Roll and Move: Game Mechanics 101

If you have played any mainstream games you have probably played Yatzee. Although I have run into people that have not heard of this timeless classic, it is probably the most well know roll and write game. Most mechanics are pretty self explanatory, and this is no exception. You are going to roll dice and record things on your sheet of paper. They tend to be small box games, easy to travel with, but not always easy to teach or learn.

In Yatzee, you are simply collecting sets from the die results. The dice are normal 6 sided dice (d6). With these basic dice we can bring things up a notch. Quixx allows players to participate in each person's turn. It also combines simple number writing with a push your luck element. Another game that uses a basic d6 is Welcome to Dino World.  

Games like Railroad Ink use dice with different sides. In Railroad Ink, for example, the sides of the dice have railroad and street configurations. They are written on your board to create the most efficient transportation system with the most connections. 

There are starting to be more variations in this genre. One of our most played games is Welcome To... It is a flip and write game, utilizing cards instead of dice.

What are your favorite roll and write games? Tell us in the comments! 

How to Create Your Own Unit Studies

I know that for many, curriculum is one of the biggest challenges in the life of a homeschool parent, especially at the beginning. Some places are more challenging than others, for sure. We live in Quebec right now and it is incredibly challenging to make the government happy while still allowing learning to be fun and engaging.

I have been making my own unit studies for a couple of years now. It has been so much fun! I have to tell you that I REALLY love making units and that is why I make them for my patrons over on Patreon. I have fun doing it and they get the ease of not having to come up with anything.

Today I want to show you how I do it. It is easier than you think. I made my printable unit study planner available for free on our Patreon page. Follow along and we will get a unit started, planned, and finished.

Get the planning templates here!

First I need to know what I am going to make my unit on. My oldest is going into 7^th grade in the fall. I like making history-based units best and he will be required to learn about ancient history. I might as well start at the beginning and do a unit on Neolithic society.

The first thing I am going to do is choose a game. I already know it is going to be Stone Age because I have been wanting to give it a try. If I were doing the study for a younger kid, I would choose Honga or My First Stone Age. If I didn’t already know a game I wanted to use, I would do a quick Google search for one. I always have a game in my units. If you want to know why, check out my post about whatgameschooling is and why you should do it.

I thought it might be fun to get in more experiential learning with a video game. A quick search brought up some options that look awful. Far Cry Primal looks interesting though, so I am going to check out the rating, system, and cost. Well, the M rating looks like it is fairly accurate from the ads I saw for it. I will just stick with a board game for this unit.

Now that I have a game figured out, I am going to start looking for books. I usually start by searching Google for best books on the topic I am covering. So today I am looking up best books for teens about the stone age. I always choose a book that is fiction and one that is non-fiction. For non-fiction I have decided to get the Horrible Histories Collection 20 book set. It includes the stone age as well as the other eras we will need to cover next year. I like how they are written. These will probably be the read-aloud books for us.

I am having a hard time finding a book for my son to read. I am looking for something about a boy, if possible, and age appropriate. So, I will try some other keywords in my search. After some more searching, I decided to go with The Kin by Peter Dickinson. I can get it on the Kindle, which is a bonus. Plus it is an omnibus, so he can read one or all of them for the price of one book.

Next on my list are videos. My first stop was Curiosity Stream. We got a year of streaming for super cheap and it has been a great resource for our homeschool. I found The Manot Skull which is about evidence that modern men and Neanderthals lived side-by-side. Modern Stone Age Family is about cooking and eating from ancient times. Lastly, The Neanderthals’ Dark Secret which is about why they are no longer around. That is probably good so I will check out some websites. I didn’t find anything I wanted to use, except for a virtual tour of Lascaux Cave. Technically it is another video, https://vimeo.com/40849516. It is a nice addition though. Sometimes there isn’t a site to explore and that is okay.

