Games in Schools and Libraries

Announcing ‘Games in Schools and Libraries’, THE show about board, card and digital games, and the ways in which they can find a place in the classroom or at the local library.

Donald Dennis (from the wonderful On Board Games podcast) and myself are the hosts of Games in Schools and Libraries (GSL).  Don is the young adult games and technology librarian for Georgetown county SC, and I am a teacher at St Georges Rd Primary School in Shepparton, Victoria.  

In Games and Schools and Libraries, Don and I review and talk about specific games we’ve used in our respective settings, but each episode is also themed around a particular topic.  So far we’ve recorded shows on story telling games, spatial games, game themes (and more) and we have a huge list of topics we want to cover in future episodes. We hope the listening is as enjoyable as the recording has been!

Our mission with the Games in Schools and Libraries podcast is to provide a short podcast dealing with the various issues and potentials of providing and running game based programs in libraries and schools.  The podcast will seek to inform, inspire and generate conversation around the use of games as a medium for socialisation, interaction, communication and education.  This also gives an indication as to why we are partnering up with the fantastic Games for Educators website.  These are lofty goals to be sure, but with all the podcasts out there covering the wonderful world of board, card and digital games we hoped there might be room for one more with a specific goal in mind.

The release schedule for the next month or so is designed to quickly build up a level of content.  In the next week you’ll hear 3 episodes go live - one introducing ourselves and the show, one covering board games and the last discussing digital games.  Beyond that we’ll fall back to a weekly schedule of releases for a month or two, and then back again to a fortnightly release schedule.  While this might seem scatalogical (and probably quite rightly), the aim is for us to get a quantity of content out there in the short term, and then ease back into what will be our intended rhythm (that is a show that goes out fortnightly).


If you have any questions or comments you will be able to find us over at the Games for Educators website, where the inestimable Pat has been kind enough to host our show.  You will also be able to find us in our guild over on boardgamegeek, here.  Alternatively we have an email address which we announce on our show, and we’d love to read any and all feedback.

Don and I are excited about Games in Schools and Libraries, and we hope you find it as interesting and useful as we have found it enjoyable!


Cheers,
Giles.

Oh - and you can find the feed here.

Once Upon A Time...

Once Upon A Time is a story-telling game published by Atlas Games, and designed by Richard Lambert, Andrew Rilstone and James Wallis.

In Once Upon a Time players each have a hand of cards, representing items, characters, places and other things.  The object of the game is to collectively create a story, and in so doing get rid of the cards in your hand.  For each sentence a player may play one card from their hand - so I might begin with: Once upon a time there was a tower hidden in the depths of a dark forest. As I say this sentence I play a card from my hand - the tower card.  I am allowed to continue telling the story and playing cards unless another player takes over (and there are rules for this).  Players also each have a single ‘ending’ card in hand - which is the story ending they are personally angling to manipulate the story into.

It is a simple game, almost loose enough to be deemed more of an activity than a game.  But it can be a lot of fun, and the zany stories that rise from the game can be quite amusing - especially with a group of creative individuals.

I’ve been using it recently as a starting activity in class - something that precedes a creative writing session.  My class is 27 students - so playing by the normal rules won’t work.  What we’ve been doing instead is this: each student has a hand of three cards, I draw their names randomly, as their name is drawn they must add a single sentence to the story at the same time as playing one of their cards.  We do this for a set time - say 15 minutes, and the students go back to their books and take up the incomplete tale from there - each continuing and finishing the story as they see fit.

It has been a lot of fun so far - and provides a welcome aid to creativity.  The stories are fun and zany. It is equally interesting to see the differences in how the stories unfold as the individual students take over in their books.

There are many ways in which this game can be used in class - and the students (so far) are really enjoying it.  The need to tailor the story to the cards makes for just enough confinement to make the stories crazy and amusing, but the cards are also loose enough to allow for a great deal of creativity and control.  A great little game.

For a cheap game - this has been a great addition to our school game collection.  I’m adding it as one of the possible writing activities to my literacy rotations - a happily ever after indeed!

Cheers,
Giles.

