Game Course - game ideas

[fomox]

This is a little off-topic, but not too much, I hope.

I'm teaching a college level course on games in the fall and plan to use several games throughout the course. We meet once a week for 3 hours, so we'll be playing games in class (as well as having lecture/discussion time) and I will be assigning some games to take home and play for a couple of weeks.

One of the games they'll be taking home is Heroscape, of course. I'm trying to come up with 8 games that give a fair amount of variety, but aren't things that everyone has already played. (These aren't necessarily gamers in the course. It's just seniors taking a general ed course requirement.)

Here's my list so far:

Apples to Apples
Dominion
Heroscape
Shadows over Camelot
Ticket to Ride


And a few I'm considering:
Rumis
Last Night on Earth
Set
Smallworld
Uno
Labyrinth
Risk (new version)

I'm trying not to get anything so complicated that they couldn't figure it mostly out on their own, though I plan on giving them time to figure them out in class and help walk them through things a bit. I'd like to have 8 games total. I'm sure we'll play other games, too, just in class, but these will be the 8 that they'll have homework on and that we'll come back to frequently in class discussion.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance for any helpful responses.

[Warlord Alpha]

Probably should have been in one of the off-topic forums, either general or other board games.

I think Monopoly should be in there, but you should force them to highlight the flaws in the game. I remember reading something about how so many games are superior to monopoly but monopoly still sells so well, despite having tons of flaws. Might open their eyes, like it did to mine, to just how many things need considering when designing a game.

Apples to Apples is amazingly fun, good call.

Uno might not be a bad idea. Perhaps one night give them the original Uno and then another night give them like Uno Spin or Uno Attack or something.

And I say give them something complicated anyways. Give them DnD, that would be pretty good. I don't think many people from the generation you will be teaching have played DnD, I definitely haven't.

[Onacara]

Citadels

Great little game.

[Majai of Dreams]

I recommend Knightmare Chess. A great twist on a familiar game, and you do not have to be a hard core gamer to appreciate it.

Also Carcassone. Simple to play for casual and advanced gamers.

Scepter of Zevandor is a wonderful game if you want to involve resource management and a fantasy twist.

I have many more suggestions, but I would need to know if you are trying to cover the gambit of all game varieties? Party, physical, humor, luck, bluffing etc...

[fomox]

Originally Posted by Majai of Dreams

I recommend Knightmare Chess. A great twist on a familiar game, and you do not have to be a hard core gamer to appreciate it.

Also Carcassone. Simple to play for casual and advanced gamers.

Scepter of Zevandor is a wonderful game if you want to involve resource management and a fantasy twist.

I have many more suggestions, but I would need to know if you are trying to cover the gamut of all game varieties? Party, physical, humor, luck, bluffing etc...

I really want a variety, both in gameplay and theme. (I'm fine with medieval/fantasy, but I'm trying to keep it mixed up to be sure no student feels put off by a dominant theme they may not favor.)

[Mombo101]

I'm really curious about the other aspects of the class. Are you going into the sociological aspect of games? Rules systems? etc? Any particular theories or concepts you are looking at teaching in conjunction with playing the games?

With that said, here are some ideas for you to look at:

Magic: The Gathering- Might be slightly complicated, but if it is for a college class your students will be able to figure it out. Magic is the oldest trading card game on the market, and also defined the genre. I think this is game should be a given. Just give your students some starter decks/sets and they should be fine.

Last Night on Earth- This game will be really hard to find, since I'm not 100% sure if it is still in print. It's a horror game based around the zombie survival genre of horror movies. It also has a really unique rules system. All of my friends love the game, I'm just sort of "eh" about it.

Infernal Contraption- This is one of my absolute favorite games of all time. It's a stand alone card game (like Uno) where you are a goblin building a machine. Your section of the deck is your life, and when you run out of cards you lose, so everything you put into play to build your machine forces your opponents to lose cards, draw cards, etc. The rules are really simple, the gameplay is rather quick, and it's just really fun. It's produced by Privateer Press.

Flux- Another stand alone card game, but in this one there's no real theme except the rules are constantly changing. Another really quick, really fun game. This ones made by Looney Labs.

Those are just a couple of ideas. Like I said, I'm really curious at what else you'll be talking about in the class.

Edit: I nearly forgot to mention Munchkin too. It's a game where it promotes cheating, I think it's something your students would love!

['Scaper94]

How about Aquire? I've played it with my uncle a few times, and I really enjoyed it.

[loborocket]

Very simple to understand the rules but incredibly complex strategy and game play. Also over 2,500 yrs old.

Go

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(game)

Link is messed up because of the ) add that manually and you will get to the right spot.

[Mr Migraine]

Settlers of Catan.

[ollie]

I'm also teaching a college-level course with an element of gaming. It started planned to be game-based with forays into math, philosophy, sociology, computer science,... In the planning we (I'm coteaching with a poitical scientist, I'm a mathematician) have switched to making rules the focus of the course and as well as rules of games we'll be looking at rules in math, in argument, in political structures and then for the final portion of the course getting into the philosophy of it all.

Anyway, I'm also looking for a game suggestion, but my needs are somewhat different to fomox's. Heroscape will be making an appearance (probably) midway through the course when we do a two week section on probability and statistics. What we still need is a game to kick things off. The students will learn about it on Thursday in a twenty minute intro session, with no discussion and they'll probably have to go away and read the rules, and we'll spend one class session (80 minutes) on the Monday. Good properties:

• easy to learn,
• quick to play,
• the rules give rise to interesting phenomena,
• leads nicely in to a discussion of mathematical proofs and/or geometry.
• fun!

Early ideas are sprouts and dots and boxes. Any other thoughts?

[Worseley]

Originally Posted by Mr Migraine

Settlers of Catan.

This would be a decent option too.

They have the entire game on Java on http://games.asobrain.com/ (called Xplorers for obvious reasons)

Would make it simpler for students to take it home and you could even create accounts for them to use (to verify they played?)

[Marro Luvur]

Killer bunnies is a surprisingly good game, if yuo can get past the name.