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Triplica to the Rescue

I was playing Seven Dragons by Looney Labs a couple days ago when I realized that my six-year-old daughter did not understand the meaning of the word diagonal. Her frustration was obvious, but I knew just the answer: Triplica by Fun Q Games.

Triplica is a simple get-three-in-a-row card game that is easy for me to pick up and play with my little girl. She enjoys it a lot because the rules allow her to beat ol’ Pops frequently enough to hold her interest; I enjoy it more than her because it’s a delight hearing her giggling and yelling TRIPLICA when she lines up three cards that match her current goal card.

But I loved the game this particular time because lining up three cards diagonally is one of the ways to score…and winning is a great incentive for my daughter to learn. She is a competetive lil’ thing.

AND, she DID win, but that’s fine with me.  I won as well. Take a look as she demonstrates a diagonal TRIPLICA in the picture below. I believe the motivational speakers call this situation a win-win.

"TRIPLICA, Daddy!"

RDGP Podcast Coming Soon

I am working on what I am calling the fraternal twin of this blog: The Ruthless Diastema Games Podcast. Below is the first promo for the show. Keep your ears and eyes open for it. As soon as I decide on some technical details and feel comfortable with my backlog, the new baby will drop. The last word of it is slightly truncated due to some timing limitations of the app I used for video, but the raw MP3 which will be used on podcasts for promotion has no such problems.

A Sincere Video Thank You to Gaming Podcasters

A New Ruthless Venture

A Pleasantly Backstabby Day at the School Gaming Club

Murderland by Two Scooters Press

Cutthroat Caverns by Smirk and Dagger Games

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are those games that you always feel you “should” play, and there are those games that always seem to find their way to the table, almost as if by their own will.  At the school gaming club this week, a particularly backstabby mood amongst the teens–a friendly backstabby mood, of course–brought Cutthroat Caverns by Smirk and Dagger games back to the table once again.  This game is becoming one of the group’s regulars.

Cutthroat Caverns is a dungeon crawl card game in which the player characters are all part of the same dungeoneering party.  Over the course of a game, the adventurers must defeat several monsters, each with its own particular power and damage and targets.  The unique thing about this romp through the dark depths is that characters are competing for prestige points which can only be gained by being THE delver who delivers THE killing blow on the current monster.  It doesn’t matter if you did the most or the least damage to the monster during the encounter.  If you want to win the game, you must be the one who sends the monster to its doom by getting in that last, deadly blow.  This manner of scoring and the nature of the cards openly invites much betrayal…and fun.

 

Murderland by Two Scooters Press is another game we played that involves fatal betrayal.  It’s a set of rules which redefine how to use the board and bits of the classic game Clue. Characters in the game find themselves in a nasty game of survival as they race around the Clue mansion trying to find millions of dollars while also attempting to be one of only two people alive at the end of thirty minutes.  Tension builds palpably in this game.  The last roll of the game usually finding all players leaning in closely to get a first glimpse of the roller’s fate.

The kids played two games back to back, each with equal gusto.  I think Murderland will be one of those games that will be played frequently at the club meetings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dungeon Squad = Too Much Fun

Dungeon Squad is a free fantasy rpg created by Jason Morningstar that is aimed at kids.  I had a ton of fun playing it today with my little ones.  We used a Chessex battle mat, Descent figs for monsters, and D and D minis for characters.  Needless to say, the dragon was slain.  Plenty of counting and teamwork was necessary for success.

Some Ideas for Enriching a Reading of Frankenstein

It has taken me years to get lucky enough to teach the cool literature, but now I am finally enjoying the good fortune of basking in literary geekgoodness.  Yes, geekgoodness is a word.

One of the great pieces that I have the pleasure of teaching in the future is Mary Shelley’s beautiful Frankenstein. I must have done something right along the line to be able to share this fantastic piece of fiction.  I am really thankful.

As a gamer, it is so fun to supplement literary readings with great games.  My goal is to use the following games to enrich the reading of Shelley’s classic novel:

Engle Matrix Games can be found at Hamster Press and are really great for the English classroom. I have used them before in class and have been pleased with the results.

I am very interested in trying this Polish game that is distributed  by Cubicle 7.  De Profundis is  intended  to be played through letters,  and due to the multiple letters found  in Frankenstein, I think  some  very cool connections can be made.  It is intended to be played within  the Cthulu mythos, but  that is  nothing a little hacking could not  solve.

