Introduction: Rising Water

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Game design project for 821: Constructionism

Step 1: Find Tiles

You will need 36 hexagonal tiles.

The tiles need to be two sided. One side of each tile should be uniformly the same color. The other side should be 1 of 5 colors to represent different terrains.

We used Settlers of Catan tiles and combined two boards. Playing with one board is possible, but the game will be harder to win and faster to play.

Each type of ecosystem hexagon received a certain number of red dots for house placements and blue dots for water placement.

Terrain Max # houses Max # water

Mountain 2 4

Forest 3 3

Plains 4 3

Fields 4 3

Valley 2 2

Desert 0 3

PS. 1/4 inch dots are TINY, but they work.

Step 2: Find Houses

Find 25 items to represent houses.

We used Monopoly houses.

Step 3: Find Player Pieces

Find four pieces to represent players.

We used Monopoly pieces.

Step 4: Create Card Deck

Create a 60 card deck with resource cards for each ecosystem (matching color) and 6 climate disaster cards.

We used Setllers of Catan resource and development cards (climate disaster).

Step 5: Create Role Cards

Cut a piece of paper into 4 pieces in the same size of the disaster card

Write down a description of each action and power on each role card. The roles and the power are

  • Scientist: Can give or take any resource card
  • Politician: Peek at adjacent land
  • Environmental Engineer: Remove all water
  • Construction Worker: Build house with two cards

Step 6: Collect Glacier Pieces

Collect approximately 20 water pieces to make up the melting glacier.

We used blue road pieces from Settlers of Catan.

Step 7: Collect Die

Collect a 6 sided die. Only three sides (1-3) will be used for flooding, the other 3 sides will represent "pass".

We used a Monopoly die that only had numbers 1-3 and the other sides were pictures.

Step 8: Set Up Board

  1. Set up all tiles face down in a hexagonal shape with 4 tiles on each side if playing in hard mode. If playing in easy mode create more "peninsulas".
  2. Flip 3 tiles (forest, plain, field) on one corner of the hexagon. This is the start state for the game board.
  3. Place 2 water pieces on the middle tile and 1 water pieces on each of the other two tiles.
  4. Place player pieces on the middle tile.
  5. Hand each player a role card.

Step 9: Start Game

  1. Our rules were designed for 4 players to play in one class period. Players took on roles (scientist, engineer, politician, construction worker) and worked together to explore lands, address flooding, and build homes.
  2. All players roll a die. The player with the highest roll goes first, and then order of turn goes clockwise.

Step 10: Game Play

    As stated on the role cards, players can first take three actions from a choice of:

    1. Move one tile adjacent to the player’s current position. If this tile is face down, flip over the tile and move the player piece onto it. The benefit of this move is the ability to draw one additional resource cards at the end of your turn.
    2. Build a house by using 3 resource cards; cards must be of the same resource.
    3. Clear one water from the tile.
    4. Give or take one resource card to/from a player on the same tile
    5. Note: players can also use their power once per turn to “power up” one of the above actions:
      1. Scientist: Can give or take any resource card while not on the same tile
      2. Politician: Peek at adjacent face-down land before moving
      3. Environmental Engineer: Remove all water from the tile
      4. Construction Worker: Build house with two resource cards (instead of 3)

    Step 11: Game Play: Add Water

    After a player takes his/her turn, the player rolls the flooding die once and adds water pieces according to the number on the die.

    Step 12: Game Play: Draw Cards

    Then, the player draws two cards from the deck If one card is a disaster card, follow the steps below: Roll the flooding die three times and add water pieces to the tiles Finally, the player should discard cards until he or she reaches a hand limit of 6

    Step 13: Win State

    The end goal is to build 10 homes on adjacent land tiles to support a population of 100,000 people.

    After play students can trace a new board game shape to play, remembering that more peninsulas make it easier to stop flooding, whether as rounder shapes facilitate cascade floods easier.

    Step 14: