Ames' syllabi

Rule of Planets: A game that is Catan meets Monopoly in space.  Players are each seeking to expand a galactic empire by spreading to different planets.  They’ll have resource cards and have to trade them in to travel to different planets, and then use cards to build a base there.  From there, a planet might give certain bonus cards to use in the future.  For example, a player might play four rocket fuel cards to get to Pluto, play four construction cards to build a base there, and get a bonus of an extra rocket fuel card on each of their subsequent turns.  There are a finite number of planets to conquer, and the player that has conquered the most in the end wins.

Matching Sets: In this game, players want to get as many matching sets of cards as possible.  They start out with a deck of a certain length.  Each player’s turn, that player has to choose one card to sacrifice, and all the other players pick up two of that card type.

Genetic engineering: In this game, the players are genetic engineers.  They are collecting cards in order to become the most powerful genetic engineer.  There are three types of cards.  There are tech cards (which will offer different point values at the end of the game), order cards (in which you can sacrifice several specified cards to get points at the end of the game) and funding cards (which are used to purchase tech cards.) Tech cards fall into three categories: basic (things like brown hair or brown eyes), advanced (things like natural disease immunity or excellent memory) and mutations (things like claws, see-in-the-dark eyes, gills, etc.)  An order card might ask for a black hair card, a brown eyes card, and a gills card.

Time Travel Team: In this game, players are time travelers.  Their goal is to fill their time travel team/ship with different figures and artifacts from history before the rest of the players.  They do this by playing cards to travel to certain locations, and then playing additional cards to either recruit historical figures to their side or collect famous artifacts.

Gemstone game: In this game, the players are gemstone entrepreneurs. They collect gemstone cards and after a certain amount is collected, can ‘sell’ the gemstones in the form of jewelry for money.  They need to collect a certain amount of cards of a gemstone in order to ‘trademark’ it. Trademarking it means that the other players can no longer ‘sell’ those gemstones for money and can only trade them with other players.  The player with the most money at the end of the game wins.

1. Tic Tac Toe

Each person has a deck of cards and they put 9 cards out in front of them. If they don’t have tic tac toe, they draw a card and can replace any one of the nine cards. Once someone gets tic tac toe, they collect the cards and replace them with cards from the deck. Whoever has the most matches at the end of the game wins.

2. Deal all the cards out to everyone playing. Once you put down all of the matches, the game starts. Each player passes one card to their right. Whoever runs out of cards first wins.

3. Guess Who

Each person has a deck of cards in front of them and has one card as their ‘person.’ Each player takes turns asking if the ‘person’ has a certain quality – i.e. if it is a spade. If it is a spade, the other person flips over all of the cards that aren’t a spade. Whoever can guess the other player’s ‘person’  first wins.

4. Run

Each person starts off my putting 5 cards down. They then take turns drawing a card and replacing one of the original 5. Whoever gets a run first – i.e. 2 3 4 5 6 – wins.

5. Card Train

Each person has 10-15 cards out of a shuffled deck. Up to 4 players take 15 cards, 5 or 6 take 12, and 7 or 8 take 10. There is a ‘hub slot’ for each player and a card that starts the personal trains. Draw a card and put it in the middle of the hub to start the individual trains. The person to the left of whoever drew the first card for the communal train goes first. This then goes in a clockwise direction. Each person can either add one card to the communal train or they can add to their personal train if the card matches the hub card. If a player doesn’t have a move, they can choose a face down card from the ‘boneyard.’ If they still don’t have a move, they have to take the last card off of their personal train and that train becomes communal. Anyone can add to your personal train until you can add to it, which makes it a personal train again. Whoever runs out of cards first wins. To add to a train, the cards either have to be the same color, suit, face, or number.