Curiouser and Curiouser

More than 500 years ago Western scientific thought supposed the Earth to be at the center of a created universe and the planets but wandering stars.  Today the picture of the universe is far bigger, far more beautiful, and far more amazing.  Today there are robots on the surface of another planet that is, on average, about 225 million kilometers away.  Robots that are taking photos, analyzing and sending back information from the surface of Mars.

News of the touchdown of the Mars Science Laboratory ‘Curiosity’ in the Gale Crater on the surface of Mars has made headlines and news stations the globe over.  Well it should, as amazing as this car sized rover is, and as bountiful as the findings of its many instruments are likely to be, the landing itself is one of the most spectacular and amazing feats of planning, and as of earlier today: astounding execution.

From:  http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/

I was lucky enough to be able to watch the live feed from NASA TV in the buildup and moment of Curiosity's landing, and the technically difficult and amazingly creative fashion in which this rover made it from Earth to the surface of another planet in our solar system was both exciting and stunning.

Kudos to NASA and the people at JPL who managed this feat, it is truly one of the great triumphs of technical expertise, science, mathematics and engineering.  It is also so creative and audacious that it seems too unreal to even fit comfortably in the pages of a science fiction novel.  Luckily, truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.

My mind boggles at the comparatively simple mathematics involved with launching a rocket from Earth that will, 8 months later, collide with Mars - all of these being moving objects.  But the multi-stage landing, combining aerobraking with parachute deployment, the ejection of the parachute and use of powered descent, and then the amazing crane to lower this giant rover to the surface is one of the great triumphs of scientific endeavor.

Well done to all those involved - to the people at JPL who created and managed this amazing feat, and to all those supporting around the world - from the ESA to the radio telescopes of Australia.  Here’s hoping for an amazing array of discoveries from Curiosity.  Thanks to Curiosity the story of our solar system is about to increase in definition and quality.  We live in amazing times.

From the surface of Mars earlier today (and the NASA website).

An amazing video that neatly encapsulates why this landing is so amazing:

Cheers,
Giles.

Klop - a gem of a game.

The name suggests a sterling example of onomatopoeia, but this game can also be found under the names Mölkki or Finska, and probably more.  It is an outdoor game of Finnish origin, in the same vein as bocce or bowls.

The rules are very simple – the pins, each with a number from one to twelve on them, are set up in a pattern, and players toss a log at them from the throwing point attempting to knock them down. 

There are a couple of rules that make the game somewhat different and certainly more interesting.  If a player knocks down one pin, they score a number of points equal to the number on the pin.  If they knock down multiple pins, they score points equal to the number of pins knocked down (and the numbers on the pins are ignored).  This means players have some choices to make about whether they try and simply knock down a bunch of pins en masse, or whether they try to be more accurate and take out a specific number.

The question of whether to go for many or one is made more interesting by the fact the winner needs to be the first to accumulate exactly 50 points; if you score more, your total is reset to 25.

After each throw the pins are stood back up – but rather than being placed back into the starting position they are simply righted where they lie.  This has the effect of causing the pins to slowly disperse as the game progresses, and compounds or adds some interesting layers to the choice of whether to try and knock down a bunch of pins, or one.  Add to this the pressures of a ‘three consecutive misses and you’re out’ rule, as well as the simple fact that the physics involved with the throwing, bouncing and rolling of a cylinder of wood can lead to unexpected consequences and you’re left with a highly enjoyable game.

Klop is an excellent game, easy enough to explain and start playing very quickly, and combined with a small set of rules that make for some unexpected and enjoyable situations.  All in all this is one of the absolute best of this style of game that I have played.  It’s highly enjoyable and takes more care than you might otherwise expect from such a game.  Ultimately, when this sort of game is wheeled out at barbecues, on holidays or just for some enjoyment at the park or in the backyard I want something that will be entertaining.  When the throwing piece bounds closely and unexpectedly over the top of the pin you were aiming at there are groans and cheers alike from yourself and your competitors, and the same occurs when a carefully weighted throw takes out the piece you need.  When all is said and done – the game is quite simply: a lot of fun. 

Cheers,

Giles.

Tschak!

Tschak! is a card game, published by GameWorks and designed by Dominique Ehrhard.  I have to admit up front that I am a fan of GameWorks, a company that produce some beautiful and well designed little family games (Animalia especially is one of my favourite little card games).  I am also a fan of Dominique Ehrhard - at least those games of his that I have played (Condottiere is a brilliant little card/board game).

