In my previous post I shared Win Condition #1: Survival Mode as well as an overview of the storyline for my classroom game. The quick version of the story – The 6 mysterious and powerful Oracles have once again converged over the land of Terra. The first time this happened, ages ago, led to a fracturing of the land that led to the modern borders of the 6 Nations. We don’t know why they met again but it appears that their combined power caused a rift in Space and Time. Periodically the rift spews forth a massive blast of energy that sucks a historical figure from the past and makes them into a Time Zombie. These Zombie Hordes steal victims and send them into the past – never to be seen again.
I believe that games are more fun with competition but I also know that collaboration is an important motivator. Too often competition in class boils down to team A vs. team B; Jeopardy is the classic example and it always pits students against each other. Usually this is not a huge deal but it could have negative,impacts on the class environment and always leads to a loser. More interesting to me are collaborarive victory games.
Modern board games have figured out mechanics that make the competitive element not player versus player but rather player versus game. I have mentioned (probably too often) my interest in applying the mechanics of Pandemic. In these collaborative victory games either all players will or all of the players lose (and the “game” wins). In these games cooperation is encouraged but not necessarily required and it is possible to have competitive minigames. In the survival mode (from the last post) this allows for the rogue guild to go off and battle but there are other ways to win the game.
Win Condition #2: Oracle Intervention
The 6 powerful Oracles are spread out over the board game map.
Each Oracle is located in a single Blue Hexagon. A student group must travel to the Oracle location and they will then be given an Oracle Challenge. These will be digital breakout challenges that can be done either in or outside of class. If the students are able to complete the breakout activity they will be given a Primary Source full of “Source Energy” which will then need to be taken to the Time Rift location. If a guild holding one of the Primary Sources decides to battle a Time Zombie and loses then the source will be lost, the guild will be sent back to their Nation’s Capital, and another guild will need to take up the Oracles’ challenge. Once all 6 Oracle Challenge Sources have been brought back to the Rift then it will close taking all of the Time Zombies with them. Why won’t the Oracles do it themselves? Well… they work in mysterious ways. Maybe they caused the rift on purpose so that the people of Terra would need to learn more about this distant American History? Who knows… it is a mystery…
Come back soon to learn about our 3rd and final win condition: The S.H.I.E.L.D. Accords.
Classroom Powerups 