Summer Camp Board Games

So the summer camps I'm teaching are for elementary students, and I'm teaching a "listening" lesson using board games. The kids need to listen well to the rules so we can play. Parents like the academic facade, students like to play the games! 

I'm using five different games this camp, with a slightly different line-up than I used last summer and winter camps. My games are: Bang!, The Keeyp, Dungeon!, Dominion, and King of Tokyo. 

Most of these games need to be simplified, because a) I'm teaching them to Korean speaking elementary kids with [mostly] rudimentary English, b) we've got 50 minutes for a class...if we don't get interrupted by snacks or other things, so explaining in 10~15 minutes then playing for 35~40 is ideal, and c) with 8 to 13 kids in a class, I need to have the kids play in teams.

Here are how I'm modifying the rules for each game for the camp. Anyone else wanting to use these games in lessons, or play with really young kids, these may be of interest to you. 

Bang!: First of all, I'm not using the various cowboy/gunslinger characters that give special abilities. Too complicated, and takes too long to explain. Everyone starts with 4 bullets, except the sheriff who starts with 5. I've pared down the deck to cards that can be easily used: bang, miss, beer, Cat Balou, panic, Gatling, Indians, Wells Fargo, stagecoach, Volcanic and Schofield. Everything else just complicates or prolongs the game. 

All the other rules stand. Roles besides Sheriff are secret (it helps that there is a "mafia game" Korean kids love that I can compare this to). Sheriff plays first. Draw two cards on your turn, play all you can/want except only one Bang card (unless you have the Volcanic). Discard if you end the turn with more cards than bullets. 

I give teams stickers when their team is eliminated, and the winning team(s) gets 2 stickers each. Kids love it. With these rule changes, most of the time we are able to finish a game within the class period.

The Keeyp: This game is so simple and easy that I really don't need to modify anything about it. I do keep track of the Keeplings' hit points and special ability use on the white board instead of using the dice for hit points, just so there's one less thing on the desks. Some kids just can't resist playing with everything in front of them, so they'd never keep their hit points straight otherwise! Or remember how many times they've used a special ability. 

We maybe finish the game half the time. The randomness of  when the key and gate get drawn, plus how well the kids figure out combat, seems to vary the time for this game a lot. Again, 2 stickers for winners, 1 sticker to everyone else.

Dungeon!: I made the mistake the first time I played this last week of letting the kids keep their treasure cards on their desks. One kid mangled a card (see above), since I don't have card sleeves small enough for the dungeon cards. Luckily or unluckily, this is the new version of the game I got for my son a few years ago. Luckily that they didn't mangle one of my old cards from the 80s, unlucky that my son will not be happy when he sees that. 

As for rule changes, there are a few. The gold each character needs to win I kept the same last week, but this week I think I'll reduce them by 1/2. Only one team got more than 1/2 their necessary treasure last week. Second, Wizard characters just get 7 spells: 3 fireball, 3 lightning, 1 teleport (I may give them 8, with 2 teleports, this week). I allow teleports from any Chamber to any other Chamber. Chambers only have one monster, but also have a treasure. If players face a monster and fail their roll, they don't roll for the monster, they just move back outside the room and can try again next time (with a random monster). 

Finally, as I said, I'm not letting the kids draw the monster and treasure cards anymore. I draw the monster, show it to them, and let them roll the dice. If they win, I draw the treasure card, show it to them, and add the value on the board. Then the treasure card goes at the bottom of the pile. 

So I played this once with only some of the variations, and twice with, and it went a lot smoother with all the variants, except as mentioned above, no one got close to their score threshold. So I'll try them with the values cut in half on Thursday and see how it goes. 

If we get a winner, it will be 2 stickers to them, 1 to everyone else. Without winners, it's just 1 sticker each as compensation prizes.

Dominion: This is a game I didn't use last summer or winter, so I was curious how it would go. The first time I played it last week, we played it straight, using the 10 action cards suggested by the rules for a "first game." The kids understood the basics of turn taking (action card, buy, clean-up), but they really had trouble with the concepts of cards in their deck, cards in discard, and cards in their hand. They kept mixing them up, shuffling when they shouldn't, etc. Also, 10 action cards (plus victory and treasure cards) to choose from when buying was a lot. And a few of the action cards were difficult to explain, in particular Workshop and Mines, which require players to "trash" (remove from game) a card and replace it with a more valuable card. 

So after the first go through, I cut the action cards in half. Five is much better. I kept Cellar, Village, Woodcutter, Smithy, and Market, plus the 3 treasure and 3 victory cards. 

Because Militia (which 'attacks' other players) and Moat (which protects from 'attacks') were removed, that allowed me to make a variation that helps with the deck/discard pile/hand confusion. The deck is on the desk in front of each group. They don't touch it until I tell them. On their turns, they draw 5 cards and play, then discard all the hand and purchased cards (as normal). They don't immediately draw new cards. They wait until their next turn to do that. This really helps avoid the confusion. 

We haven't had a game yet where a supply (pile of cards that can be bought) has been exhausted, but we play until just before the end of class, then I have the teams sort out victory cards and add up their points to see who wins. It works pretty well that way. 

Stickers as above.

King of Tokyo: I realized early on that the monster standees were going to need monitoring, as well as the dials on the monster boards. Even knowing this, last summer one of the standees got damaged, so I show it off at the beginning of my instruction to warn the kids not to do the same. That's worked so far. 

The big variant that I use with these students is to not use the cards. They are random, many are complex, and they slow things down. Instead of buying cards, I let teams buy Stars or Hearts with their energy cubes. Last summer, I had the price set at 5, but soon dropped it to 4. I'm considering dropping it to 3 next time. Using energy is the only way to gain Hearts while In Tokyo. 

Other than that, die rolling (roll and keep, up to 3 rolls per turn) is the same. Combat is the same. Healing is the same. Earning Stars is the same. 

I actually like playing the game this way. The cards are fun, but the simple beat-em-up nature of playing without them has its charms. 

Most of the time, we finish the game, with one team reaching 20 Stars before time is up. If we don't, at the end of class the winner is simply the team that earned the most Stars. One sticker for every kid, two stickers for the winners as usual. 

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The kids seem to have the most fun with Bang!, and it's probably the game I get asked to play again the most. King of Tokyo is a hit, as well. Gotta love kaiju battles! The kids have had fun with the other games, too, but Bang! and KoT are the favorites.