I already know that I will have him recreate some stone age art, so that is one activity down. The Modern Stone Age Family video would pair well with a cooking activity replicating one of the food prep methods. Now I am going to head over to Pinterest and see if there are any interesting activities to do. I’m finding that this is a topic that doesn’t have a lot of information or activities. It makes sense since it is prehistory. It is okay for this to be a short unit. I will add a great activity staple, making a diorama. I let him build it out of whatever he wants or on Minecraft.

I already have history in the unit since it is the main focus. Science is there because of the scientific study of the bones and foods they ate in the videos we will watch. I don’t worry about getting math in because we use Shiller Math and don’t need to add more. I have an art project, not required, but a nice addition. For language arts, I have reading and listening taken care of, but I would like to get some writing in there for a well rounded study. I think I will have him write and illustrate a short story about what it would be like to live in the stone age. It has writing and some more art. As a bonus, he can make it into a picture book to read to his 3 year old little brother.

So, there you have it! We made a unit. On the printable I have included a page for you to plan out your activities by day/week. My Neolithic unit is short and will probably take a couple of weeks or so. Most of my units take about 4-6 weeks depending on the topic and amount of potential information and activities. It took about an hour to put the unit together, mostly one handed with a 3 year old on my lap, and while also writing this blog post.

Whether you are making a unit for a specific topic to cover regulations or making a unit for your child’s ever-changing interests, you can do it. It is fast and very flexible. You can make your units months in advance or just days. If you want to get some pre-made units, become a patron. You can get this unit and more. We also have a few free units that you can check out in the side bar and at our Patreon page. Good luck unit planning and let me know how it goes!

Get the completed unit here on our Patreon page!

Tile Placement: Game Mechanics 101

Welcome back to game mechanics 101! Today's topic is tile  placement. It is a broad subject since the essence of the mechanic is that you have tiles that you place to construct some thing. We have had a lot of tile placement games over the years. Even though they utilize the same mechanic, they feel very different.

Square tiles are very common in these games. Carcassonne,  our first hobby board game, uses the tiles to build a map with cities, roads, and cloisters. Glenmore II is similar but each person makes their own individual map and it is combined with a rondel mechanic. In Alhambra, the tiles for your city must be purchased.

Between 2 Cities is another city building game but it doesn't only use squares. It changes things up with some rectangular tiles and building with teammates. Castles of Mad King Ludwig has a variety of shapes to construct your castle. There is even a mash up of these 2 games, Between 2 Castles of Mad King Ludwig.

With Tetris style tiles, Baren Park brings tile placement into the puzzle realm. The pieces build your zoo but they need to interlock efficiently to win the game. Patchwork is another of these type of games but adds a little economy as you need to make money to buy tiles.

Share with us your favorite tile placement game or one you are interested in trying. I for one am interested in trying Cottage Garden. Join us next week for roll and write games.

An Interview with Weird Giraffe Games

Today we have a special interview with Weird Giraffe Games. Thank you, Carla, for taking the time to visit with us. You have a new game coming out, Tumble Town, about the old west. As a bonus for our readers, we have put together a board game based unit study (featuring Tumble Town) that we will make available for free, for everyone, on our Patreon page. More information about the unit study will be at the end of the interview. What did you love about the initial Tumble Town pitch enough to sign the game? It wasn't a formal pitch for Tumble Town, but playing prototypes with friends. I was just getting to know the designer Kevin and so far we had gotten along great. I loved the dice stacking to create the buildings and the Western theme, as I'm all about themes that aren't out there as much. Those two facts, coupled with thinking that Kevin was a person I could work well with, made me offer to sign and publish the game. I hope everyone else falls in love with Tumble Town as fast as I did! What is the game about?