This indie classic by Paul Czege is a natural fit if I can pull it off.

Please check back for updates and to give suggestions.  I appreciate all of them.

Princes’ Kingdom: Island One with the Kiddos

I have been playing The Princes’ Kingdom by Clinton R. Nixon with my eight-year-old boy and my six-year-old girl.  It is a great game based on D. Vincent Baker’s award winning Dogs in the Vineyard.  This series of actual play reports started here and here.  I suggest you take a look at these posts first if you are interested in the game.  And, YOU SHOULD BE.  It is an enlightening way to see into the values of your children and to discuss morals and ethics.  It is also a fantastic way to interact and HAVE FUN.

So…

After proving themselves, both Prince Katan and Princess Breanna headed off to Bluefish Island to solve their first problem.  The only produce merchant there would not sell fruits and vegetables to the Redfish People.  These were immigrants to the island who traditionally eat Redfish.  The problem was that the people on Bluefish Island only eat Bluefish even though there is an abundance of both kinds of fish.  Merchant Royal Blu, the produce seller, would have none of it.  These people were not going to come to his island and eat the wrong kind of fish.  The Bluefish People were largely on his side, and the Redfish People were becoming unhealthy due to malnutrition, and hints of unrest among the Redfish population were in the air.  The king’s kids already had their hands full.

Visit One: Mayor Azure Sky

In an attempt to start at the top, the Prince and Princess ask the mayor of Bluefish Island to make this man sell to the Redfish People.  He refused; he didn’t like the immigrants either.

Unexpected Visit Two: Bella Bluego

On their way to the produce merchant, the kids were accosted by an older lady who had heard of and detested their mission.  She tried to be an Arthur Dent to their bulldozers, figuratively speaking, but the kids were able to get by her without any violence.

Visit Three: Merchant Royal Blue

This was quite a struggle.  Before reluctantly agreeing to sell to the Redfish People, the seller threatened to burn down his entire business.  Fortunately, a threat of taking over the business in the name of the king convinced him to acquiesce.  Redfish people standing outside of the building heard him give in and began cheering loudly.  However, I couldn’t help but feel that although he agreed to obey the royal wishes there would still be trouble here in the future.  He was just so reluctant to sell to the Redfish People.

CHARACTER GROWTH:

After each island, the players get to grow their characters a bit. Both the Prince and Princess decided to have a birthday, which means that they add a year and a die to their characters’ ages and struggle rolls.  My daughter also decided to add “convinces adults” as a strong quality, and my son changed “food fights” from a troublesome to a strong quality.  We will have to see how that works out.

THROUGH PARENTS’ EYES:

I was surprised at how quickly my son wanted to buy off the merchant, to pay him to sell to these people.  The game allowed us to have a good discussion about whether it was appropriate or not to pay this guy to do the right thing.  I am not sure we shouldn’t revisit this discussion.  My wife and I discouraged it, but should we have said it is wrong?

The Prince and Princess Prove Themselves

I am playing Clinton R. Nixon’s The Princes’ Kingdom, a wonderful game inspired by the highly praised Dogs in the Vineyard by D. Vincent Baker.  I first posted about it here.  I’m playing with my second grader and my kindergartner, and though we haven’t had a full session yet, the kids have created their characters and have “proven” them. 

Before characters head out to do the King’s bidding, players decide what they would like to prove they can do before they go.  This process serves as a nice in-game way to learn the dice mechanic, which is really fun.  If characters succeed, they get to add a strong quality to their character sheets; if they fail, they add a troublesome quality.  Both of my kiddos succeeded.  The boy was able to add that he can make swords to his sheet, and my daughter penciled in that she was a good fighter.

Below are pictures of both kids’ TOTALLY UNEDITED character sheets.

The Questing Beast in Class: A Follow-Up

This is a short follow-up to my previous post  about James West’s Arthurian roleplaying game, The Questing Beast.  This post will make more sense if you read the first one first.

Today, the students began playing the game for real.  They used their own original heroic characters and accepted Lancelot’s request to help him fight the barbarian army that Mordred was raising.  Student hands shot up in the air as the told me what they wanted their characters to do.  Creativity spilled from their mouths when I asked them what would happen if they failed their rolls.  Pool dice were wagered and lost, chivalry was displayed, and the crazy batlike beasts shooting blowguns full of laughter juice were defeated at around the same time a few party stragglers were rescued from a dangerous pit.  It was a lively day in class.