alright so most of my ideas are kind of rough, but here we go

1. a wizard game where each player focuses on getting cards with spells and building their own custom combination of spells on their wand. Certain spells will counter others, with the goal being to attack other players and be the last wizard standing. There would also be specific defensive spells that can fend off certain spell attacks.
2. a hoarding type card game, where the goal is to have the own the most junk over other players. Each round players will steal different types of junk from a vault in the center, and having different combinations of junk from the vault will affect other players (such as stealing other players items or destroying them etc). Maybe also have a shop called gorbos junkyard, where players can turn in certain types of junk for better junk
3. a kingdom resource game, where depending on the kingdom you choose, the rules of the game differ. This could be that each kingdom can only play certain cards, or maybe each kingdom plays fundamentally different
4. a game that revolves around a magical totem that passes around to each player during their turn. This totem will give you gold the longer it is in your possession, so the goal of the game is to acquire the most gold. In addition there will be cards that enable you to hold onto the totem longer, or prevent others from acquiring the totem
5. a card game that similar to the price is right, except the item that you win will affect how you play in the upcoming rounds.

1- This one is a loose idea because I don’t know as much as I would like to about astrology, but I think it would be a cool topic to have a card game about. So every player is playing as their zodiac sign, and there are certain cards to pick from for all zodiac signs. When you pick a card each turn, it has a challenge on it based on your zodiac sign and their traits.
2-use a standard deck of cards and give one to each player. you have to pass your card to the person to your right. if you get a lower card than your original, you have to pick another card up (then youd have 2) keep doing this until the deck is gone. whoever has the most cards loses.
3-The cards are standard, except all white (no text) and laminated so you can write on them with expo markers. The players will write a dare, task, or challenge on the card. every turn the players pick a card and have to do what the card says. each player gets 3 chips and a chip is taken away when a dare is refused.
4-This is a variation of idea 3, with the same expo cards, except the players are divided into 2 groups. one group draws an image on a card and the other writes a saying on theirs. the cards are shuffled and, as a group, everyone judges which picture and saying are funniest when combined. Both of these players get a point. establish a winning number of points and when someone reaches it, they win.
5. everyone gets 7 cards. The goal of the game is to get every other card within the same suit. Each turn you pick up a card and the discard one. Your score once someone wins is based on your remaining hand. 10 points for all number card, 20 for face and aces.

Dungeon Crawl

Players would explore a randomly generated dungeon collecting items and fighting enemies to beat the boss and get the treasure. They would be able to find items to help throughout the dungeon. The dungeon would be made of tiles akin to Zombies!!! or Betrayal at House on the Hill. Items would be represented by cards similar to Munchkin or Betrayal.

Competitive City Builder

Players would build medieval cities on a randomized map. They would compete for land and resources and have to defend from threats. City building would be similar to Kingdoms and Castles and resources would be represented by cards.

Zombie Resource Management

Players must defend a base from zombies while also gathering resources to keep themselves alive and better defend their base. Game would end after a goal is met or the players could play until they lose or get bored.

Tarot Game

Players would have five tarot cards in a plus sign in the center of the table that they can manipulate and replace with the cards in their individual hands. Each player would have a unique goal card that would tell them which cards they need in certain positions to win.

Bartender Game

Players draw and collect cards of alcohols and drinks and have to try to combine them to create different mixed drinks in order to score points. The first player to x points wins.

Madisyn Kovach

Assignment: 5 game ideas that can utilize social distancing as a mechanic or make it part of the game.

Idea 1: Pop-up Checkers (Over quarantine, my brother and I seemed to always be playing checkers)

Meaning: A 3D virtual board will pop up on your phone and you will still feel like you are with someone playing.

Need: 2 players

Audience: Could go for the younger or older generation

Idea 2: Hey Alexa, Move the Dots (Inspired by Sorry)

Meaning: You will have a normal board with a plug. When you plug in the board, colored digital chips will pop up on the screen. You will need to say things like “Alexa shuffle the cards”, “Alexa pick a card”, or even “Alexa move the blue dot three spaces” (depending on what card you get). The board will be in the shape of an Alexa. Directions will be on the QR code on the back.

