Tag Archives: Leadership

GOTW Reflection #3: Fiasco Week 1

Week three, we began playing the gm-less roleplay game Fiasco. For this game, you have no game board. All you need to play the game Fiasco is the main rulebook, some note cards, some dice, and an imagination. You and your friends (or anyone you decide to play with) will start the game with four six-sided black dice and four six-sided white dice. These dice determine the outcomes of a scene that you create. The goal of the game is to create a story that usually involves some sort of crime or dastardly deeds. With little guidance, the players must establish who they are, what they want, and how each of them is associated with each other. The game is split into two main acts, the tilt events, and the aftermath. By the end of a game of Fiasco, individuals gather eight fateful dice that determine whether they are victorious or if they go out in a burst of flames. 

            Our class played the game Fiasco over the course of two weeks. The first week we played it, we were tasked with attempting to finish the first act. I played in a group of four. At first, it was a struggle to get started. Due to there being few rules for how to start, we needed a bit of guidance. After choosing our setting, The Ice, we began to create our characters. My character was Pierro. He started off as a pilot who had crashed on Ross Island after running out of gas. He was bitter enemies with another character, George. On the other hand, he was indebted to another character, Edwardo, for saving him from the crash. We only made it through four scenes, but they were all quite amusing. Pierro was convinced to help Edwardo and his partner in crime to go save a penguin who had floated off on an iceberg. They help him fix his helicopter, and plan to find the penguin once they can get some gas into it. Little did Pierro know, they only wanted to save the penguin in order to smuggle it off the island. By the end of the class session, we were starting to get the feel of how the game worked. 

            The hardest part of the game was definitely getting started. Getting used to the mechanics was not easy. I am far more used to games with a firmer structure, so this was new. Even so, once we had our characters made, we all seemed to flow easily between each other. I believe we did a pretty good job, and we all had a bit of fun with it. I think I definitely needed to watch myself though, as I did find myself trying to guide people so that the story would make sense cohesively. Considering the lack of rules, it made it hard to know exactly what might happen. That was both thrilling and scary in a way. I think it opened up for a lot of laughs for our group. So far, I definitely think I like this game. Though, I think it would be more enjoyable if I played it with people, I know a bit better. For that reason, I would recommend this game to my friends Roai and Korben. We have all played roleplay games together before and have great chemistry when it comes to those types of games. I will certainly have to try it out with them sometimes. Especially Korben, he would love the chaos this game could foster. 

            As I implied before, I like games with more structure. The lack of rules made me feel a bit more anxious. Even so it did not ruin the experience for me, as I really do love the roleplay aspect of it. I am really excited to see how the story progresses next week. 

            When it came to leadership, I could see it lightly in each scenario. One could choose to set up the scene or give that power to the other players. For those taking on the role of creating the scene, they were taking on a leadership role. They would choose who and what was going on in a scene, like a director would. However, I also saw leadership in other ways. My group would usually vote for how a scene would end. Usually, when one person proposes a certain outcome (decided by giving the directing player a black or white die) the other voting players would agree. For myself, I often found myself leading in small ways, by guiding towards a more cohesive timeline for the story. At times, I felt bad for doing so, as I did not want to limit the other players’ creativity. Though I know this simply comes from my desire to create a storyline that can be followed. I do believe that this personal value of mine had an effect on how the game progressed. I also think it had an effect on how I played my character as well. Overall, it was a good time, and I definitely would like to play it again.

GOTW Reflection #1: Ultimate Werewolf

During the first week, we played a game called Ultimate Werewolf. It is a social deduction-based game where every player is given a hidden role based on the card dealt to them at the beginning. In Ultimate Werewolf, you either play on the side of the werewolves or the side of the townspeople. Many roles have special abilities that can be used throughout the game to gain the upper hand for a player’s given team. The goal of the townspeople is to find and kill all the werewolves. On the other hand, the goal of the werewolves is to kill townspeople until there is an equal amount of townspeople and werewolves. The game moves in a day-and-night cycle, where werewolves as well as certain other roles kill townsfolk at night. It is also during the nighttime that townsfolk with special abilities get to choose how they would like to use those abilities. During the day, all players debate the execution of another player who may or may not be a werewolf. In a usual game of Ultimate Werewolf, there doesn’t necessarily need to be an execution every day. However, for how we played it in class, due to the time restriction this rule was in place.

