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.

Taken Back to the Past and Into the Future By a Card Game

ANTICIPATION

When I heard that LOONEY LABS was releasing a Back to the Future card game, I rushed out and rented the movie trilogy of the same name.  It was fun re-watching the movies with my kids who seemed to have as much fun viewing them as I did.  I wondered if the game would live up to the fun that the films provided.

REACTIFICATION

The box looked great when I set my eyes on it.  That iconic BTTF eighties logos was staring at me lovingly like a grandma waxing nostalgic about the good ol’ days.  And the play did not disappoint.  The rules were quick to read and the action was no slower.  I have played several games at this point,  and each one is different and filled with luck, strategy, and laughter.  There are also lots of little nuggets from the movies for the franchise fanatic.  Good times,  good times.

PLAYIFICATION

The game consists of several different types of cards.  TIMELINE cards are the heart of the game,  a group of cards laid out in a six by four grid which represents the current flow of historical events.  Once this grid is in place, each player is given an ID card that shows the player how she needs to alter the timeline grid  in order to be able to win. Once the timeline is sufficiently changed, all a player needs to do is un-invent time travel and lock history into that player’s prescribed order. Messing with time is achieved by playing ACTION and POWER ACTION cards along with ITEM cards. These item cards often give the action cards a little more oomph when they are played.  Along the way, players are consciously and unconsciously screwing around with one another’s timeline goal by flipping over LINCHPINS (important historical events in the timeline) and RIPPLEPOINTS (historical events that are changed by flipping linchpins).  As you can imagine, this is funstrating, a sort of fun frustration that helps give the game its competitive and tense feel during play.

CLASSROOMIFICATION

I would like to use this game when I am covering PLOT STRUCTURE and its relationship to any particular novel the kids are reading at that moment.  I would use the game as a model by showing the kids how the game is played,  presenting the game’s default plotline as an analogy for the plot of their novel.  After the students get a grip on the relationship between Linchpins and Ripplepoints,  I would have them create what-if scenarios for the novel at hand by altering the story’s timeline.  The assignment would work this way:

1.  Read and understand a novel.
2.  Construct a timeline grid based on the novel that is structured like the game’s timeline.
3.  Decide which events in the novel’s timeline are Linchpins.
4.  Decide which events would be affected greatly by the altering of Linchpin history.  These events would be the novel’s Ripplepoints.
5.  Present the different possible timelines that occur as different combinations of Linchpins and their corresponding Ripplepoints are altered.
6.  Explain how the plotlines are different from the novel’s actual plotline.
7.  Evaluate which timeline is the best. Why?

This should lead to a good discussion about plot structure and what makes a good story.  I think I will do this next week…if my timeline doesn’t get mangled by forces outside of my control.