Introduction: Find out just how “humane” your fellow humans really are. When disaster strikes and the situation forces the toughest ethical decisions, who will you cast overboard to save the group? Be warned, though: this game rewards the self-sacrificing as well as the covetous. Based on the treatise Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor by political philosopher Garret Hardin, this game will test your ruthlessness and drive to survive against your ethical principles and moral fiber.

Players: 3-5

Materials:

• Regular-sized bags of identically-shaped, multicolored candies (such as M&Ms or Skittles), at least two bags per player.
• Two bowls to hold the candies.

Setting Up: Ensure that the candies come in enough colors to provide one unique color to each player. Place all candies into one bowl and set it to the side — this is the ship. Set the other, empty bowl into the center of the table — this is the lifeboat. Designate a first player; play proceeds to the left and turns are led in rotation: the position of first player rotates one seat to the left at the start of each round.

How to Play: Before play begins, the first player draws one candy of each color from the ship bowl and distributes one to each player, including themselves. If any are leftover, remove all candies of this color from the ship and set them aside out from play. This should be done secretly so that no player knows any other player’s color. Next, each player draws twenty candies at random from the ship and places them in the center of the table — into the open water. Finally, each player chooses five candies from those in open water and places them into the lifeboat bowl. These are the initial survivors, and those who must work to keep the lifeboat afloat.

Working the Lifeboat: Each turn, the “people” in the lifeboat have to work to keep it afloat — bailing water, stopping leaks, paddling, and so on. Beginning with the first player, each player draws one candy from the lifeboat and holds it in their hand. Drawing continues until each player holds three candies. Those remaining in the lifeboat are the loafers — unable or unwilling to assist the group, they cannot be allowed to remain. Before the round can proceed, each player must choose one of these to cast overboard, effected by eating the candy. Players may discuss and debate as much as they wish at this point about which should be eaten, but ultimately each player must eat one of the candies in the lifeboat. Once this is accomplished, players replace the candies in their hand into the lifeboat and the round continues to survivors.

Survivors: Each round, those in the lifeboat rescue a small number of survivors in open water and a small number are claimed by the sea and drown. The players collectively choose two candies per player to add to the lifeboat and one candy per player to be claimed by the sea and destroyed. Again, the players may debate and discuss as much as they choose, but ultimately some must go into the bowl and some must be eaten. If fewer than three candies per player remain in open water, ensure that two per player are saved before any are eaten. Once this is accomplished, the round concludes with fortune and misfortune.

Fortune and Misfortune: At the end of each round, all players close their eyes and draw one candy at random from the lifeboat to eat. This represents loss due to exposure, disease, injury, or ill luck. Once accomplished, the round is over and a new round begins with the next player in sequence as first player.

Winning the Game: Play continues until a round ends with no candies remaining in open water. At this event, each player eats one more candy of their choice from the lifeboat to represent further loss to misfortune. Finally, the players reveal their color and all candies in the lifeboat are removed and tallied. The player with the second-highest number of candies of their color on the table is the winner!

Have you ever heard of a game that involves forgiveness? I’ll explain:

The concept of total forgiveness for wrongdoing is exceedingly rare in out lives. It is human nature to want to retaliate against those who harm us, in an effort to prevent future harm whether through the inspiration of empathy or fear. To wholeheartedly forgive is to act as if the wrong never occurred — to genuinely feel, with mind and heart, that there was no wrong. This is very hard for us to do, even for the religious faithful that follow doctrines based on forgiveness. People naturally seek to punish, even it means nothing more than studiously ignoring or acting chilly towards the offender in conversation. Even the smallest retaliation is a retaliation, and indicates a lack of forgiveness.