            The session we played in class was one of the biggest games of Ultimate Werewolf I have ever played. There were three werewolves and a witch. The townspeople were, of course, the vast majority. The role I received for this game session was Cupid. On the first night, I woke up and chose two individuals (or rather victims), to be lovers. The Lovers know who they are, and their fate is tied together. If one of the lovers dies, so does the other as a result of heartbreak. After the first night, I basically became a normal townsperson, who has no special abilities attached. Rather unfortunately, one of the Lovers was chosen to be executed during the first day, resulting in two townsfolk deaths. Following that day, each night the werewolves would choose someone to kill. Each day, we decided who to execute based on a majority vote. Throughout the session, the townsfolk found one werewolf and the witch. Many people were silenced and many people chose to stay silent. In the end, the werewolves won.

            The hardest part of the game was determining who to execute. There wasn’t solid evidence for many of the executions that actually occurred. Until we got closer to the end, many executions were on a whim or simply because we had to choose someone. There were also some individuals who had never played Ultimate Werewolf before, likely taking more passive roles as a result. However, when it came to execution, it often only took one person taking the initiative to make a decision for an execution to occur. Considering we all didn’t really know much about each other, we similarly had very little to go off of to point to one individual over another. Which leads me to how risk was taken during the game.

            I saw risk taken in several ways. Firstly, in how we executed people in the game. Every time someone was executed, there was a risk that it was a townsperson. With that risk in mind, no one wanted to point fingers – both because it could make them look guilty, and because no one wants to vote out people they don’t know. For the werewolves, leading the charge would put them at risk of being suspicious to the townspeople, so often they left that risk to them as they had more reason to search for the werewolves. They helped just enough to keep the target off their back while staying quiet enough to not be in the spotlight. One thing that really defined this game in particular, was the domino-effect-like pattern seen in the voting. When more than one individual proposed a vote, it was rarely challenged, and often quickly accepted by the majority. The more people who agreed to a vote, the less risk there was in also choosing that decision. One moment I saw a huge risk taken was when the witch tried to vote out the apprentice seer. By doing so, the witch would complete the task they needed to win. However, they also ended up being executed the following day when the apprentice seer was forced to reveal their role after execution. Those who spoke up often could take the lead in the vote and execute someone within reason. I believe that the ones who started votes were leaders in this situation, starting the chain to lead to an execution. However, without a bit of reason to it, and without followers, the execution would not go through. That being said, it was those who were willing to make a splash that were able to form a ripple.

            I have played many games like Ultimate Werewolf before. This was the first time I played with so many people – especially those whom I didn’t know. For that reason, being on the townspeople’s side, I played pretty aggressively when it came to voicing my opinion on votes. I personally didn’t like taking risks, even if we were inevitably forced to execute every night. Though I understood that it was necessary, I knew that doing an execution everyday cycle without evidence would result in us losing far more townspeople than werewolves statistically. Unfortunately, having the role of Cupid only seemed to make this fact a lot worse for this game in particular. One risk I did take was speaking up as much as I did. From my experience, that can be a double-edged sword in games like Ultimate Werewolf. Speaking up is necessary when not a lot of people are talking. However, talking too much can make you a target for werewolves who want to shut your mouth. On the flip side, townsfolk who see you speaking up and pointing the finger a bunch might think that you are a werewolf attempting to act like a townsperson. This actually did happen near the end of the game. I couldn’t think of a good defense for myself and ended up executed. On reflection, I should have tried revealing my role to defend myself. Either way, it was still a fun game. 

When it came to this game, I took the risk of being outspoken but often played it a bit safer when it came to voting for people. I would say this is fairly on point for how I approach leadership. I don’t like being in the spotlight, but often find myself filling in the gaps when I notice it is necessary. This game didn’t have many active speakers, which resulted in me speaking out more than I normally would in a game like this. At the same time, I wasn’t too keen on voting for someone without any reason behind it and often opposed a vote if I didn’t feel it held enough ground. On that note, I do believe that my friend Arden would enjoy this game. They are a very social person, and I get the feeling they would find the hidden roles fascinating. I’ll definitely have to invite them to play a game of Ultimate Werewolf with me sometime.

Game of the Week Reflection: Fiasco Part 2

The second part of Fiasco changes the game completely, and for the better. The design of the game was created with the intent of creating scenarios for the participants to react to and add to their playthrough.  Last week we started our stories as a group and acted out scenes to incorporate into our unique rehearsal.  Instead of repeating that, this week was all about performing the “Tilt”.  The Tilt is when the players use their dice, just like in the beginning, to select new components for the story.  Following that is Act Two, which is the same steps and turns as Act One but you incorporate your twists and new components.  Once that was finished you move on to the last and final step which is the Aftermath.  This is where each player counts their dice to determine if the character they played had a good or bad ending one at a time. 