This weekend the students will convert their notes from the session into more romance.  When they return from the weekend they will use these new narratives to add to their traits, and we will head off again into the woods for the sake of Camelot.

POINTS OF EMPHASIS FOR OUR ENGLISH CLASS SESSIONS OF TQB

• chivalry–Act according the knightly code and get some bonus dice.
• tone–We are trying to emulate the tone of the animated Sword in the Stone movie.
• character–Try to act like your character would act based on what you composed during character creation.
• courage with carefulness–Once pool dice are gone, they are gone.

The Bittersweet Horror of Byron Falls: Teen Hearts and Monstrous Minds

A few days ago, John Wick posted that he had another little game ready to be consumed.  I am always hungry for a Wick idea, but when I read his description and thought about the teen girls in the high school gaming club, I was starving for this new number.  I had to say goodbye to another fiver.

Here is how Mr. Wick pitches this one at John Wick Presents:

In the small town of Byron Falls, Minnesota, there’s more going on than most suspect. Witches and warlocks, vampires and werewolves, mummies and ghosts haunt every corner. And, of course, brilliant, beautiful young girls who want desperately to fall in love with them.

Byron Falls is the second Little Game from John Wick’s forthcoming Big Book of Little Games. Players take the roles of lonely, beautiful and misunderstood high school girls who meet and fall in love with lonely, beautiful and misunderstood monsters.

Instead of stats like “strength” or “dexterity,” players roll dice for their relationships, building life-long friendships and bitter rivalries while trying to romance the moody vampire in study hall.

Welcome to Byron Falls.

Don’t you dare fall in love.

I paid up, downloaded, and started telling the girl gamers about the game.  They smiled as if to say, “Do you know what you are getting yourself into?”  I think I did.  I have watched these girls toting around darkly romantic teen literature for years now.  So, today we played our first session and had a pleasantly unsettling blast. 

I had fun prepping for the game by destroying an old, junk yearbook from 1998 (and from another school) that I got from the yearbook advisor at school.  What? Destroy a yearbook? Well, yes…the character sheet has nice boxes for PC and NPC sketches.  I ripped out the senior portrait section complete with those old, corny senior wishes for the future and told the players to pick their characters from those pages.  They taped them to the character sheet and then moved on to discovering the characters’ friends. These were taken from the smaller underclassmen pictures.  This process was filled with giggly wisecracks.  You can imagine three tenth graders and one twelfth grader laughing at old snapshots from more than a decade ago.  I also got into the act and used the yearbook to secure some images of NPCs: teachers, fellow students, and other school staff members.

The most prominent yearbook NPC of our first session was THE JANITOR.  I thought that this picture of a thin, older man holding his mop and staring at the camera without a hint of a smile had some dramatic life in it.  And it did.  Thus far, the janitor appears to be some sort of shapeshifting creep that lures kids out of town to party at his house.  But, kids are not dumb.  He uses cute, unfamilar waiters at the local teen hangout to do his recruiting. 

And the high school math teacher locks parents in the freezer at Jane’s Waffles.

And the scary cheerleaders (great pics from the yearbook) call the janitor their father(s).

And the only boy PC is running home from the lake in the pitch dark February night.

And–TAKE A BREATH, FIGTREE–right before the session ended, two of the female PCs were standing outside of the mop man’s frightening house when they heard a howl coming from the basement. 

The source of this howl needs them.  But they need him even more.  And so does the other girl who shouldn’t have come to this place.  She went into the house, only to be promptly and forcibly fitted with a cheerleading outfit, and is still at this very hour cheering over and over and over and over with the janitor’s weird daughters.  READY! NO-KAY!

3:16 and the Youngsters: An Actual Competitor for Video Game Time

I was able to run Gregor Hutton’s 3:16: Carnage Amongst the Stars at the high school gaming club and came away with one very clear realization.  If you can teach youths to role play loudly and with passion, this game plays like a video game. 

That’s a good thing for these kids who spend much of their free time mashing buttons and staring at TV screens.  The action of the rpg is very fast, even if your group is made up of laid back, third person role players (totally fine).  But if your group is a boisterous group of hyper teenagers willing to raise their voices in first person, you just might have found a game that they admit is just as exciting as its digital counterparts.

Long Live King Arthur! The Questing Beast in the Classroom

As part of my thematic unit on heroes, my tenth graders learn a little about King Arthur.  We watch some videos on the history of his legend, and we read a few famous literary excerpts about the legendary king.  I like to emphasize the knightly code of honor and even have the kids write a formal narrative poem that demonstrates such acts of honor.  In past years, these activities would have been followed up by a typical pencil-and-paper test and the unit would end.  But this year, we are GAMING.

