"Ideas for designing an educational boardgame?" Topic

For my job at work, I'm thinking of designing a boardgame that can be used by secondary students in a range of Pacific and Asian countries as an educational resource celebrating diversity. I've never dsinged a boardgame before (though I've been a miniatures wargamer for years). I'm interested to see if anyone has any thoughts around such a game?

- The aim is to encourage young people to understand and respect other cultures and religions, thereby helping to bridge the divides between communities and societies around the region.

- It will look at eight themes: life celebrations and rituals; design of homes, other buildings and public spaces; consumption of food and drink; clothing; methods of transportation and travel; pastimes; and the stye of arts and artefacts.

- It would have to be simple enough that the school could download and print-out all the resources (board, cards etc), as it is likely to be distributed on the web and CD rather than in hardcopy. However, it is not going to be a web-based or interactive game, but a boardgame.

- It must have only simple language, as it may have to be translated into quite a few languages.

- As it is for secondary schools, it needs to be a bit more than just snakes and ladders!

- My initial thoughts are that it could be based on the old family game 'The Game of Life' (as much as I can remember that game, as it is several decades since I last saw or played it). But it would need to be adjusted to include different cultures, and to somehow reward players for respecting diversity.

A tall order, I think?!

Roly

All I can think of are the game by a Canadian (?) company where you can only win if you all work together.

Sorry, not much of a help, I know.

"…win if you all work together."

first blush:

the LOTR game is like that --a good system involving individual resources (that each player possesses) that depend on (and are explicitely encouraged) being used coorperatively.

I can see the different stages of the game (journey to Bree, Moria, etc…) being different lands/cultures that the players must move through by successfully accumulating/using various transport, rituals, customs, etc… ?

The part of the black riders and/or Sauron (the meeting of which ends the game) could represent war: if cooperative play fails, everyone loses.

I much prefer the games where you ruthlessly destroy the other player's culture so that HE can respect YOUR diversity.

I believe its known as the Conan school of diplomacy.

OK Running Bear…. Roll a d100 and if you get a 1 enough of your tribe SURVIVES the epidemic to put up a decent military resistance to the white man. WOW! A 1. Well done. So, did you manage to collect enough currency tokens to buy rifles? No? Shame……'

Now your turn Aung. let's see if you can Get Out of "Short-Lived But Remarkably Exploitative and inept Imperial Occupation" yayyyyy! Draw a Card "Go Straight to Long-Lived and Exceptionally Brutal Military Dictatorship".

Whats that you have Kim? 'Nuclear Weapon' ? oops – you aren't allowed to play that one.

Pat

How many players are we looking at, optimally? Will they be in teams, or individuals? What specific goal are they trying to achieve (what is the reward for diversity)?

Neotacha … all of that is still open. That's what I'm seeking ideas on!

But I would imagine it would be best as a small group game (say half a dozen players) playing individually but probably encouraging working together. The 'reward' would have to be something that helps you win or complete the game. The goal is to supplement classroom lessons on cultural diversity.

What about trying to incorporate different resources (particularly, resources that are unique to the different cultures/regions you're trying to cover): copra, breadfruit, sea turtles, specific shells and fish, etc.?

It could be a "collecting" game where students need different resources from different cultures to be successful.

how about a scavenger hunt.

have a list of things that someone wants to send into space in a time capsule, each player goes to a different country and aquires an item, but they can't leave until they have met certain requirements (ie eaten local food, taken pictures of local landmarks/arcitecture, ect.) before they can travel back home.

so two maps one for the countries they can visit and one Ie game of life for them to use to explore the places they visit. each country will need its own deck of cards, probably business card sized stock would be the best idea.

LMK if you need more help….

OK, you're looking at classroom use. That means you need to be flexible enough to have anywhere from 15 to 40 kids playing, and probably are limited to around 45 minutes play time, possibly less. So you'll want something that'll either have a short and long version (some schools do block scheduling; you may have up to 110 minutes to work with) or can be broken up into two play sessions. The game needs to have rules that will allow for larger or smaller groups -- maybe flexible objectives depending on team size? I suggest teams rather than individuals because the little darlings still need to learn to work together, and not just with their best buddy.

You'll still need to have some sort of 'reward' for playing. Yeah, we know the point is to review for the test, to learn some basic info about other cultures and hopefully turn into people our grandparents aren't ashamed to acknowledge, but your average teen isn't going to buy those. They'll want a clear-cut goal -- get the most resources, have the healthiest economy, be number one.

Something like 'Life' might work, but they have to make choices besides fork left or right. Cards with ethical options? The decisions the kids make needs to have an effect on their progress through the game.

Sounds like a touchy feely game to me.
War was a big part of those societies at that time. You can't gloss over a major part of the whole equasion without your model being useless.

However, you can show how it devestated cultures in the long run, and how prepareing for war took away from progress.

I would suggest you come up with a point value system for what a culture produces, vs. what they spend.

I quite like the following idea someone gave me:

"I'm thinking set collection. Each card would have two attritubes – one of the eight categories you mentioned, and of course a cultural/national/ethnic/regional "suit" as it were. Players could score points for sets (3 Maori cards or 4 Pastimes cards) or majorities (most Malay cards, most Art cards)."

"Also, maybe role cards. Randomly deal each player a role card that gives them a secret bonus. eg:
* Ambassador – score 1 bonus point for each different culture you score points in.
* Collector – score 1 bonus point for each Art card.
* Leader – score bonus points for cards matching your culture."

"As for how the set collection occurs… dunno :) As an educational/student game, I would think a high degree of interaction would be ideal. Perhaps a trading game. Each round, players are dealt some additional cards, then there is a round of card trading?"

Well there is also a game to be designed to look at carbon trading, carbon footprints and food miles development using scarce resources versus renewable resources.

in it's simplest form as a previous reply said a game where everyone wins if they collaborate if each player becomes selfish everyone loses.

the advantage is that almost the whole world is interested in the topic, all educational authorities will take to it and it has social worth.
Admittedly not every country in the world will want to touch it but the vast majority will………