This is the 3rd of the 3 ways students could “win” my class game. You can read the first two here – Survival Mode and Oracles Intervention. To understand the concept behind this mechanic here is a brief synopsis of the story (for a more detailed version read Survival Mode). The Oracles accidentally (?) opened “The Rift” a portal through space and time that has brought forth withered husks of historical figures we call Time Zombies. These hordes need to be defeated in battle in order to send them back to their own time. Survival Mode allows battle, the Oracles involves unlocking puzzles, and the S.H.I.E.L.D. Accords requires diplomacy.

Win Condition #3: Signing the S.H.I.E.L.D. Accords

In my US History class we will eventually talk about the Cold War era mutual defense league known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The S.H.I.E.L.D. Accords are modeled on this same mutual defense concept. The Acronym stands for Seeking Help In Eliminating the Living Dead. In order to ratify the S.H.I.E.L.D. Accords guilds from EVERY nation have to travel to the Capitals of EVERY other nation and convince those nations to let them in the defense league.

To track completion I have created these:

The center image is an Icon representing one of the 6 Nations. The other 5 nations surrounding the central icon represent the Nations that need to sign on to allowing the center Nation into the S.H.I.E.L.D. Accords. As the center Nation’s guilds travel to the other capitals and get the Accords signed we will draw a checkmark over the nations that have signed off.

Getting the Signatures

In order to have a successful diplomatic visit a guild must first travel to another nation’s capital. Once in the capital they will need to locate a Primary Source based on a topic of Mr. Powley’s Choice from a Database. This means must show the Database as well as the Source because there is no “Googling” of Primary Sources. For Each Primary Source from a Unique Database (only 1 source per Database) the Guild gets to roll an 8 sided die. If the Roll is a 1 the Accord Alliance is confirmed! If the Nation sends more than 1 guild then for each guild from that Nation present in the foreign capital lower the number of sides of the die by 2 (i.e. 8 sided to 6 sided). The best possible odds are a 50/50 coin flip regardless of the number of guilds. If the Accord Alliance FAILS then a time penalty is assessed. The guild must wait until the next class to try again upon which they will receive a new topic to research.

Once all of the Nations have completed the S.H.I.E.L.D. Accords challenge then the game is over!