Soon after discovering The Pool by James West I found out about The Questing Beast.  I knew I had to use it in the classroom.  Allow me to let the author of this fine game speak for himself.  Here is his description of the game from the official website:

The Questing Beast takes a fantastical approach to King Arthur, focusing on the themes, style, and color of the legend. The folk of Arthur’s world are all animals. In fantasy, a cat wizard can battle beside a mouse knight. A squirrel Princess can love a raccoon farmer. It is an expression of character, not of species.

This is a storytelling game. Telling a good tale is the focus of game-play. One of the ways this happens is through shared narration – you get to describe actions, events, and characters that are traditionally handled by a Game Master. The direction your story takes depends on your imagination alone.

With mechanics based on The Pool, The Questing Beast will challenge and excite even the most jaded gamer or the newest newcomer. Come away to the realm of King Arthur and find out what kind of dreams you can weave!

This has been the process so far:

• Learn about King Arthur.
• Read some literary pieces on King Arthur.
• Discuss chivalry in conjunction with conventions of formal poetry.
• Students compose a narrative formal poem about a chivalric character.
• Read the default setting of The Questing Beast as a class.
• Students compose their initial character romances (character creation) according to the rules of the game and in congruence with the game’s default setting.
• Discuss tone with the students.
• Watch animated film The Sword in the Stone to establish a common tone for our romances
• Students create and stat character motifs (traits) as per the game rules.
• Students are quizzed on the rules of the game as a reading assessment.
• We practice a session as a whole class using the game pregens and an online dice roller projected on a smartboard.

This last bullet was so much fun.  The kids were into it.  Tomorrow we play for real using their own original characters.  As the rules prescribe, the class (session) will be followed up by students adding to their romances.  These are writing assignments that I will be able to grade.  I am excited.  Please check back for the progress and outcomes of this experiment.

I Was Almost Hoarse: Pirate Fluxx at the School Gaming Club

Give a bunch of teenagers an excuse to say words like DINGHY, SLOOP and BOOTY repeatedly and at top volume, and you will most assuredly be the ambassador of a good time.  Make that excuse a couple games of Pirate Fluxx, and they will be laughing, and snorting, and commanding each other in their best pirate accents to swab some nasty poop decks and to walk some short, splintery planks.  All in good fun, of course.  Trust me.  I know.

We played the new Pirate Fluxx by Looney Labs the other day at my high school gaming club, and I almost showed up at home afterward without a voice.  The general blame goes to the game itself; we had two really fun sessions, but the particular blame goes to the TALK LIKE A PIRATE card that seemed to stay on the table the entire game.  And let me tell you, do your best Blackbeard in your outside voice for an extended period of time and your larnyx will just have to buck-up and get used to what this salty sea expects of her travellers–FUN.  Our day of Pirate Fluxx was one of those days that you talk about later with the other people that were involved in the games.  Good times.

I like the original version of Fluxx, but I really, really enjoy this new one, and so did  the kids.  I am surprised at what a few rule additions and a thematic overhaul can do to increase the same game’s participation factor.  We were all very into it.

Playing this pirate version of Fluxx made me consider how a game like this could be used to teach and reflect upon different dialects in my English classes.  It is easy for me to imagine playing Boston Fluxx or Pittsburgh Fluxx or Canadian Fluxx or Minnesota Fluxx.  Or even just DIALECT FLUXX which would put several of the varieties of spoken American English into the same game.  As a lover of language, this sounds like a lot of fun.  But, I would want Looney Labs to produce the game because its a company that is good at making fun that is easily educational and thoughtful. 

Look for Looney Labs Games at your Local Neighborhood Game Store. Find a store near you at http://roster.looneylabs.com.

1001 Nights: A Most Pleasant Assault of the Senses

We had a real sultanic–if that’s a word–session recently at the high school gaming club.  We played Meguey Baker’s 1001 Nights: A Game of Enticing Stories and bathed our imaginations in its default, Arabian setting.  It’s a storytelling game with simple rules and enough interesting dice fiddling to keep everybody engaged even if a long-winded, monochromatic character has invaded this enchanted, colorburst of a RPG.  In fact, it is the dice that helps other characters both have a part in directing the story and in attempting to avoid their own beheading, a noble task for little plastic cubes and such.

