Designing a Game that Teaches Character Development

Very good references, Richard. I had completely forgotten about the morality game play of the Victorian era. However, I'd never heard of "Mansion" before.

A spark of direction has started me on a certain direction, but I will research the types of games you suggested and see if there's stuff there I can incorporate.

Essentially, I want my game to be one where children actively decide what actions to apply to specific situations, based on the various character-development traits.

The challenge is in designing the game so that the situations are open-ended enough to be replayable and instructive.

Hi
If your game is trying to reflect real life have you considered adding an element of random luck? It could result in a villain gaining a benefit or a hero losing out for a turn. I wouldn't suggest too many of these as it would affect the game too much, but sometimes these "unfair" situations do happen and one's morality is also affected by the fairness or unfairness of the world as viewed by the individual. Would a villain who receives a random act of good fortune modify their future behaviour/decisions? Would someones' previous "good" morality be changed in future turns if their good deeds are "rewarded" by bad luck?

Just my 2 cents worth..
Sue

The problem with this suggestion is having to rely on other players for a consensus determination on the merits of your choices (especially if the players are children, and, your competitors). This suggestion is good for conversational games, but not for strategy games.

I guess I want to have a strong strategic foundation to this game. So, I'm trying to figure out a way to add quantifiable choice options, while retaining as much of the qualitative aspects of moral reasoning you point out are in Scruples.

After reading this, I realize I have no idea how to say what I'm trying to say. I'll just get back to kicking this around.

Very cool suggestion, Nautilus. One that is close to what I started thinking about since my last post.

Are you guys familiar with the game called, "Lifeboat?" In it, you are posed with the hypothetical situation of a sinking ship that can only carry five people, but there are eight people on the ship. As a group, you discuss which five people should be the ones to get on the boat.

So, I extended this thought to a science fiction-themed game I am feverishly developing as you read this.

The game's working title is, "Starship Exodus." I'll come up with the final title later.

The premise of this game is that an advanced race of aliens is doomed to extinction unless its citizens escape their planet and locate a habitable planet on which to settle. The aliens have built a number of starships that can only carry a very small number of refugees. These starships have been launched, barely escaping the cataclysm.

At the start of the game, the players are considered in their own starships, each heading through hyperspace in different directions, traveling toward a distant planet. As the game progresses, the starships are considered to be getting closer and closer to their assigned planets, and their sensors provide players with more and more information about their survivors' future home. This information will influence how players choose survivors to be in their respective groups.

The object of the game would be to assemble the right combination of "survivors" from a common deck who players think would best survive on their assigned planet during the Outcome Phase of the game.

Each prospective alien survivor has the following attributes: an Advantage, a Disadvantage, a Positive Character Trait, and a Negative Character Trait.

The game would be played in two distinct phases: the Preparations Phase and the Outcome Phase. Each phase has its own deck from which all players draw during their respective turns. In addition to these two decks, there would be a third deck, called the "Planet Deck." Each card in this deck represents information about a planet, what resources are present on it, and any other relevant planetary features that will affect the alien group's chances of survival.

Each turn, the active player draws one card from the Preparation Deck and one card from the Planet Deck. The active player puts his or her Planet Card face up around his assigned Planet on the game board, so all players see its information.

If there are any alien citizens in the active player's Hand of seven cards, s/he may put into play one citizen into play to be in his or her ship's group of survivors.

As the active player does so, s/he explains why that particular survivor was chosen to be in his or her group. This is when the moral and strategic judgments begin to come into play. This is a subtle way of incorporating each player's decision-making processes about moral rasoning rather than just having a discussion.

After the explanation is given, I think it might be interesting if the active player is given the option to predict which group of survivors (including his own) will survive. The active player can put as many color-coded Survival Tokens as s/he has available onto a destination Planet on the game board.

At the end of the twenty Outcome Phase turns, if there are equal numbers of survivors in two or more groups, and therefore, no clear winner in the game, then the player who invested the most Survival Tokens on the Planet whose citizens are worth the most in terms of aggregate Survival Points wins the game.

The Preparations Phase lasts twenty turns. During this time, players are able to put into play up to ten survivors, as well as as many equipment and supplies cards as they manage to collect during the random Preparations draws to prepare for their group's escape.

Any alien citizens a player doesn't want to include as part of their group can be discarded from their Hand, and placed face up on the board. Citizens who are discarded in this manner are available for other players to pick up during their turns. They could exchange previously played aliens for the ones discarded by other players.

Other cards in the Preparations Deck would be Actions, Equipment, and Supplies that the group uses during the Outcome Phase to influence their chances of survival.

During the Outcome Phase, each player draws one card from the Outcome Deck. This card represents a situation that arises after the ships have landed on their planets, and the survivors have started to get on with the business of adapting to their new homes. The Outcome Card is played face up for all to see.

Now, this is the part of the game when a player's strategic choice of survivors from the common pool of survivor candidates is tested.

Prior to drawing the Outcome Card, the active player reveals one of his or her Planet Card to other players. S/he then explains why a particular survivor was chosen to be in his or her group. That player can then make a prediction about something (I don't know what yet). Each time a player's predictions are right, that players gains a Survival Token for his group.

Outcome Cards are resolved in the following manner:

The Outcome Card represents a situation that tests your group's survival. The card is playable only if it applies to the specified type of advantage, disadvange, or character traits possessed by one or more members of your group.

EXAMPLE: "Spirit of Cooperation. Playable if one or more of your group has the Generosity character trait. Choose an applicable survivor to have its Generosity Value 'tested' by this situation. SUCCESS: Next turn, any subsequent Cooperation tests gain +1 bonus. FAILURE: Stomps Off - An opponent make turn one of your survivors face down until the start of your next turn."

A ten-sided die is roll, and the result is compared to the tested attribute. If the roll result exceeds the tested attribute's value, the alien(s) fail the test. If the roll result equals or is less than the tested attribute's value, the alien fails the test. The repercussions of failure are listed on the Outcome Card.

Sometimes, an Outcome Card may require an opponent to choose a penalty to apply to failure. Or, the Outcome Card may allow the opponent to play another card against the active player's group.

The player who wins the game has either amassed the most Survival Tokens, or has the most survivors in play at the end of twenty turns. Ties are resolved by a comparing Survival Token totals, or by random die roll.

These are my thoughts on this game, for now. I see this design as achieving the types of strategic elements I wanted in a game, with the conversational interaction of games like Scruples.

This game should cause players to question and discuss their bias and reasons for playing the way they did, and for choosing to play particular actions in the way they did.

Any thoughts?