Tschak! is an attractive game, with a small neat box, board and card art that is thematic, well done and amusing, and a general high quality of production.  All this is well and good, but it would amount to little if the game itself was uninteresting.

Tschak is an excellent little card game.  It plays quickly, and yet involves a good number of interesting choices throughout.  It is not a heavy game by any stretch of the imagination, it is light and very family friendly.  The backdrop to the players’ choices is that they are assaulting a keep in search of booty and treasures.  Players will have a hand of ten numbered cards from three suits, and on each of the three levels of the keep will play cards - abiding by the rule that each card played on a level must be of a different suit.  The levels mix up the way in which players choose and play their cards, and this introduces some interesting flavours into each level.  The long and short of it is that the player who plays the highest value set of cards on a level will earn the treasure, the player who plays the lowest will take the monster.  At games end, treasures are tallied, and monsters subtract from this total - highest score wins.

All this sounds very simple, but there are some subtle twists introduced in the ways in which the players play their cards on each level.  There are also some player cards that add interest - the chameleon wizards (aside from looking neat) add a layer of bluff and uncertainty, the artifact cards also add a twist to the way the cards played are counted - with each hand including 1 artifact.  When to the play which cards and what you expect others will play is the key.

The 'Wizard' suit, including the neat looking Chameleons!

There are treasure and monster cards that also add a twist to the game - and while none of these subtle additions add much individually to the complexity of the game, the whole is a great deal more than the sum of its parts.  One of the things that is perhaps most interesting is that once a round is done (ie: each level of the keep defeated), players pass their cards to the player next to them - and so, over the four rounds of the game players will have played the cards they were dealt, as well as the hands of cards dealt to every other player.

Altogether Tschak! is a game with simple and easy to grasp rules, but which has enough subtle twists here and there to make the choices involved interesting.  Players will be watching what each other are doing, wondering when *that* card you know is an opponents hand will come out, wondering whether they should try for each treasure or aim for one, whether they should focus on taking treasures or avoiding monsters.

Tschak! is an enjoyable game, it is lucky, but there are choices, it is simple, but there are twists.  Tschak! plays quickly, and with its mixture of lightness and subtlety, doesn’t feel as if it takes too long.  It’s just the sort of game that is easy to get off the shelf and play when you only have so much time, or are in-between heaftier offerings.

The back of the board!

Cheers,
Giles.

The Regulars...

All is quiet in the castle, finally.  The children are abed, the littlest sated with a belly full of milk and kissed goodnight by doting parents wishing for a good few hours of restful sleep from her.  The whir of the machinery of the household hums in the backdrop, washers, driers, heaters...

Sitting and soaking up this quiet is peaceful.  Being able to sneak in a chapter or two of Jeeves and Wooster, or listening to a podcast: a secret and nighttime pleasure.

It was my birthday a few days ago, and I was thrilled with the chance to relax with my family - there is no greater or more fruitful use of my time.  Also rather nice was the fact that my dear wife showered me with gifts, The Wonders of the Universe is a DVD I am very much looking forward to enjoying - I loved the Wonders of the Solar System series.  A collection of games were also among those gifts given, and gratefully received.

A mixture of the peace and the presence of new games in the household has led me to ponder those games that have been absolute boons to my collection.  These are those games that find a place at the game table like a long and dear friend.  The games that are scuffed from play, box edges worn from the action of their continual removal from the shelves.  These games are as familiar, nearly, to the game table, as the faces sitting about it.  In their presence one can relax, the awkwardness of those early days of getting to know one another have long passed.  These are the regulars.

There are a handful of games I’ll briefly cover here, some I have written about before, others may have gone unmentioned - until now!  This list is in order of the most to least played of my 5 most played games.  I don’t keep a log of all my games played, but try to most of the time as I find it interesting to see what has hit the table and what has not.

Fairy Tale

Fairy Tale is a card game I have blogged about before.  It’s a drafting game - where players start with a hand of cards, pick one and pass the others to the next player.  Once this drafting is done cards are played out on the table.  Different cards have different effects, some are just worth points, some combine with others, some flip cards face down, some flip cards back face up.  There is nothing overly complex about Fairy Tale, but the action and interactions in the game are enjoyable.  Players need to play by the seat of their pants, making the best of what they have in hand and keeping an eye on what everyone else is collecting and playing.  All in all it is an excellent game - one of the very best in my humble opinion.
Plays: over 200.