The hardest part this week was determining how these new twists and alterations would be added to our story.  It was confusing already on how to continue our production with the “script” we’ve followed so far.  Adding more elements that drastically change it made it difficult and not easily coordinated to keep the narrative on the right path without getting overly ridiculous. However, the play session overall went very smoothly.  Since I’m not the only one twisting the story, my group members had pretty creative ways of having fun with it.  That means that friends specifically would be the best people to play this with considering there isn’t usually any filter that allows for more diverse gameplay.  I liked having multiple people being able to alter our playthrough how they wanted because building off their thoughts and ideas is what makes this game enjoyable.  That being said, I wasn’t a huge fan of how the aftermath was designed.  I personally feel the dice count determining the outcome of your character was lazy and rushed.  Honestly, I don’t know how I would fix it nor do I have a better option I just didn’t like that mechanic and felt that they could have improved on it a little bit more. 

Again, overall the session went very well and I enjoyed being taken down the path of our group’s ending and conclusion.  The way this part of the game ties with leadership is about the same way as the first part.  That is, being the leader in controlling the flow of the story and producing ideas for your group members to build off of.  However, this week had a slight tilt, dealing with the tilt itself and how to mitigate your decisions based on what else you needed to incorporate could also be part of it.  Being a leader means expecting the unexpected and solving problems like that without letting the setbacks get in the way of the flow.  Fiasco strengthens this side of being a leader and assists in the overall connection between the game and the players.

Reflection: Campus Gaming Event

I attended the Geeks on Ice campus gaming event on Friday, September 16, 2022. My boyfriend tagged along with me and we were able to walk around and see different clubs within the League of Geeks. When we walked in, I waved hi to JS and we made our way toward the board games. We looked at some of the options for a little bit. This was nice because I saw both games I was familiar with and some I had never heard of before. My boyfriend and I arrived at the very beginning of the event so there were not many people there yet to start up a board game yet. We sat down at a table with Code Names and a game called Letter Jam which I had never heard of before.

Letter Jam was an interesting game. Unfortunately, we did not make it all the way through. I was drawn to this game by the design of the packaging. I thought the strawberry was clever because it was talking about jam. The game reminded me of Wordle through The New York Times. It took a long time to set up the game. The setup was more complicated than I anticipated. I felt like the instructions were slightly complex and confusing. Although, It is possible that my brain was just tired at the end of the week.

We did not end up playing Letter Jam. I found the setup got to be confusing. Then, my boyfriend and I walked to the floor above to check out other areas of the event. We walked through the lounge with the Super Smash Bros playing and other computer games as well. We made our way toward the virtual reality area where someone was all set up to play Beat Saber. Only one headset was charged enough to be used. So my boyfriend and I sat and waited for a bit observing the process. He thought it would be funny to watch me, but he never got a chance. We were waiting for a while and decided to go check out other areas of the event again.

We made our way back through the lounge where all the games were being played. This time I saw a group playing mario kart on the Nintendo Switch. I like Mario Kart but I have only played on switch maybe once. Every other time I have played Mario Kart it has been on the Wii. I think next time I may take my chance at virtual reality or Nintendo Switch Mario Kart, but that did not happen this time.

When leaving the lounge, a group of five people was just setting up the game Mysterium and I got excited. Only a few individuals in the group had played Mysterium before. The person who played the role of Ghost had the most experience with the game. It was interesting playing with a mix of experience levels with the game. It took some time to explain how to play but it also helped that the more experienced individuals were able to help the process. This reminded me of some of the leadership styles and aspects we touched on during class the other week. We talked about leading by example, thinking politically (which was thinking of all the options and outcomes) and a lot more. I saw different styles of playing games and leadership come out.

I was also intrigued by how the individual, who had played before with their family, had different intricacies with playing the game that came out as we went along. This made it interesting as I had to adjust my game play slightly from what I had experienced in class. We ended up making it through to the last stage with only one “hour” left on the clock. Then, we all displayed our individual collections of the person, room, and weapon. The clues given were mostly supporting one card out of the three. This was an interesting strategy that I do not think I particularly enjoyed. I think only one out of six of us actually matched what the ghost had chosen as the final culprit, location, and weapon of choice.

