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[Blueswan]

I'm a high school teacher. In september the school holds an "activity" day full of various competitions and events. Mostly sports, but the teachers are encouraged to come up with ideas. The gym teachers will organize all the sports events. The other teachers who participate each have to come up with some form of competition for 15-20 students. This event or competition will take place twice during the day with two different sets of 15-20 students.

My idea was to do some sort of boardgaming. First I wanted to see if there was a game that could be played with the whole group together. I sort of gave up on that. Second, I thought maybe we could divide the students up in smaller groups to play board games. The problem here is that I would either have them play MY OWN board games (reluctant to do that) or persuade the school to invest in board games (probably unlikely). Also, explaining rules for different board games to different groups would be virtually impossible.

So my idea now is to run a Dominion tournament. My first idea was to pursuade the school to buy 2 base sets and 2 sets of Intrigue and then have the students play the game in groups of four. However, I now think that maybe it would be more flexiable to simply hold a Goko tournament. So I would have the 15-20 students sign up at goko.com (for free, so base set only). I would explain the rules. I would then have the students join one of the obscure rooms with no other players in it and have them play as many games against each other in the 2-3 hour time frame as possible. Then the "winner" is the one with the highest ranking at the end.

What do you think about this? Does it sound workable? Any suggestions for improvements?

[yed]

A bit sad to play Dominion online with people in same room.

[Blueswan]

A bit sad to play Dominion online with people in same room.

Yeah, I sort of agree.

[Davio]

Why not chess or checkers or something?

If they must be boardgames, uhhmm...some card games like Dalmuti perhaps?

I don't think Dominion is best suited for this kind of thing. If you force them to play online, they might just spend 2-3 hours on Facebook and agree on a draw.

[Blueswan]

Why not chess or checkers or something?

If they must be boardgames, uhhmm...some card games like Dalmuti perhaps?

I don't think Dominion is best suited for this kind of thing. If you force them to play online, they might just spend 2-3 hours on Facebook and agree on a draw.

I actually think that someone else is doing chess.

 I don't think students not participating is gonna be a problem since they'll be able to choose which activities they want to participate in.

[Davio]

Okay, but playing online just seems convoluted to me.

If you want to go with Dominion for 20 students (5 groups of 4), you only need:
1 Base Set
1 Intrigue Set
3 Base Cards Sets.

The Base and Intrigue set provide 50 total kingdom cards which you can split into 5x10.
They also provide base cards for 2 groups so you only need 3 more.

This would cost around $100 (with shipping) for the school.

[popsofctown]

If you want people to come to a game they've never played before, and then compete in a tournament, I don't think Dominion is the best game for that.  There's Go, there's Spades/Hearts/Euchre/those ones i don't know (very affordable). 

Dominion is the kind of game you spend ages playing and only get a little bit closer to understanding it.  The best experience for players picking up a game and then immediately competing would be one that is a little closer to being solved.

[Beyond Awesome]

As much as I hate to say it, I would recommend a Magic: The Gathering tournament. You can get loads of cards for dirt cheap on the Internet. You don't need some crazy good cards just the basics like some creatures and spells to teach the fundamentals of the game. So, if you know the rules, you can have the kids pick a deck and compete with that and maybe even let them keep the deck at the end. Also, some kids might already know how to play Magic, so other kids can help teach the kids where the rules may have gone over the top of their head.

[Davio]

I mentioned card games earlier, how about Tichu? It supports 6 players, as well as Dalmuti.
You could mix partners or keep the same teams. You'd only need 3 sets, perhaps 4 and it's not very expensive.

[Blueswan]

Okay, but playing online just seems convoluted to me.

If you want to go with Dominion for 20 students (5 groups of 4), you only need:
1 Base Set
1 Intrigue Set
3 Base Cards Sets.

The Base and Intrigue set provide 50 total kingdom cards which you can split into 5x10.
They also provide base cards for 2 groups so you only need 3 more.

This would cost around $100 (with shipping) for the school.

Yeah, that's actually true. Would keep the cost down quite a bit.

[Blueswan]

If you want people to come to a game they've never played before, and then compete in a tournament, I don't think Dominion is the best game for that.  There's Go, there's Spades/Hearts/Euchre/those ones i don't know (very affordable). 

Dominion is the kind of game you spend ages playing and only get a little bit closer to understanding it.  The best experience for players picking up a game and then immediately competing would be one that is a little closer to being solved.

Yeah, the "tournament" was more for fun. It could very well just be playing for 2-3 hours. There's no need for a tournament structure as such.

[Blueswan]

As much as I hate to say it, I would recommend a Magic: The Gathering tournament. You can get loads of cards for dirt cheap on the Internet. You don't need some crazy good cards just the basics like some creatures and spells to teach the fundamentals of the game. So, if you know the rules, you can have the kids pick a deck and compete with that and maybe even let them keep the deck at the end. Also, some kids might already know how to play Magic, so other kids can help teach the kids where the rules may have gone over the top of their head.

You might be right, but I've never actually played Magic myself.