In games, the rules are known at the outset. Indeed, a game exists only in the rules and in the strict adherence to them. The moment players divert from the rules, they are no longer playing the game but some mutated amalgam of the original and their own invention. Anything that occurs within the rules is acceptable. The opportunity for win or loss exists for all players equally, so any action taken in pursuit of victory, though it may necessarily mean harm (in game terms) to other, is not wrong and warrants no forgiveness. But rulebreaking — cheating — must be punished to ensure the integrity of the game. In other words, games fundamentally rely on the human instinct to punish wrong in order to even exist. If a game were written with no provision against cheating and played by players with no method or desire to punish cheating, the game would functionally not exist — cheating would be universally prevalent and the game would never be played according to the original rules. It is by tacit agreement not to cheat that gameplay is possible at all.

So, then, is it possible to reconcile the forgiveness or wrongdoing (cheating) and the existence of gameplay? Can a game be written that permits forgiveness? It seems like a philosophical paradox, or at least a semantic one. What do you think?

Introduction: In this speedy game of furtive point-grabbing, players attempt to rob as many points as they can from their opponents before the round ends and are they are forced to atone for their greed. Sin is a dangerous game when the reckoning could occur at any time!

Players: 2-4

Materials: One deck of standard playing cards.

Setting Up: Shuffle the deck and deal seven cards to each player, placing the remainder in the center of the table as a reserve pile. Designate a first player; play proceeds to the left.

How to Play: Play proceeds in round during which players play their cards and attempt to make sets from the cards already on the table. However, at any point, a player may play the God card and force an end to the round and a reckoning for all the other players’ “sins,” or incomplete set-building attempts.

Beginning with the first player, the active player chooses a card from their hand and lays it on the table in front of them either face-up or face-down. Face-up cards are “innocent” cards and may be used by any player at any time. Face-down cards are “damned” cards and may only be used by the player who played them. A player may have as many innocent cards on the table as they wish, but only three damned cards at a time. Players must play one and only one card into their board per turn.

After they play their card, they may attempt to create a set, defined as one of these specific hands common to Poker: one pair, two pair, three-of-a-kind, four-of-a-kind, or four-card straight flush. Sets can be formed from any combination of cards from any player’s board, as long as the set includes at least one card from the active player’s board and at least one card from another player’s board. In other words, no set can be formed using only the player’s own cards or using only other players’ cards. The active player declares a set and collects the cards from the other players, setting them aside out of play into a private set deck. Sets are scored as soon as they are made (see Winning the Game, below). Players may use their own damned cards to form sets.

Players may form a maximum of one set per turn. Once a player has played their card and formed up to one set, their turn is concluded and the next player may begin. Play continues in this way until someone plays a God card or the round ends in total damnation (see below). If players are able to play six of their seven cards before a God card is played, the game is paused while the reserve pile is dealt out equally to all players (set aside any remainders out of play).

The God Card: The four Kings in the deck are God cards, and playing one face-up immediately stops play and initiates the reckoning (note that God cards played face-down do not initiate a reckoning). In the reckoning, each player’s board of cards is collected and tabulated as follows:

• If the player has formed no sets, each of their cards is worth its value in negative points. All face cards are worth -10. Tabulate the value and deduct it from the player’s score.
• If the player has formed at least one set, reveal all the cards in their set deck. If any of these match any of their board cards in value, the board card is worth twice its value in negative points.
• If the player has any damned cards on their board, these are worth double their value in negative points on their own, and quadruple if they also happen to match a card from the player’s set deck.
• If the player has a God card face-down on their board, they are forgiven and receive no negative points for the round.

Once a reckoning had occurred and penalties assessed, collect all the cards and deal a new round. The player who played the God card will go first in the new round.

Total Damnation: Since God cards can be played face-down, it is possible for a round to end with all players running out of cards before a God card appears face-up. This is called total damnation: if and when it occurs, every card a player holds either in their board or in their set deck is worth its value in negative points. Note that this means that any sets made during the round now count as individual penalty cards, despite whatever positive point value they had when they were formed into sets. Face-down God cards are worth twenty negative points. No double penalties for matching board-to-set cards or for damned cards occurs in total damnation — each card is worth its value only.