I liked seeing people’s reactions as we made it through the game. How people reacted at the actual outcome and final result was intriguing. The ghost also noted that they had used all of their crows before the final round and that two of them had been used to get better cards for one person in particular. This made me think about the dynamic of having a group of five friends playing with two people they had never met before. It was probably an interesting dynamic from their experience as well. I think this observation and the note about the crows influenced how I saw the end result of the game. I thought there may have been some choices that were made that would have been different if someone else was the ghost. This would most likely be because of differences in experience, personality, and leadership style. Playing in this setting and with this dynamic of individuals really made me want to try a go at being the ghost in the future.

We set up the game to play again and another individual joined. This was intriguing because they stated they had played before, even if it was a while ago. However, I found that they asked more questions than the players who had only played for the first time that day. This new individual also had a more assertive personality. This added a whole new layer to the game but also made it slightly more complicated. It is quite possible I viewed it as more complicated because I am a fan of cooperation and sharing different ideas. While this assertive personality may have been helpful in some decisions that needed to be made. It was also frustrating because we had to explain the rules and re-explain them after this individual was trying to help make decisions as to people or places that would be selected. This made the second game start out with a very interesting point of view.

We did not end up finishing the second game of Mysterium. The group we were playing with wanted to go ice skating so we cleaned up. My boyfriend and I walked through the areas once again and passed by several groups down on the second floor playing board games. Seeing a variety of groups playing different games was wonderful. I had not expected a lot of people to be at the event. But I felt like the turn out was pretty impressive for what I was expecting. My boyfriend and I did not stay too long after that because it was getting late and I had another event I had to help facilitate within my Residence Hall. We did pass JS on the way out again. They were bringing in SDS Pizza when we crossed paths again. This would have been wonderful, but I also appreciated the ability to recognize that we were done for the night and would not have had a good time if we tried to stay much longer.

The biggest highlight of the event was the community. It was a very cordial group that was both inviting and welcoming. I feel like more students should branch out and go to League of Geeks events as well. There were a lot of options to participate and get involved while at the event. Therefore, it was easy to get involved and find something at lest somewhat interesting. I would definitely recommend this event to other students. It felt like a wonderful way to build community and create great memories with friends. I felt like the community was kind, respectful, and welcoming on all accounts and interactions that I had.

One thing I would have done differently if I went again, I would have brought along more friends to play games with. I think this would have made my personal experience better. I felt like my boyfriend and I were just wondering around for a little while because we did not want to start a game with just two people. I think I also would have worn socks. It was a warm day out and I wore sandals so I was not able to go ice skating once that had opened up. I appreciated ice skating being an opportunity and only wish I had planned ahead more. Maybe I was not anticipating being at the event for such a long time, but I am truly glad I did stay.

If I helped plan the event, I think I would have done the event on a different day than the Art After Dark Miami Activities and Programming (MAP) event. This would be helpful because there was so much advertising for the MAP event that I did not know about the Geeks on Ice event except from word of mouth during out classtime.

Overall, this event was really fun! I will recommend this event to others in the future. I also hope to go to other League of Geeks events in the future, or atleast the Meeples board game nights. I hope other students take the opportunity to experience events like this as they are good experiences and opportunities to see the amazing community that exists on Miami’s Campus.

The images included are the box of Letter Jam because I thought the design was cool. I also included an image of Mysterium mid-game. I would like to note that I am not good at remembering to take selfies and/or other pictures at events, yet I remembered to take these at least.

Ultimate Reflection: Werewolf

The game we played in class was called Werewolf. The premise is very similar to Mafia and Town of Salem. There are three werewolves, including a cub, a peer, a bodyguard, and many others. The point of the game is to take out the werewolves unless you are the werewolf then your goal is to survive to the end. The hardest part about this game was deciding how to vote someone out. In the game we played, sometimes those who accused someone were voted out, and other times those who were accused were voted out. Either it was stay quiet and go with the crowd or speak up and risk getting voted.

The leadership was shown through the person who was the bodyguard. He chose to tell us his role and since no one spoke up against him, we all believed him for the most part. Since he was someone the good side could trust, most of the time everyone listened to him. I was one of the werewolves so I just went with whoever they said so they would not suspect me. I thought the werewolves had a good game going until the P.I revealed a werewolf was sitting next to the girl who happened to be next to me. Ironically enough a werewolf was on both sides of her.

Somehow the person who was the witch suspected me as a werewolf and the night we chose to kill him, he used his once a game ability to kill me. After that the werewolves went downhill. One of the two werewolves remaining told everyone to vote him and he got out and the other one forgot the lying game he was playing and switched up what role he was when he was questioned. Personally there wasn’t anything I disliked about the game because it was very well played and went on for quite a while. Some of my friends back home would love this game because we used to play Town of Salem.

