International Games Day - Retropost

So, because I hadn't yet worked out this blog when I did this mini-event, I thought I'd post about it now. It's never too early to start thinking about next year's IGD, right?

(It is totally too early to start thinking about next year's IGD.)

This was not very intensive, all things told. The hardest part was setting up all of the games day-of and then cleaning up afterward. We did not have a great turn out, only about ten folks who weren't my volunteers throughout the day. I hope to advertise better next year.

An overview of some of the games that went over best is going to be the focus of this post, after obligatory photospam.

Above: Teens play Uno and Jenga, while my two assistants discuss interactive storytelling games.
Below: Teens playing Smash Brothers on the Wii, with a glance at a teen playing Labyrinth.

 

Labyrinth

Easily the belle of this ball, Ravensburger's Labyrinth was the board game that had interested my YABers the most and got the most play (besides the video game) that day. It also happened to be the sponsor of IGD and I was glad we got a copy - I have one myself from about twenty years ago, but this one was not falling apart. The game is deceptively simple: land on each tile that has a picture that matches the cards in your hand (for a harder game: make it a deck instead of a hand, and only go for the top card in your deck). Unfortunately, the Labyrinth moves every turn, and the board changes as an extra tile piece is pushed in, changing one row and one column and nearly every path. It's a great game that incorporates both strategy and luck and is easy for kids of all ages to pick up.

Interactive Storytelling/Tabletop RPGs for Kids

This topic is definitely going to have its own blog post soon, but this went over very well with the volunteers and I am looking forward to giving it another shot with the kids. I am a big fan of tabletop RPGs (Dungeons & Dragons is the most popular example) and have been since I was eight. I am subsequently a huge proponent of using tabletop RPGs to teach, because I learned many, many skills from gaming. I brought two new games to IGD to test out, both geared toward younger players.

Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple is a storytelling game geared toward preteens and young teens. It has a distinctly Avatar: The Last Airbender feel to it. It encourages writing skills and working together, while providing a way to mess with your friends so it isn't all sunshine and teamwork. Sometimes there's something satisfying about throwing a wrench into the story to see how the next person fixes it, and that's exactly how Do works. It's a great rainy day game and a great game to teach creative writing.

Happy Birthday Robot! is another storytelling game, this one year toward 8-10 year olds. The dice rolls involved give the players the number of words they have to add to the story as well as the number of "and"s and "but"s that they have to use. It's particularly good for teaching writing mechanics, and I've yet to find someone of any age who doesn't have fun writing a birthday story for Robot. I'll have a few examples up sometime in the future.

Wii

I'm not exactly pleased that the Wii won out over the traditional games, but I'm not really surprised, either. We had a knot of kids and about 1/3 of my volunteers who kept at the Wii for most of the afternoon. When they switched from Smash Brothers to Just Dance, most of the volunteers flocked there, but it was also toward the end of the afternoon and right at the same time as we began to break down. I do have respect for the Wii (and own one myself and love it), but I would be hesitant to include it again because I would like to break kids out of their video game mold. I find that sometimes they're just too scared to try something new - like any game that doesn't use a controller or joystick.

All in all, we had over twenty-five games on display, though few were played. Uno, Jenga, Labyrinth, and a few rounds of Balderdash were given the most treatment, though we had a few rounds played of Happy Birthday Robot! and Do also got a little spotlight, though all of those were overshadowed by the Wii. I had half a mind to include the sheets I made of the benefits of games, but this was meant to be a short little post and I've already lied about that. I'll probably make another post in the future about games in general. So that's two promised posts: games in general and tabletop RPGs. Don't let me flake!

Thanks for joining me!