In Tumble Town players are rolling dice, constructing buildings, and competing to make the best town in the West. To do this, players are drafting building plans and dice and trying to construct buildings based on the plans. Each plan requires a certain type and value for the dice and if you can construct it, you'll either get a power you can use every turn, an instant power, or a new scoring condition for you at the end of the game. After two dice supplies run out, the game is over and players finish the round, then tally their scores. What game mechanics are featured in the game and why? There's set collection, hidden objectives, dice manipulation, engine building, and a spatial puzzle. For the set collection, it was added to give players an easy direction to go in the game; simply go for the style icon that gives them extra points. I always like games that have some hidden aspect of scoring, which is why the hidden objectives are in the game. It's always sad to know that you're losing, so I'd prefer if players only know that for sure at the end of the game and at that point, it's over and they can play again, if they want. Dice manipulation was added to give players more agency, as players are rolling dice and sometimes dice rolls are not in the favor of the player. If player's get enough dice manipulation powers, they'll be able to construct any building that they wish. Engine building is in the game to give players some different strategies to go down. They can focus on manipulating dice, getting more dice, gaining more scoring objectives, or any combination of the three. The spatial puzzle aspect of the game was added in last and it was added in to give additional things for the players to think about and to appeal to players interested in spatial aspects of games. What challenges did you encounter in developing and preparing to Kickstart Tumble Town? Figuring out the end game of Tumble Town took more than a year and a half to decide on. Kevin Russ, the designer, originally had the game end after a specific number of rounds. I prefer games endings where you don't know the exact number of turns that you're going to get as then you can't completely math out the game. At one point, the game had dice mines where players could take dice with specific values and once two dice mines ran out, the game end would be triggered. I ended up getting rid of the dice mines as players got confused about what dice to roll and what dice not to roll and I don't like confusing players. The next game end was triggered when players would run through the two of the three building plan decks. This worked for most players, but some beginner players would run out the level 1 deck, then go to the level 2 decks, and cause the game to end before getting to the level 3 deck. Switching to when the dice supplies ran out kept the player agency where a player that knew what they were doing could end the game early, but new players would not. Who, in actual wild west history, most fascinates you and why?

I wouldn't say there's any particular person in Wild West History that fascinates me, but I am kind of in love with the ring tailed cat that lives out in the West. I didn't know about it until I was researching more about the West, but as soon as I saw it, I was so fascinated. It's a member of the raccoon family, but looks kind of like a cat crossed with a lemur. I definitely want to include it in Tumble Town somewhere, but it's looking like it'll be in the animal expansion.

Photo from livescience.com

You are launching Tumble Town on Kickstarter soon. Why do you choose to use Kickstarter? Are there pros and cons to this method? It's not so much of choosing Kickstarter as I wouldn't be able to make games without Kickstarter. It requires a lot of money to manufacture a game and doing so without knowing if the market is there for the game would destroy most small companies. Kickstarter lets me see if people are interested in the game enough for me to do a full print run. As far as cons, running a Kickstarter is super stressful and I hope to get to the point where I can go straight to retail with a few games but I feel like that will be far from now, as the pros of Kickstarter far outweigh the cons. Where can people go to make sure they get a copy of Tumble Town?

http://weirdgiraffegames.com/TTKS25

Where can our readers find Weird Giraffe Games online?

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WeirdGiraffes Website: http://weirdgiraffegames.com Facebook: https://facebook.com/weirdgiraffegames… Instagram: https://instagram.com/weirdgiraffegames/… Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/WeirdGiraffeGames/

If you want to learn more about the wild west you can check out our wild west unit study here. All of our units studies feature a board game and Tumble Town is the featured game for this unit. I have included alternate games for those that want to start the unit right away.

The study covers language arts, history, science, and art. Along with playing games, you will be reading some great books, drawing maps, and even constructing a replica old west town in Minecraft or diorama form. I hope you have a blast learning along with us!

Click here to get the free unit study!

Why You Should Gameschool With RPGs

First things first, What is an RPG? RPG stands for role playing game. This still might not sound familiar if you haven't played one, think Dungeons and Dragons. Most people have heard of D&D, whether they have played it or not. It was the one that started them all. That's right, all! There are a lot of them to choose from. They range from very simplistic with a paragraph of rules to complex with tomes of rules, backstory, and information.

So, you are on board with using games to teach your kids, but this sounds like a bit of a stretch? Let me explain. RPGs are story based games. One person is the GM (game master). The GM runs the game and plays as all the people, creatures, and things that the PCs (player characters) encounter. The other players in the game are the PCs. Now that you have the very basic idea, let's dive further.

