success. However, focusing on the enjoyment factor of the game, it was easy to learn and easy to play and allowed for us to chat with each other. If I were to play this game again I would invite my boyfriend to play. I think we both would have a laugh trying to keep it a secret of who is what and messaging others in the chat. Overall it was an enjoyable week!

Ladies and Gentlemen – Reflection 6

This week we played Ladies and Gentlemen. Honestly, it did not go as smoothly as I would have pictured. Tabletop Simulator made it difficult with all the moving pieces and we had a member drop out in the beginning, who was my partner. I decided to take the role of a gentlemen, simply because I am a business major and enjoy the stock market, so thought this role would suit me better than the lady role.

I think the hardest part of this game was moving all the pieces simultaneously. I think this part of the game would have been easier in person, but is very difficult over the web. I also think it would have been more enjoyable in person, reaching over each other to grab the resources, creating an exciting environment. What I liked most about this game the simplicity of the male character and how easy it was to learn his part. I believe the lady role was a tad bit more difficult, but I would like to try that role if I had the chance to play again. I think this game ties to leadership because you are taking on a character who is responsible for another person. Essentially you are leading a team of 2 to help each other succeed by being successful at the ball.

If I were to play this game again I would want my mom to play with me. She is a multitasker and enjoys a busy environment, so I think she would enjoy the environment this game creates. She also won’t take the time to learn an overly complex game and I believe I could teach her this game in a reasonable amount of time.

Week 3 – D&D

This weeks game play went well. We were missing one of our players, but things ran smoothly still. It was interesting because we have the chance to explore a town, which we hadn’t gotten to do the last 2 times. It made me realize the amount of freedom one has in the game and how they can really choose to explore anything they desire. Griff did a great job of helping guide us in decision making when we were stuck or confused.

The hardest part about this week’s game was the amount of decisions we had to make. While I enjoyed the freedom of exploring the town, I also felt it was challenging to decide what to actually do once there because I have never played this game before. I thought this hard decision making tied to leadership because leaders are often forced to make decisions for the group and they aren’t always easy. A leader may be making a decision in which they do not know all the effects or consequences of this decision, but consider all their options and choose which they believe will lead to the best choice.

If I were to play this game again I think it would be interesting to play with my brother and his best friends. They are a great group of guys who enjoy making jokes constantly. Because of this I think they would make the game enjoyable and constantly have me laughing. They have never played before and I think it would be nice to play with other inexperienced players as it is less intimidating. Overall, I had a positive experience playing D&D for the first time.

D&D Week 2

This week we played D&D again, continuing our game from last week. I thought this weeks game play went even smoother than last week. We defeated Cleric together as a team, which made us all work together. I had a better time this week as I began to understand a lot more of the rules and had a chance to start using spells. I liked using different spells as it kept me engaged in the game. The only thing I really don’t like about the game is that there are so many different rules it seems like it would be hard to really know all of them without looking different things up constantly.

The hardest part about the game is deciding what route to take. Being an indecisive person, having to make all these different choices is difficult for me. The open endedness of this game really allows for one to create their own story. I think this ties to leadership because a leader must make choices for a group. They are depended on to make a correct choice and lead the group to success.

I would enjoy playing this game with my sister. While she isn’t very into role playing games, she is very good at making choices. She has never been an indecisive person, so seeing her play this game would be interesting for me. I think she would enjoy being able to control the story line.

Incan Gold & Can’t Stop

In the fifth week of class, we played a pair of risk taking games, Can’t Stop and Incan Gold. Both games allowed for an interesting risk-reward system. From a mechanical stand-point, I would say both games incentivized risk taking much more than playing it safe, and while both approaches were certainly valid, there seemed to be a significant advantage to making riskier choices in gameplay.
The most difficult part of playing either game was knowing when to bail out and avoid further risk. In Can’t Stop, the instant gratification of traversing the game board is very tempting and the way the game was designed has made the feeling of defeat crushing regardless of how far in the game you are. With regards to Incan Gold, the power of the risk was even stronger, with the sort of “double elimination” or “two strikes” mechanic the game ran on. The desire to continue to compile points made the decision to go back just as much of a risk as moving forward, and I found that interesting.
In the game, and in my leadership, I find myself more likely to take risks. The importance of taking risks in my leadership style is exclusively for the sake of making the right choice as opposed to the easy choice. Overall, these are games I would actively recommend to any groups of people with contrasting personal philosophies or personalities.