Winning the Game: Sets are scored as they are formed, as follows:

• One pair: six points.
• Two pair: fourteen points.
• Three-of-a-kind: twenty-two points.
• Four-of-a-kind: thirty points.
• Four-card straight flush: forty points.

The first player to reach two hundred points is the winner.

Introduction: It’s not the fish. This variation on the classic pen-and-paper game Dots has players seeking to wall up their opponents while keeping clear themselves, in a race against time as the board steadily fills up and closes in.

Players: 2 or 4

Materials:

• One sheet of standard letter-sized (A4) paper.
• At least one pen or pencil, any color.

Setting Up: The board is created by drawing a grid of evenly-spaced dots on the paper. The grid may be any size as long as it is square, but bear in mind that larger grids make for longer games. Designate a first player; if playing with four, divide the players into two teams and designate a play order. Beginning with the first player, each player chooses a space on the board (any area defined by four dots on each corner) and writes their initials in this space. This is their starting position.

How to Play: On their turn, players may either draw a wall on the board or write their initials on a new space. Similar to Dots, walls are drawn by connecting any two adjacent dots. No wall may be drawn that touches more than two dots — the start and end dots. All walls must be either horizontal or vertical.

Walls may be drawn anywhere in the manner described above (with one exception, see below), but new initials can only be written into spaces adjacent to those already initialed by the player — in this way the initialed spaces grow in a chain. Trapped spaces are considered dead (see below) and may not be used as an anchor for new initialing moves. Additionally, walls may not be drawn to bisect chains — the wall cannot divide two initialed spaces owned by the same player.

Anytime an initialed space is surrounded by walls on all four sides, it is trapped. This counts for solitary initialed spaces and for chains — if the entire chain is surrounded by walls, it is trapped and dead. However, if even one space remains adjacent to any part of the chain that is not blocked by a wall, the chain is alive and may continue to grow. Whenever a player’s space or spaces are trapped, the trapped player chooses a new space on the board and writes their initials there as the start of a new chain. This is a forced escape. Every time a player makes a forced escape, they lose a turn.

Winning the Game: Play continues until all spaces have been initialed. Once the board has been filled, the spaces and chains are tallied like so:

• Solitary trapped spaces are worth no points.
• Chains of two to five spaces are worth two points.
• Chains of six or more spaces are worth five points.

The player with the highest score is the winner.

Introduction: Reaping the souls of the newly dead may sound like an easy job, but as a newly-fledged reaper you’re about to discover differently. In this game, players compete to harvest souls and send them on to their eternal reward (or punishment). It’s on-the-job eldritch training, but if you succeed with the fewest mistakes you could find yourself promoted and that much closer to winning the coveted recognition of Reaper of the Month!

Players: 3-6

Materials:

• One deck of standard playing cards.
• Several quarters or other large coins, one per player.

Setting Up:  Shuffle the cards and place the deck in the center of the table. Distribute the coins to each player. Designate a first player; play proceeds to the left.

How to Play:  Each turn, the card on the top of the deck dies — it represents a newly departed soul ready for reaping. Before the active player draws and reveals the top card, players guess whether it will be a good soul (red) or an evil soul (black). Each player indicates their choice by placing their coin on the table, covered by their hand, as follows: if they think the card will be good, they lay the coin heads-up, and if they believe it will be evil, they lay it tails-up. Once all players have placed and covered their coin, the active player draws and reveals the card. All players then reveal their choice, and if they are correct, they get do one of the following:

• Draw a card from the deck and hold it in their hand. If more than one wishes to draw a card, they do so in turn order. There is no limit to how many cards a player may hold at once.
• Place a card from their hand on top of the deck. Cards must be placed after all players who wish to draw have done so. If more than one player wishes to place a card, they place them in turn order.

Once a card has been revealed, it is placed beside the deck in a discard pile. Whenever the deck is depleted, shuffle and convert the discard pile into a new deck. If at any point both decks are depleted to a combined total of ten cards or less, all player must immediately turn in all the cards in their hands to be shuffled and formed into a new deck.