For the PCs the first task is to create a character. This varies by RPG type, some taking an hour and others taking just a few moments. This can require a lot of math but they all require some intentional choices. The players will be playing with this same character over the course of many game sessions. Once in game they will want to role play these characters and make their choices based on who the character is and not simply what they want.

The GM has the big job of establishing the story and the world that will be played in. They create it, but don't control it. Ultimately the GM and PCs build the story together as the game is played. If the teacher is the GM there is so much they can add to help with intentional learning. Let me give an example.

One year we were learning about the pilgrims and their later relationship with the native peoples. To give the lessons a bit more life, we played Roll for Shoes, an quick and simple RPG. My son did not create his own character for this one. I set the scene with descriptive detail and he looks at me with the most incredulous look possible and says, "Am I a turkey?!" Yes, yes he was. He got to be a fly on the wall to some of the events that happened. By the end of the game he had saved his turkey flock, stopped a war from breaking out, and pulled some pretty sweet ninja turkey moves. He had a blast doing it, once he got over the fact that he was playing as a turkey.

The beauty of RPGs is that you are basically playing a game of pretend in any setting you like. You can give the players problems to solve, situations to figure out, and give them the chance to put themselves in someone else's shoes. The game can be set in any time and place. You can even add a little extra language arts time by having your kids write out the story of what happened in the game. This can result in a lovely book of memories over the course of many gaming sessions.

Are you sold yet? I hope so! There are a lot of options to choose from in the RPG genre. I already mentioned Roll for Shoes. It is a free system that requires few supplies and you can find it here: https://rollforshoes.com/. Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder are very immersive and rules heavy games. They can be expensive and time consuming, but also very engaging. There are many RPGs based on movies and TV shows too.

We recently had a chance to try out Animal Empire from Half-Monster Games. It is scheduled for release next month and it is fantastic! Character creation is simple and the game is not heavy on rules. The book has great information for GMs about how to create a story and locale. It has some starting story ideas and even a ready to go story to play. Animal Empire allows for a lot of creativity while also not having to come up with everything on your own. The mechanics of the game can easily translate into a realm of your own creation too, historical or fictional. This is our new favorite, for sure!

Have you played RPGs for school before? We would love to hear your stories. Share them in the comments.

Worker Placement: Game Mechanics 101

To watch Adam's video lesson click here!

Welcome back to game mechanics 101! Today we are talking about worker placement games. I already shared a little about our experience with Agricola in our lesson introduction. It was our first worker placement game and only our second Euro game. It was difficult for us to learn and understand. Now, worker placement games are among our favorites.

Worker placement games are focused around your worker pieces and where you are going to place them. These games have a shared board with limited spaces to place workers. Each space will provide the player with resources or actions that they need to work toward victory.

In Agricola, only one player can be on each space on the board. This means that players can block each other easily. Viticulture has a limited number of slots open per action, but multiple workers can use each one. The number of available slots is dependent on the number of players.

The Manhattan Project has a main board with actions as well. However, the players can also construct their own board of options to play on. This means that not every player will have the same options by the end of the game.

Are Dinosaur Island and Dice hospital worker placement games? We have had a number of discussions about this. They both use workers that are placed on limited spaces, but the spaces are on the players’ individual boards. There is no community board in which the players interact with each other. What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments. Join us next week for tile placement games.

Amazing Race Study Notebook

We love to watch The Amazing Race! Why not turn it into a great way to study geography and social science? This one printable will help your students engage deeper with what they see in the show and learn about the countries that the contestants visit.

Pages one and two give you art for your binder. Page three is a page to put in information about the country visited (map, flag, country stats).  The fourth page is a place to record the events that occurred in the episode ind interesting facts or situations that arose. The last page is a place to record information about the culture of the countries visited. 

Pages 3-5 will be printed as needed, depending on the season being watched. We have had a lot of fun using this workbook over the years and we hope you and you kids do too!

This unit is available for all of our Patrons at any level, so come check it out and get started learning with the show.

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