Movie Review: Accepted

The movie Accepted exemplifies many leadership qualities from various characters. The movie is about a high school student who did not focus on his grades and was doing poorly in school. When I came to apply to colleges and universities, he was denied admission to every single school. He was scared to admit to his family and other classmates of his reality, so he chose to create a made up institution called the South Harmon Institute of Technology. He and his friend found an abandoned property near his hometown and began to fix up and start the illusion of this school. The main character, Bartleby Gaines, and his friend show leadership in their journey to make the school. 

Bartleby shows leadership through the entire movie. His first act of being a leader was in the creation of the school. Not only did he come up with the plan to make the fake school, but he also located a place to pretend where it is. His parents were very adamant about dropping their son off to his first day, forcing him to make a plan of where the school should be and making it all believable. With the help of his friends and other students who didn’t get into college, he made everyone come together and create everything from banners, dorm rooms, classroom, the dean’s office, etc to make everything believable. The next thing he did that showed leadership was finding and recruiting more people to join their school. From this he created real classes and organized groups that promoted learning. There are every type of non “normal” students at the South Harmon Institute of Technology. This includes a boy with ADD, an empty headed youngster, a punk music group, skateboarders, etc. All of these students were rejected because they do not conform or learn well in the normal classroom setting. Bartleby understood this and made interactive and hands-on classes which the students got to choose. They learned from each other which would never have happened without the leadership of Bartleby. 

The next character that shows leadership in the movie would be Monica Moreland. She was a lead character in the movie and the love interest of Bartleby. She initially attended a atual school near the fake university but was very inclined to transfer. It was really until the ending of the movie that she showed real leadership when they were in the court pleading to make the school real. She chose to speak up from an outside perspective to try and save the school. She advocated for the unique learning styles and claimed that she loved being there. This was leadership because she did not need to set up. She had a perfect life at her actual school, with a good looking boyfriend, popularity, and doing well in school. She knew that she wanted change and to go to the ​​South Harmon Institute of Technology. 

The last character that showed leadership was Sherman Schrader. He went to a real university and was pledging with a fraternity at the beginning of the movie. He was very smart and helped Bartleby with many of the logistics of making the school seem real. This included making the website and finding the fake dean. Back at his university, he was seeming to be an outcast and a joke to many of the popular students. He showed real leadership when he chose to help with friends and the school when push came to shove. He chose supporting his true friends over being in with the popular fraternity boys. 

When it comes to the education system of the ​​South Harmon Institute of Technology, they used a hands-on approach to learning. The students were able to choose their own curriculum and learned things such as meditations and culinary arts. They did not learn things such as intro to business or calculus, making the learning only specific to their interests. I believe that this is a great idea in some respects. While I think it is important to have the more “boring” classes, making the classes more hands-on and unique to those students who are looking to have typically offered majors, I find it to be very smart. Our current education system has us taking many classes that may not apply. An example of this would be the requirement to take classical history class when you major in marketing. I believe that if we were to mix the many ideas from our current and from the movie’s strategies on learning, we would be able to make students more interested in doing well and really learning. 

Overall, I found the movie Accepted to be a funny take on a reality many people experience. It highlights that we are all creative and that traditional education can push us into a box. There were so many examples of leadership throughout the entire movie. Bartleby led the whole idea and the student class into fighting to make it real. He inspired so many kids into supporting his cause and listened to them about their ideas for how it should be run. Monica and Sherman also showed leadership when they made efforts to help keep the school running and getting people to come together additionally. The schools were by far dysfunctional but the system would be very effective for those who don’t learn well under normal curriculum.

leadership’s Like a Game Reflection

Leadership is like a game in so many ways. There are many similarities between playing a game and your role in it compared to being a leader. In a game like werewolf, everything seems to be very collaborative. With time there are certain people that beg to speak up the most or start the ball rolling by accusing others of benign the wolf. Leadership is really just voicing your options to get the conversation started. It acts as a domino effect in a group and people will be more likely to follow someone who has a strong option and voices it regularly. In our class we were shown a video of a man that started to dance. He was dancing by himself until the next person decided to join him. By this man joining him, he started a domino effect of people joining until almost everyone was dancing with them. Both men, the one who danced first and the first man to join him, showed leadership. This applies to games as it takes the first person to say something and create the conversation and the next person to either agree or disagree with them to get others to actively participate. This can also be seen in other multiplayer games like mental blocks. In my group’s experience, I was the leader of the group. I found that I would create my perspective of the blocks first and then had everyone else edit mine until we came to a final product. I showed leadership in this instance by making the first move and creating a plan for the rest of the group. Leadership does always need to seem like one person is only running the show, but instead that they were able to excite or include everyone else to want to complete a particular task. Leadership is like a game because one person is leading or starting it. In a game that includes groups, someone makes the first move and starts to form the strategy of how to overcome and complete the task of the game. Leadership is the same in things such as business, as someone will come up with an idea and start the conversation or strategy. They are the same because they work hand in hand.