Promotion: If at any point a player collects ten cards in their hand, they are promoted. They immediately turn in all ten cards to the discard pile, and from now on the gain a bonus ability: whenever a card dies (is drawn and revealed), the player may request a second card to die as well. This is done after all other players reveal their coin but before the promoted player does so. If the promoted player’s coin is correct about either of the cards, they may draw or play as normal. If neither of the cards matches their coin, however, they must forfeit a card from their hand to pay for their mistake. If they have no cards in their hand, they are immediately demoted, and may no longer request bonus cards until they collect ten new cards.

Winning the Game: Play continues until a promoted player collects ten cards in their hand without being demoted — a double promotion. The first player to achieve this is the winner.

The other day I invited my brother to play a game of Go, and after he accepted, we realized that no goban or stones could be found at our residence. Fortunately, I have the software on my Mac and we were able to play there. However, I found that not only was it difficult to keep his interest in the game, but my own suffered as well. While this could be attributed to many things, one thing in particular I did find hurt my interest was being forced to play a board game on a computer.

We sat side-by-side to view the screen, as opposed to opposite each other, so conversation suffered because we were not facing. The process of making moves involved reaching over the other person to twiddle the touchpad, and this motion was awkward enough that it visibly slowed the progress of the game: moves were not as rapid or as cadenced as they would be if placed by hand. But these were just the logistical irritations. The real loss came from what I call the “traditional experience.”

Go is an ancient game, and over the millennia the playing of it has become highly ritualized. The correct way to hold the stones and to place them — near the intended point and then slid a short distance into place. The particular size and weight of the stones, and the texture of the buffed stone. The construction of the board with particular dimensions and using particular wood, so that the stones make that certain sound when they are laid. In Japan, China, and Korea (among others), the national Go Institutes have entire special rooms for playing championship or important ceremonial matches. This pure dedication to purpose and ancient role makes these rooms almost sacred; the Japanese one has a name that translates to “The Room of Deep Contemplation.” This ritual, this tradition, is as much a part of the game as the rules, and separating it cannot be other than a loss.

I know avid poker players who bemoan their lack of opportunity to play, but refuse to play internet poker because of the loss of the integral experience of a poker table: facing out opponents, facial and body language, psychology, to say nothing of the feel of cards and chips in the hand or the sight and sounds of a poker room. The most expensive board game in the world is a richly detailed Chess set; if there were nothing to Chess besides the rules, why bother making ornamental sets? There are some games that lose so much in digital translation. We who see only rules and competition may scarcely realize how different our online play is from the real experience.

Introduction: “Everything must go.” Portent words for any bargain hunter, but in this game, it’s the difference between victory and defeat. Players bid for a rapidly dwindling stock of valuable tokens with the certain knowledge that “everything must go.” Just when it goes and how much you pay for it, well… that’s another matter entirely.

Players: 3-6

Materials: 

• One deck of standard playing cards with all cards below eight removed.
• At least one hundred pennies or other small tokens.

Setting Up: Shuffle the cards and place them in the center of the table in a pile, face-up. Draw the top four cards and lay them on the four sides of the deck in a North-South-East-West orientation. Place the pennies in a common pool and distribute twenty pennies to each player. Designate a first player; play proceeds to the left.

How to Play: The deck of cards represents the stock that must be liquidated. On their turn, each player may make purchase or auction actions based on the cards showing, in an attempt to acquire higher-value cards for their final hand. For each card showing beside the deck, the player may either purchase the card outright or initiate an auction. To purchase it on the spot, the player merely transfer a number of pennies from their possession to the common pool equal to the face value of the card (face cards are worth eleven, twelve, and thirteen pennies for the Jack, Queen, and King respectively).

To initiate an auction, the play indicates a card and names a starting bid no less than half the card’s purchase value. All players may then bid verbally, continuing until all drop out but one. The winner acquires the card and pays the bid amount immediately.

Once a player does either of these things, their turn is over and play passes to the next player. Note that this occurs even if the play initiated an auction they did not win. The new player draws a new card to replace the missing one at the start of their turn.