The game produces a story within a story, and both stories are just dripping with imagery if you take Ms. Baker’s advice to heart.  Her book is a celebration of the sensual wonders that this world can unleash upon those within it.  And to facilitate the players’ transportation to the setting and its mood, the author provides tips for an optimal experience, including clothing and music tips and awesome food ideas that make the mouth water.  A list of setting appropriate, mood evoking names and court positions are provided as well, allowing those unfamiliar with the culture to dig their feet immediately into the sand and to wrap their bodies instantly in the satin. 

Even creating characters requires a pondering of the five senses.  Just picture Serit the Falconer from our session, a character made by an eleventh grade girl and played by her tenth grade brother.

• The wind brings many secrets to my ears.
• My eyes are sharp and bright.
• The scent of leather and oranges flows around me.
• I have a weakness for honey.
• My hands trail over surfaces.

A colorful character for sure.  And aromatic.  And intriguing.  And…

As we made characters and played the game, I could not help but think of the experience as a great tool with which to teach and reinforce the full definition of imagery: language that appeals to the senses.  ALL OF THE SENSES.  Too many times, teachers teach and students remember imagery as simply painting a picture with words, essentially appealing only to the eyes.  But, Meg Baker knows that there is more than desert in these fictional parts; there is also dessert, and this dessert can be feasted upon by eye, ear, tongue, hand, and nose.  It’s a delicious game.  And beautiful.  And pleasing to the touch.  And…

It’s Never Too Early: A Second Grader’s PK Character Sheet

An Unedited Second Grader's Princes' Kingdom Character Sheet

     Keep your ears open to hear how this game goes.  It’s me, an eight-year-old, and a six-year-old.  I am curious to see the ethical decisions they make in this game inspired by Vincent Baker’s Dogs in the Vineyard.   It is by Clinton Nixon and can be found at CRN Games.

The Entire Course Right Here: Scott Nicholson’s Gaming in Libraries Series

 

     Scott Nicholson knows games, and he knows the value of games as a social and a learning tool.  I would be remiss to not point to this very thorough course that he offered at the Syracuse University on gaming in libraries.  It’s all here, every video episode.  Tell a librarian or a future librarian about it.

Scouting a Forbidden Island and Finding Teamwork

     On Wednesday nights, I become a Cub Scout Den Leader.  It’s not much different from my teacher identity that I parade around in during the day, except that the learning goals are often different and the age of my students at scouts is definitely younger.  During the day, I stare at relatively attentive tenth graders,  but on Wednesday nights, I try my best to steal an hour of attention from five very hyper second grade boys.  Gamewright’s cooperative game Forbidden Island made a couple scout meetings successful in the area of teaching and in the elusive avocation of attention theft. 

     Forbidden Island is a game in which all of the players work together to land on a sinking island, gather precious pieces, and helicopter off to safety before the island sinks.  It is designed by Matt Leacock, designer of Pandemic, and is often referred to as Pandemic light.  But, I can assure you that it is not called that because it is light either on fun or challenge.  It is easy to lose at this game, and it really does cause its players to sit up on the edge of their seats and conspire to survive.

     Although, the game is rated for players a couple years older than my scouts, I found an easy way to challenge them but with a greater possibility of success than the rules intend.  All I had to do was allow the boys to cash in four cards ANYWHERE on the board to receive a treasure instead of only being able to cash in those cards on tiles with the corresponding treasure icons.  This seemed like just enough of a head start for them.  I actually broke the rules by accident, but it was a happy accident because I was trying to use the game as a lesson about working together to achieve goals and the rewards cooperation offers.  I think the message was heard loud and clear.  They were engaged the entire game, and watching them throw their hands up in the air when they beat the game was a great experience.  They even asked to play again immediately after their first play.

I WISH THIS HAPPENED MORE: GAMES ATTACHED TO BOOKS

    

     My son and I recently started reading Erin Hunter’s Warriors book series, a number of books about talking cats surviving the wild.  I hadn’t heard of the series before I saw a post on Facebook about an adventure game based on the books.  As soon as I heard about the game, I checked it out and was pleasantly surprised by a free, nicely fleshed out roleplaying/story game.  The next day I checked out several of the books from the series from my school library and started a new bedtime ritual with my son filled with lots of anticipation to play the game together.  This seems to be the kind of partnership that is a win for both the publishers of the series and for the games hobby.  I wish we could see more of these pairings.