What is the best type of game for my leadership style

Quiz Link: https://www.buzzfeed.com/ostenbb/what-is-the-best-type-of-game-for-my-leadership-st-8azz2m6lnu

When I was creating my quiz, I spent a lot of time researching different leadership styles and how they affect the things you enjoy, such as playing a game. When a person has an autocratic leadership style, they tend to want control over everything. Generally, an autocratic leader believes that they are the smartest person in the group and that they know more than their teammates. They would prefer to make all of the decisions with little to no input from others. A person with an authoritarian leadership style tends to be more confident. They prefer to set expectations and engage their team members. These leaders take time to explain what they are thinking and are open for suggestions to achieve their common goal. A person with a democratic leadership style is more likely to be more collaborative with their team members. They will seek their teammates’ opinions before making decisions and will do things to promote creativity to achieve their goals. The last leadership style is the Laissez-Faire leadership style. They are at the positive end of the spectrum compared to the previous three styles. They appear to trust their teammates and act more as an observer. A person with this type of leadership style will prefer to not overlook every detail and let the teammates collaborate freely. All of these leadership styles are different in their own ways which is why there are particular games that will cater to them.

After completing my quiz I had 10 participants take it and report their results and comments on the accuracy of their results. From my findings, my quiz had a 100% accuracy rate when calculating what type of leadership style they identified with. With my ten participants there reported to be two autocratics, two authoritatively, four democratic, and two Laissez-Faires leadership styles. 

The participants, Jessie and Olivia, reported that they received the autocratic leadership style. Both participants agreed with their results. Jessie believed that her results were accurate because she claimed to be a control freak in regards to group projects and working as a team. She tends to actively try to be a leader and take control at the beginning of teamwork to ensure that their goal is achieved as quickly and efficiently as possible. Olivia also believes that her results were accurate as she believes that she likes to be in charge of organizing everything. I shared my other possible results with Olivia and she thought she would be right in between an autocratic and authoritative leadership style but was not surprised to learn that she was more autocratic. She tends to want to be on top of all of work and feels that taking control allows her to make an outline for due dates and other important aspects of teamwork. I had the opportunity to explain the game I recommended in their results. The game Charterstone allows them to completely customize their town and then discover and unlock parts of your town to complete the village. They both agreed that they would enjoy this game because of the ability of controlling how it looks and the actions you are allowed to take in it. 

My next participants, Taylor and Kate M, reported that they received the authoritative leadership style. Both participants agreed that their results were accurate. Taylor believed that her results were accurate as she is mostly likely to take control early on to be able to facilitate group activities, but claims she isn’t very vocal about it at times. She loves to hear others’ ideas but finds that she would prefer for them to be run by her prior to any decision making. Kate M believed that her results were accurate as she enjoys telling her teammates what to do. On the other hand she does not like conflict at all, which is why she believed that her results made sense. She has a tendency to be in between a control freak and being very laid back when she feels like her teammates are efficiently doing their part. I also had the opportunity to explain the game results for the authoritative leadership style. The game with this leadership style is Forbidden island, a game where you have to work with a team to look for lost treasure while trying to survive. Taylor thought she would really enjoy this game as it will allow her to strategize moves for her whole team while Kate M thought she would enjoy it due to being able to control and voice her ideas for everyone’s move. 

My following participants include Mikayle, Erin, Kate H, and Katherine who reported to have received the Democratic leadership style. All of these participants have reported that their results were accurate. Mikayle believed that her results were accurate as she claimed to enjoy havingin and voice in the decision making but does not care for taking all of the control in the team dynamic. Erin believed her results were accurate because she likes to be the person who splits up the tasks for their goal between her teammates but does not enjoy leading everyone the entire time. Kate H believed her results were accurate as she really only cared that the work is benign split up evenly between all the team members. Katherine believed her results were accurate because she does not enjoy any type of conflict and tends to be shy when she has to take control in a group setting but she loves the idea of splitting up all of the work or tasks equally. After explaining their results and going further into what the game of their results was, they all agreed that it sounds interesting and would be willing to play it. The game that I recommended with a democratic leadership style was Mental Blocks. In this game they work as a team to try and complete a puzzle while haign restrictions of what you can do or see. This game is reliant on the entire group’s effort, making it the perfect game for their leadership style. 

