Board Games, Systems, and Equity — An Inquiry — Week 19 — Legacy Games
In many ways, this is where the idea for this learning pathway began. A few years ago, I was looking for ways to solve some problems I was seeing on the yard during lunch breaks. To my mind, the play was too rough, the conflicts too frequent, and the strategies that the students brought to solving these problems too limited. In talking to them, repeatedly, I discovered that there were many contributing factors. The most prevalent was the lack of choices, particularly during the winter months. At first, we looked at buying equipment and games that could be played outside all year. We had some success with this, but a huge issue was the condition of the ground which made the use of this equipment impossible or unsafe. We also noticed that the kids who chose these alternative active options were the same students playing traditional team sports — it wasn’t near as inclusive as we had hoped.
So we talked to the kids some more. What we discovered was that our focus had been too narrow. Many, many students wanted an option at lunch that allowed them to talk to their friends, read books, do homework, and hang out. These students were very unlikely to select any outdoor active choice with any regularity, and often found themselves engaging in behaviour that lead to poor choices due to their boredom. A very high percentage of this group also tried their best to avoid going outside by hiding in areas around the school or frequently asking to use the bathroom during lunch. There were massive supervision and safety concerns because of this habit. Students would get into trouble in the bathrooms, damage parts of the school, or get into conflicts in zones without adults present.
And so we went back to the drawing board. For some on staff, this was a problem that was unavoidable — kids being kids, and it happens every year kind of thinking. I wasn’t willing to accept that we couldn’t change the culture, and so I started thinking about what kinds of alternatives we might be able to offer.
I should add that I had scheduled myself for the lunch hour duty (in part because there had been so many problems during this break), so I knew that I would be available (and willing) to support anything that we might want to try.
I thought we might start with an invitation and the space. And so, I allowed anyone who wanted, to come into the learning commons at lunch with me. The response was overwhelming. Almost a hundred students (almost a third of the students on break) wanted to come to the space. The response was also a problem. I didn’t really have anything for them to do when they were there. It was alot to supervise solo, and while there were many students who wanted to sit and read or work or just talk, there were more who were bored and loud and dysregulated.
So I put a call out to the community, asking for board games, puzzles, and small toys that the students might be able to play with while there. We got some donations, which were greatly appreciated, and this helped somewhat, but we needed more. Also, in watching the games that were getting donated, I started to get a bit concerned. I have great memories of playing games as a boy, and I loved Clue, and The Game of Life, and Monopoly, and Pay Day, and Trouble, and all of those classic card games. However, as an adult and an educator, I was a bit uneasy about these games now. Games, as I have discovered are imaginary and fun, but they also have contained within them a value system (in many cases) that may be contrary to what we are trying to teach to our students.
I want to stress that I still love these games, and that this isn’t a blog about how they are bad for kids. However, I do think that kids learn through games and that sometimes the lessons they teach, social and societal, may not be the ones we really want to be promoting. Also, since many of these games are played without adults present, there is no filter for them or ability for kids to ask questions.
However, Monopoly is a game, for example, where your goal is to make as much money as possible and bankrupt your opponents. I imagine it would be a Gordon Gekko staple. For those who don’t remember the movie Wall Street, I’ve included that iconic scene here:
I don’t agree with Gordon. I don’t think Greed is Good, and I don’t want to teach that lesson to kids. Apart from values, older games have mechanics that are all win-lose, and, to me at least, seem alot like a wrestling match where players try to use leverage to mercy other players. And so I wondered whether games had changed at all since I was a kid.
That lead me to some research on the internet and to Board Game Geek. Here, I found that games were so much more than what I remember them to be. That, in some ways, we are living in a golden age of board games where almost anything is possible. It really inspired me to find the connections between games and learning, and at the ways in which games can promote and build healthy social and conflict resolution skills in kids (and grown-ups!). This site lead me to games that I shared with kids during lunch hours that they loved, that challenged them, and that made kids want to connect with others in positive ways. Games club was born at that school, and it is something I have carried with me to my new site.