[Blueswan]

I mentioned card games earlier, how about Tichu? It supports 6 players, as well as Dalmuti.
You could mix partners or keep the same teams. You'd only need 3 sets, perhaps 4 and it's not very expensive.

Never played Tichu either! 

[Watno]

Have you considered playing werewolf? That's a game all students could play together and its very cheap or free if you make your own cards.
I think explaining Dominion to 20 people and then just having them play might not work out that well, whereas from my experience werewolf always works well.

[Davio]

The downside of Werewolf is of course player elimination, which might not be terrible if the lynched players could go do something else.

[greatexpectations]

A bit sad to play Dominion online with people in same room.

Yeah, I sort of agree.

aww hey now don't hate. some of us are too lazy to set up all of dominion.

[Blueswan]

Have you considered playing werewolf? That's a game all students could play together and its very cheap or free if you make your own cards.
I think explaining Dominion to 20 people and then just having them play might not work out that well, whereas from my experience werewolf always works well.

Read about it, but haven't tried that either. In an ideal world I would try out all of these no doubt good suggestions, but I probably won't be able to find the time for it before the set date.

I kind of liked the idea of spreading the Dominion bug, but maybe it's not such a great idea after all. Not sure.

[jsh357]

it might be better to settle on catan.  they've probably heard of it from the big bang theory.

actually a possibly wild suggestion is saboteur.  it costs ten dollars and can pay ten people per game.  it's not that balanced but would accommodate your group sizes well.  it's been a hit with newbs when I take it to parties and such.

[Davio]

I'd take something fairly known or accessible anyway.

Nothing worse than sitting through 3 hours of a game you don't like.

[Grujah]

The problem here is that I would either have them play MY OWN board games (reluctant to do that)

Why?

How about Mafia?

@MTG Suggestion - if he didn't play it, it would be hard for him to make 15-20 decks that are equally good.

[Blueswan]

Okay, but playing online just seems convoluted to me.

If you want to go with Dominion for 20 students (5 groups of 4), you only need:
1 Base Set
1 Intrigue Set
3 Base Cards Sets.

The Base and Intrigue set provide 50 total kingdom cards which you can split into 5x10.
They also provide base cards for 2 groups so you only need 3 more.

This would cost around $100 (with shipping) for the school.

Right now, I'm thinking this would actually be nice. There'd be no tournament then. Just exploring the game. If I could make 5 fairly playable kingdoms from those 50 cards and then set a limit of 15 students so everybody would play 3 player games (a better gaming experience than 4 player IMO), then I think people will have a good time.

[Polk5440]

I also don't like the online idea.

One other thing you can do is have interested students sign up to bring their own games. (If you have to, have an approved list, or suggested ideas given time constraints, school code, appropriateness, etc.)

In high school for an NHS event we did this and it worked out really well. People brought Trivial Pursuit, Risk, cards (Euchre and hearts were big at the time), etc.

The people who bring the games obviously know the rules and are interested in playing, so that cuts down on having large upfront costs (both in terms of money to buy games for one-time use and in terms of teaching rules to a bunch of people). Students can mill about and play different games, too.

You could then contribute your own games (e.g. Dominion) and only have to teach a few interested students and keep a better eye on your games at the same time.

Of course, these are high schoolers choosing games over sports -- I hope there isn't too much of a concern about them ruining the games or eating the cards, or something.

[Blueswan]

I also don't like the online idea.

One other thing you can do is have interested students sign up to bring their own games. (If you have to, have an approved list, or suggested ideas given time constraints, school code, appropriateness, etc.)

In high school for an NHS event we did this and it worked out really well. People brought Trivial Pursuit, Risk, cards (Euchre and hearts were big at the time), etc.

The people who bring the games obviously know the rules and are interested in playing, so that cuts down on having large upfront costs (both in terms of money to buy games for one-time use and in terms of teaching rules to a bunch of people). Students can mill about and play different games, too.

You could then contribute your own games (e.g. Dominion) and only have to teach a few interested students and keep a better eye on your games at the same time.

Of course, these are high schoolers choosing games over sports -- I hope there isn't too much of a concern about them ruining the games or eating the cards, or something.

WOW! This is a very good idea indeed. Amazing that I didn't think of that. Thanks mate! 

But they are not choosing games over sports. EVERYBODY has to do some sports for half of the day and then "other" activities the other half of the day. 

[Polk5440]

But they are not choosing games over sports. EVERYBODY has to do some sports for half of the day and then "other" activities the other half of the day. 

Oh, interesting!

..and you're welcome!

[Tables]

There's some good strategy games that could be done, although without doing research I don't know if they're that cheap anymore. The ones that come to mind, asides from chess (which you've already mentioned anyway) are draughts (which obviously you can just nick some chessboards for, if you don't mind substituting pieces), Connections (apparently might be solved, but considering that proof took a maths paper I think you're safe), any connect 4x4x4 variants (I've only played 4x4x4 versions, but here's a 5x5x5 one so go figure), and the like. I'd hope these might be cheaper, and probably not as fun, but you might get some interested kids, maybe?