My last participants, Teresa and Skyler, reported to have received the Laissez-Faire leadership style. They both strongly believe that their results were accurate. Teresa believed that her results were accurate because she tends to not care much about taking control in a group setting. She is more confident in her work when she is assigned a part of the task and does not admit about taking more work than needed. Skyuler believed her results were accurate; she has become more lazy when it comes to group work. She explained that she would have seen herself having a democratic leadership style in the past, but at this point in her life, she really only liked to do her assigned tasks. With the Laissez-Faire leadership style, the game that I have recommended was Pandemic. In Pandemic you have to work as a team to try and stop the spread of a disease. This game is perfect for them as they are only responsible for their own pieces and it is more relaxed than other games. They both agreed that they would be interested in trying the game as it seems like it would keep their interest but not take too much effort to play. Overall I found that all of my results were accurate and that the participants were interested in playing their recommended game that corresponds with their leadership style.

Sprocle Quiz – Can you pick the Leadership Ted Talk topics and the speakers?

Quiz Link: https://www.sporcle.com/games/ostenbb/leadership-ted-talk-topics-and-the-speakers

When creating my quiz, I spent much time not only finding Ted Talks about leadership, but also Ted Talks that I found to be inspiring. I have chosen to create a quiz called “Can you pick the Leadership Ted Talk topics and the speakers?” which is about a select number of Ted Talks that discuss leadership. These speakers talk about a number of different aspects of leadership such as how it can be self-taught or how we need to be happy independently of work to be a good leader. When I was creating my quiz, I chose around ten different speakers that I was thinking about using and took a few notes on their message. From there I watched all of the Ted Talks and narrowed down who I thought had the most inspiring and captivating speeches. They included Drew Dudley, Roselinde Torres, Margaret Heffernan, Fields Wicker-Miurin, Derek Sivers, Shawn Achor, and Tim Harford. After this step I organized my speakers and my brief hint or overview of their Ted Talk to create my quiz. 

There are many reasons for why I chose these specific speakers in regards to their leadership message and how it could be applied to our class content and games I have played. The first speaker I chose was Drew Dudley. In his Ted Talk, Everyday Leadership,  he how he redefined leadership in a way that made him happier. He explains a story about a lollipop, and while it didn’t seem like a big deal even to remember, and how something so small had the power to change something. Dudley said that “as long as we keep leadership beyond us and make it about changing the world, we give ourselves an excuse not to expect it every day, from ourselves and from each other”. By this he means that we have the power to impact others and we need to start to value that impact. If you are able to truly understand that and redefine leadership like that, we can change everything. This Ted Talk was the most inspirational video as it can be applied to everything in your life. In regards to leadership in games, he explains that by doing anything, such as moving your game piece or communicating a direction you want to go in with your teammates, you are being a leader. 

The next Ted Talk was What It Takes to be a Great Leader, by Roselinde Torres. She speaks on her extensive knowledge of what makes a leader effective and proposed 2 questions that encourage critical thinking. These questions are “Where are you looking to anticipate the next change? What is the diversity measure of your network? Are you courageous enough to abandon the past?” Torres claims that great leaders take risks and dare to be different. Taking risks and trying different ideas, especially in a game, shows leadership and will attract followers. In the Ted Talk Dare to Disagree, by Margaret Heffernan, the speaker talks about how we must have disagreement in our team and promote it as a leader. She speaks on the “echo chambers” which means having people who only tell you what they think you want to hear. To be a leader you must promote and be willing to accept others disagreeing with you. This can be applied in games such as Mental Blocks where we all have a different perspective of the design. Having and promoting these ideas will lead to collaboration and better teamwork. Fields Wicker-Miurin shares how leadership comes from within on her Ted Talk Learning from Leadership’s Missing Manual. She explains that leadership is self-taught and that you could learn skills and qualities from the people around you. Games are similar in that you will learn skills and qualities from your teammates to eventually be confident in leading a game on your own.

The Ted Talk, How to Start a Movement, by Derek Sivers shares insight on how to start a movement. Leadership can be found everywhere, whether that is in a game or sitting on the grass with strangers. He shows that a leader makes the first move, but the second person to follow starts the movement. This can be applied in games as someone who decided to make a move first can influence others to do that same. The next Ted Talk was The Happy Secret to Better Work, by Shawn Achor. He says that we need to be happy independently of work, and only then will we be able to increase productivity and success. This idea can be applied to anything as the main idea is to just be confident in your own abilities. The last Ted Talk I included was Trial, Error, and the God Complex, by Tim Hartford. In his speech he explains the importance of trial and error in achieving success. He also talks about having a god complex, not being able to admit being wrong in any situation, will not bring results. A leader needs to understand that they can make mistakes and to use their experience to try again. Overall, all of these speakers share important knowledge about what it means to be a leader. 

