Kids' Diplomacy board made out of a pizza box
Ken sez, "Kids on a school trip to Costa Rica made a Diplomacy board out of a pizza box:"
Diplomacy is Fun Leadership Training (Thanks, Ken!)
I just got back from chaperoning a high school trip to Costa Rica. While there, some of the kids put together a make-shift Diplomacy game out of a pizza box top. Playing gave the kids and me fun lessons in leadership and negotiation.
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"Playing gave the kids and me fun lessons in leadership and negotiation."
And backstabbing, cheating, lying, treachery, misanthropy, etc.
Leadership and negotiation my ass! That game teaches nothing but lying and backstabbing!
*waits for the inevitable "But you repeat yourself"*
Dear god, you have the most wholesome class I've ever heard of!
On a high-school trip, they MADE A BOARD GAME? Compare that to his more typical account from The Onion last week: http://www.theonion.com/content/news/three_fingered_on_class_trip_to?utm_source=a-section
In the real world, leadership & negotiation = backstabbing, cheating, lying, treachery, misanthropy, etc.
Did anyone mention lying or backstabbing yet?
Back in elementary school, a buddy would draw up a quick Risk-alike board on a sheet of paper for pickup games at recess or lunch.
(He was always careful to make an Australia-alike set of territories. Good man.)
okay, that's like the best thing ever. It's creative problem solving, zero-sum, game theory, plus personal relations all rolled into one endearingly vicious little mess. Go teens!
In our gaming group "... we could play diplomacy" is code for "... it's probably time to go home".
Certainly nothing against these creative kids, just not a big favorite with the gamers I know. Glad to hear someone likes it - keeping it diverse in the gaming world.
"My fleet moves from the Grease Stain Sea to transport troops to the Mozzarella Mountains."
Oooooh! Avalon Hill is gonna bust their asses.
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But seriously. Wouldn't it be cool to have a Pizza Box Game Contest? Except for dice (if you need them), all of the pieces would be found objects. Paper chits perfectly acceptable.
"That's not a mountain, it's cheese!"
Diplomacy is responsible for many flat-out brawls amongst my high school friends.
That game is dangerous. Lying and backstabbing, indeed.
Man, all of the snark on Diplomacy.
The backstabbing is why it's UBER.
When I was in high school, we played Diplomacy exactly once, and it ended so badly (and precipitously) that, by tacit agreement, we never played again.
I remember being intrigued by the idea of a game that removed all the random elements (i.e. no dice) and based all the outcomes strictly on the interactions of the players. We were pretty big role playing gamers (Champions and GURPS, mostly), so you'd think that wouldn't be much of a stretch, but it blew up in the worst way. Half of us really got into the lying, backstabbing spririt of the game, and the other half took it personally; hillarity ensued (it wasn't quite a flat-out brawl, but the game board was severely assualted).