Need: 4 players, an Alexa, a phone to download the app

Audience: Younger People/Teens (10-20)

Idea 3: Quarantine (drawing game)

Meaning: While in quarantine, you must draw how you think your friend would redo each room in their house. After a player is done drawing, your drawing will be revealed to you friend. Whatever items are in the same place in both of your drawings will earn you a point.

Need: 2 players, white board/markers, or even could be done on your phone

Audience: 20 and up

Idea 4: Wash Your Hands!

Meaning: Wash your hands is to keep the game fun but not touching anything at the same time. When placing your hand under an electric soap dispenser, it will tell you how many spaces to move. (Maybe the board could plug in so it can show the sink dripping and thats how your spaces will move from point A to point B)

Need: 4-8 players

Audience: 5 and up

Idea 5: One Way

Meaning: Kind of working off of Candyland, you will only be able to move on way on the board. Its a start to finish game.

Need: 4 players and the game

Audience: 5-12 years old

5 card games

War Game

            Every Player gets a deck of cards. The deck is a specific army in history and there are cards that have attack abilities, blocking abilities, and victory abilities. The higher the card the more attack power they have. There are also blocking cards that will help block against the attacks. If you get attacked and you lose, you lose those cards. If you block, you lose the cards you block with. There is a victory card that will grant you automatic victory if you are being attacked. However, there are only 3 victory cards in your entire deck. You can play with multiple people and chose who to attack. If you do not come across a victory card, but want to win, you will have to attack and the opponent and the opponent will have to use all their cards against you and lose.

Color Card Game

            Something with only color-coded cards. Everyone gets 5 cards. You go around and pick up one card and put a black one down. If you only have colored cards, you can put a color down but then you have to discard one too. If you run out of cards, you lose. Majority of the cards are colored black. If a red card comes up and everyone has to put a colored card down. If someone does not have a color card they lose. The rounds continue until one person is left standing.

Zodiac

            You have to match the correct personality traits to their proper zodiac signs. There are 12 zodiac signs and there are a bunch of cards that match up to their zodiac signs. There are two decks, one for the zodiac signs, and one for the traits. The person who has the closest birthday picks the zodiac sign. The object of the game is to have most of the zodiac traits for that particular sign. Everyone gets 7 cards, and you are able to see which sign they belong to. You need to have 12 different traits for the zodiac sign to win. On your turn you can put down as many traits as you want, but you can only pick up one card at a time. You can also trade your cards on your turn. You can select a player and ask to trade as many cards as you want. Since you are trading the other person needs to accept cards from you, and they can decline. If they decline you need to pick up only one card.

Transylvania

            There’s a deck of cards filled with different monsters. Everyone picks up 5 cards, and there’s one person that sits out every round. Everyone puts a card and then the person that sits out shuffles the cards thrown in the pile and then deals them out. If someone gets a Dracula card, they are instantly dead. Then everyone has to figure out who killed the person who died, and if you are accused you must argue your case. The person who sits out put everything to a vote and then that person who is voted out can reveal if they killed the person or not. The game continues until one person is left standing. If you win the round you get a point. The person with the most points wins the game.

Speed Russian Roulette

            Card game where there are images of a gun and there are 10 bullet cards. You sit in a circle and everyone picks up cards as fast as they can when it’s their turn. If you get a bullet card you die. Whoever has the most cards at the end wins. You keep score by counting how many cards you earned, and once you reach 500 you win.

Eat the Rich

This game is similar to love letter, being 10 cards for each person, everyone keeps a card to keep and one to discard each turn, keep discarded cards in front of you. Once all cards are gone, all players reveal their hand and the round is over. The lowest rank wins. Highest does not receive a token and is out for the rest of the game. However, if you have the highest card in the first round and you have the lowest card in your discard pile, you are back in. Rest (not highest or lowest) of the players continue on but get a black token. Continue playing until everyone is out. 3 black tokens means you are out. There are no ties with ranks, only higher or lower. This game focuses on the class dynamics during the French Revolution so the lower ranks are fighting back and dislike the higher ranks. Therefore, lower ranks are better in this game. Cards: 1. Peasant 2. Farmer 3. Servant 4. Merchant 5. Knight 6. Count 7. Duke 8. King 9. Priest 10. Pope. Keep playing until everyone is out and someone wins. 