In regards to the actual quiz, I found the results to be surprising. The average score was about three out of seven points. My first participant was Teresa who scored a three out of seven. The questions that she got correct were the speakers Dudley, Harford, and Silvers. I had the opportunity to talk to my participants on how they thought the quiz went and why they thought they got that score. Teresa explains her scoring was because she has only seen Dudleys speech and made educated guesses on the rest of the speakers. The next participant was Jessie who scored a three out of seven. She correctly answered Torres, Dudley, and Hartford and explained that she scored low because she had only seen clips of the majority of the Ted Talks and was having trouble remembering them. The Third participant, Mikayle, received a four out of seven, guessing correctly Wicker-Miurin, Dudley, Hartford, and Heffernan. She explained that she had previous knowledge of most of the speakers and had seen many clips of their Ted Talks on TikTok. The next participant was Taylor who scored a zero on the quiz. She explained that she has never seen any of the Ted Talks or even heard of any of the speakers. Erin was my next participant who scored a three out of seven. She correctly answered Sivers, Torres, and Heffernan. She explained that she had only heard of Torres and had guessed for the rest of them. Participant number six was Olivia who scored a one out of seven. She has not heard of any of the speakers and guessed all the questions. Kate H, participant seven, scored a three out of seven and correctly answered Hartford, Dudley, and Achor. She has watched most of the Ted Talks in her classes and knew a little about them. Participant number eight, Kate M, scored a five out of seven and correctly answered Hartford, Torres, Anchor, Wicker-Miurin, and Dudley. She was our highest scoring participant and explained that she has actually watched all of the Ted Talks with her dad. Participant nine, Katherine, scored a three out of seven correctly answering Dudley, Achor, and Hartford. She has only seen the three Ted Talks that she has gotten correct. My last participant, Skyler, scored a five out of seven, also being my highest scoring participant. She correctly answered Heffernan, Wicker-Miurin, Hartford, Torres, and Silvers. She explained that the reason she got a higher score was because she has watched all of the Ted Talks in her Freshman and Sophomore years. Overall, the results were much higher than what I expected from my participants. I was under the impression that my participants were going to get one or two right besides a possible outlier.

Free Play: Lazers and Feelings

Last week, we had the option of choosing a game to play. The group I joined was playing Lazers and Feelings, a quickstart SciFi RPG all about using your laser or your feelings to solve all of our problems. I decided it would be fun to play the ship’s engineer, an android named distribution android model R-3 class Double L or D.A.R.3.L.L for short. Darell had a 5 in lasers which meant he was an expert in all things technology and logic. Lasers and Feelings only as one stat which determines how you can interact with the world. If you have a high Laser score like D.A.R.3.L.L, then you want to roll a 5 or lower on a d6 for your action to be successful. The opposite goes for Feelings, in which you would want to roll above your chosen number. The hardest e part about playing Lasers and Feelings was remembering that if you rolled your chosen number (5 for D.A.R.3.L.L), you got to ask the Storyteller one question about the situation.

After the unfortunate comatose state of our former captain, the crew picked up on a distress beacon from a derelict ship. We found no life signs aboard and decided to board through an airlock. I powered up the ship to reveal a bloody mess. The crew appeared to have been massacred by an assailant known to them. We decided it would be a good move to secure the armory to gear up against the threat. While looting the armory for everything we could, the assailant hailed us from the bridge. We negotiated a parlay and prepared for the worst. It turned out that an android spy worked its way on board and was trying to turn the ship into a planet killer. Thanks to our new weapons, we quickly turned the machine into scrap and blew up the ship ourselves.

Lasers and Feelings really shine in its light mechanics. Having only a single number determine how good you are in two opposite fields is a really cool way to build roleplay into the mechanics. Since my character was amazing at mechanics, I found it really fun to roll for feelings hoping that I would get a 6. My weird robot brain would understand humanity a little bit better with each successful roll. Quickstart RPGs like this one are great microcosms for leadership. Each of our characters had the opportunity to guide the crew’s choices and how we handled different situations. Our robot doctor would assess corpses, I would take any engineering concerns. Our security officer and explorer would guide us through the ship, and our science officer would keep us all sane. It was a great experience, and I recommend it to everyone.