Carrom

Photo by the Greatsage...

An Indian dexterity game, something like a flicking version of billiards or pool.  I love flicking games as a general rule, and this one is the very best in my opinion.  With a proper Carrom board the pockets and board size make for a game of skill, where angled shots, rebounds and clever placement elevate the game into a pitched duel.  I’m not much good at the game in all honesty, but for me it is the very best of the dexterity genre.
Plays: nearly 150

No Thanks

Possibly the best light family card game I’ve ever played.  This is the game people should play instead of Uno.  Players turn a single card face-up in the centre of the table, they must then decide to either take it, or pay a chip to refuse it. Each card has a number, and a run of cards will count as the lowest number in the run.  The object is to end the game with the fewest points.  A simple game, easily played, extremely cheap, and should be ‘one of those games’ - that is to say, if the average family has a dusty shelf of games whereupon may be found Monopoly and Uno waiting a rainy day - so too should there sit No Thanks.
Plays: 50 odd.

Court of the Medici

A two-player head-to-head battle of a card game.  This, for all the renaissance art, is a pure card game.  Players are trying to end the game with more ‘points’ worth of cards on the table than their opponent.  Nastiness abounds however, as cards can be played onto other cards to form an alliance, or may equally be played onto other cards to conspire - that is if I play a 5 onto another 5, I can discard any card or alliance worth 10.  It is pure card play, simple maths, and yet a highly enjoyable and very well designed little game.  Highly recommended as a knife-fight like two-player card game.
Plays: 50 odd.

Ra: The Dice Game

Roll the dice, keep the ones you want, put aside any suns, and roll again.  Over three rolls players are trying to get their cubes down on the various scoring tracks on the board.  This is a dice game adaption of the wonderful auction game Ra, also by Reiner Knizia.  The dice game is, of course, completely different in many respects, but it is still a highly enjoyable game.  For me this sits next to a game like Roll through the Ages, but when decided which to get out I will almost always choose Ra.  Why?  Because everything on the board is easily visible - so it is much easier to play with family and friends who have trouble reading the small writing in Roll through the Ages.  Ra the Dice Game is also simpler - yet for its simplicity it loses nothing - a wonderful dice game that plays quickly, involves some choices, and has the right amount of luck.
Plays: 40 odd.



It is only natural that my most played games are those that are easy to get to the table and short enough to played repeatedly.  Perhaps some day soon I’ll put together a list of those most played ‘bigger’ games of mine to talk about... until then, here is a pic of the birthday loot that will hopefully make these lists one day:

And another that arrived recently that I'm looking forward to getting to the table:

Cheers,

Giles.

Mr. Wooster and Jeeves...

Thanks to the intervention of my wonderful brother, I have discovered Jeeves and Wooster, the inestimable creations of P. G. Wodehouse.  Bertie Wooster: the perfect fop.  Jeeves: his rational sidekick and the very architecture of deus ex machina made character. The various concerns of this pair, the plots and schemes over problems of gentlemanly import, are a source of great amusement.

The writing is gentle and easy to enjoy, the characters affable and the plots are amusing and engaging.  Bertie’s observations and consternations, not to mention his continual obsessions with the frivolous (hats, suits, moustaches etc) are in sharp contrast to the very able, rational and worldly Jeeves.  Bertie’s outrage at the trivial happenings in his circle of acquaintances, his foolish scheming and consequential tricky jams serve as opportunities for Jeeves to demonstrate his capability to resolve and navigate the general mess of Bertie’s problems.

It is not deep literature in many ways, and while it may be a cliche to write it: these books are perfectly charming and engaging.  Jeeves and Wooster are a pair of characters and collection of stories that are wonderfully crafted to be both light and airy, and at the same time sprinkled with witty observations, comments and situations.  Currently I am reading ‘Carry on Jeeves’ - a collection of very likeable short stories concerning a variety of adventures of Jeeves and Wooster.  Perfectly long enough to enjoy while my dear new daughter slips quietly into a slumber.  Well recommended.


Cheers,
Giles.