What I couldn’t have known is that COVID would make the mixing of cohorts of kids and closely packed groupings unsafe. But I knew that gaming was valuable and engaging, and I wanted to find a way to continue it even with restrictions.
What happened next, is really what the inquiry has explored.
And that leads me to the first game I really looked into at Board Game Geek. I looked at the list of the best games, and at the very top was Gloomhaven. It was something I had never encountered before, something called a ‘legacy’ game. A legacy game is something that in most cases can only be played once. Players have choices to make in the game that lead to elements of the game being revealed, and to some being destroyed or left unknown. This idea of meaningful choice captivated me. As those of you who work in education likely know, this concept of choice is something that we aspire to in creating tasks and opportunities for students. Giving students control over content and question and communication is critical to creating students who are independent, critical, and divergent thinkers.
Could a game really help me teach these things and build these skills?
The answer is, I don’t know. But, I was dying to find out.
Fast forward to the present, to the end of our cycle of games and discussions, where I very consciously gave students the choice to play a legacy game (I also gave them the option to dig deeper into a game we had played during the year if they saw fit). I did some research on possible choices and polled the kids, but I purposely did not learn how to play any of these games. In their groups, the kids would need to figure out how to play the game, how to solve problems, and how to build resources to help their groups along. I purposely made myself ‘useless’ and told them that I trusted them to figure it out. I do still help facilitate and support them when they are stuck, but my plan was to throw them in the deep end and let them struggle, knowing that they had a bunch of experience with games this year and access to a huge range of resources.
Next week, I will talk about their initial reactions and problems, and about the conferences that we had to establish to the question for their final inquiry and how they would communicate their learning.
For now, I wanted to finish the week with the games I chose and why I selected them.
As you saw from the image at the start of the blog, Risk Legacy was one of games I settled on. I believe it was one of the first, if not the first legacy game that was introduced. I include a review of it here:
I chose this game because it was familiar to many students (especially boys) and the overall complexity of the game was relatively low. It was important to me to have engagement and challenge at the level of the students, and so a range of difficulty levels was paramount. Risk has the easiest entry. Those who are familiar with the standard Risk game can manage it. About 90 percent of the students who selected this option were boys.
The second game I settled on was The King’s Dilemma. I wanted a game that emphasized role playing and politics. There are lots of students in these classes who love drama and social politics. This game is all about using money and influence to make decisions for the kingdom, and trying to do this in a way that brings glory to your house (and meets your victory conditions!). There is a lot of talking and virtual arm twisting, and every decision changes the history of the kingdom. The mechanics are still fairly simple, but the consequences of decisions are epic in this game, as they echo through history.
The third game I chose was Charterstone. I was looking for a game that was more about building than conflict or combat and this is the one that I settled on. In this game, the students are sent out by their king to found new settlements. The narrative element in Charterstone isn’t as developed or complex as in the other games. Choices still matter though, and the communities that the players build reflect their own preferences. The art and pieces of the game are also beautiful.
The fourth game I chose was Clank Legacy: Acquisitions Incorporated. In this game, the players represent a company trying to complete missions and collect treasure while competing against an AI corporation and the monsters that guard the loot. It is a card collection game with some interesting mechanics. The art is cartoonish and the story is fun and funny. As players reveal new missions and new places on the board they explore the information contained in the Book of Secrets.
The fifth game I settled on was Legacy of Dragonholt. This game is a huge departure from the others. It is a like a huge version of a Choose Your Own Adventure game combined with D&D role-playing. I selected it because it could be played much more simply than traditional D&D and didn’t require a GM. I liked this game as well because it freed students up from complex mechanics. They were playing a character with skills. They were making choices and living the consequences of them. They could be as invested as they wanted in the characters and personalize them as much as they wanted.
The last game I chose was Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile. This was the most challenging of the games I selected. It is complicated! I wanted to make sure that if there were students who were really keen to push their abilities and to try something that was unlike anything they had ever played before, that I had a game for them. I’d tell you more, but the review is as good as the game!
Well, there you have it. I am very excited to see what happens next! Thanks for reading.