Play continues in this way until every player has had one turn. Once all players have gone once, players may refill bank of pennies from the common pool:

• If they have fewer than ten pennies, they may refill back up to twenty.
• If they have between ten and twenty, they may refill up to thirty.
• If they have twenty or more pennies, they may refill ten pennies so long as they do not exceed forty in total.

The deck is reshuffled and four new cards laid. The position of first player passes to the next player in the order, and a new round begins.

“Everything Must Go:” Once the game has progressed to the point where twelve cards have been acquired (regardless of who has acquired them), the stock goes on closeout price. From now on, all cards may be purchased at 25% off. This continues until the last round, when all but four cards have been acquired. Once this stage is reached, the stock goes on liquidation price: all cards may be purchased at 50% off. Round to the higher number when resolving reduced prices.

Winning the Game: Play continues round by round until all the cards in the deck have been acquired. Once this occurs, players tally their hands: each card is worth its face value in points. The highest score wins the game.

Introduction: A game of overwhelming momentum! Players cooperate to build a blob big enough to consume board before the laws of physics (represented in the rules of the game) force it to disintegrate.

Players: 1+

Materials:

• One hundred pennies (or other small counters).
• One quarter or large coin for flipping (alternative devices for generating 50-50 random results).
• A standard Chess or Checkers board.

Setting Up: Lay the board in the center of the table and place one penny on each space. Pool the other pennies to the side of the board. Next, select eight pennies from this pool and place them on the board as follows: each player flips the flipping the coin to determine which color space to fill — heads is red/black and tails is white. Once the color has been determined, the player may place the penny on any space of that color they choose. Each player places pennies in turn until all eight have been placed.

How to Play: The object of the game is to concentrate all the pennies on the board into a 3×3 block of spaces. Each turn, players select a space and compress it, causing the pennies on it to disperse to new positions (see below). After all player have taken one turn, the board is settled.

Compression: Compressing a space involves adding pennies to it and causing it to disperse in a wave-like motion. The player draws a penny from the pool and places it on the space of their choice. Next, they move pennies out of the space in the following fashion:

1. The player flips a coin to see if the penny they are about to move will travel horizontally/vertically or diagonally — heads the former, tails the latter.
2. For every penny presently on the space, they move one of them that many spaces along the path indicated by the coin flip. Note that the play may choose which of the four horizontal or diagonal directions to move the penny.
3. They repeat the process, flipping anew and moving pennies out of the space until only one remains.

For example: A player chooses a space with four pennies already in place. They pick one from the pool, place it in the space, and flip the coin. Heads is showing, so they move one of the pennies in the space five spaces along a horizontal track (five spaces for the five pennies in the starting space). They flip the coin again — heads shows again — and move the next penny four spaces along a horizontal track (four spaces for the four pennies presently in the starting space). They continue until one penny is left in the starting space.

Note: if a penny’s momentum will carry it off the board, it is removed from play.

Settling: After each round, in which all players have taken one turn, the players settle the board. They disperse one penny from any space with four or more pennies presently occupying it in the manner described above, under Compression. Once all spaces with a penny-count of four or more have had one penny dispersed, the settling is finished for the round and players resume their play in order.

Winning the Game: Play continues until either all the pennies have been concentrated in a 3×3 area, or any one of the following conditions has been met:

• No pennies remain in the pool.
• There are only four or fewer spaces on the board with more than one penny.
• The players have player twenty-five rounds, or twenty-five turns each.

If any of these conditions is met, the players immediately lose. If they are able to concentrate the pennies into a 3×3 grid before that occurs, the players win.

Check it out.

For disciplines like ours, digital classrooms are almost as good as the real thing. And if this trend continues, we may see a spike in interest in digital majors — something the game industry certainly needs. But as much as I am pleased to hear that college students are finding ways to maintain affordability, I hope e-learning does not become the dominant method. There’s so much in the experience of attending college that is based on being on campus.