Match

Each player starts with 3 cards, you want these cards to match the win cards. The win cards 3 cards chosen from the stack on win cards, that the players want to match in order to win. Once a round is over all win cards go into a discard pile. The round goes on by players picking up a card and discarding one. The first player to match the 3 win cards, win. Shuffle the discard pile when there are no more cards. Shuffle the win card pile each round. 4 piles: New win cards, discarded win cards, new match cards, discarded match cards. 

Not it

There is a deck of 10 cards, 2 of which are all black, 4 players max. You want the black cards, but you don’t want anyone to know that you have it. Other cards may allow players to see your hand. All players will start with two cards, then choose one to keep and one to discard. The round begins and ends rather quickly, either in or out. When the round ends, and if you have a black card in your hand, you get a point for the round. All other cards besides the black cards have different actions applied to them. If you discard cards 1-8, follow these actions: 1. Out of the round 2. Swap card with the player to your left 3. Look at the hand of the player to your right 4. Nothing 5. Lose one card, pick up a new one 6. Swap hands with another player 7. Show one person your hand 8. Out of round. Since there are 4 players max, 2 cards will be set aside and not picked up when the round begins. 

Green Thumb

Goal of the game is to grow your plant the fastest. Players will get level cards and element cards. Level cards show what cards you need to level up and eventually win. Element cards are used to level up. This game works like go fish, where you ask players if they have different element cards. Yes = get the card, No = nothing happens. Each player starts with 2 cards. If a player has 0 element cards, they can pick up 1 at their next turn. Element cards include: water, fertilizer, sun, soil. Level cards include: seed, bud, sprout, flower. Each level consists of different element cards:

Level 1 to 2: 1 water, 2 sun, 1 soil.

Level 2 to 3: 2 water, 2 sun, 1 soil.

Level 3 to 4: 2 water, 2 sun, 1 soil, 1 fertilizer. 

Level 4: win

There are a decent amount of sun and water cards, a few soil cards, and only a few fertilizer cards.

Smoothie Smash

Players get fruit cards and a recipe card. Fruit/ingredients combine to make “smoothies”. Each smoothie has a different point value associated with it, more points = winner. Round/game is over when all fruit cards are gone. To play the game: players pick fruit cards, make a smoothie with those cards, receive points for the smoothie, and then pick more cards at next turn. Sort of like scrabble in how the game operates. Example: you get a orange, blueberry, strawberry, and banana card: you can make a orange sunrise (10pt) by combining orange and strawberry or you can make a berry blast (15pt) by combining blueberry and strawberry, you pick. 

1. Each person has a score card that is ranked 2-12. When you roll a number mark it off on the sheet. If you roll a number that you already marked off subtract that number from the overall score at the end. Whoever has the highest score wins.
2. Each person has 5 cards and rolls the dice. Whoever rolls the highest number takes a card out of the shuffled deck. Whoever gets the most matches and is out of cards first wins. Each person also has their own dice and deck of cards.
3. Everyone bets poker chips and rolls two dice. Whoever rolls the highest number wins the poker chips, unless someone rolls a double and then they win.
4. Roll one dice and the number you roll is the number of cards that you draw from the deck – each person gets 8 rolls. Whoever can make the most matches wins. If the cards that you matched are the same color, number, or all of the same number – you get bonus points.
5. Golf – Everyone gets a golf score sheet for nine ‘holes.’ Each person takes a turn to roll one dice to determine the ‘par’ of the hole. The par is applied to every player for that hole until the next hole, when someone else rolls the dice and then that number is the new par. Whoever is ‘teeing off’ has to roll two dice until they roll a double. Each roll is considered a ‘stroke.’ If you roll a double on the first try it is a ‘hole in one,’ second try is an ‘eagle,’ and so on. Every one has their own score card and dice.