Question for more-or-less local gamers

[velvetpage]

Did anyone here replace their original edition of Settlers when the new one came out, and keep the old one around?

If you would be willing to part with an old copy, or if you upgrade at any point in the next, say, six months, I would love to have your old copy. I'd like to run a games club at school in the fall, and Settlers is great for basic probability and strategy. It can also be played start to finish in about 45 minutes once you know the game, and our lunches are 40 minutes long, so kids could conceivably play an entire game during a lunch hour if they were quick about it.

If I don't get any games this way, I'll be holding a game raffle in the fall to raise money to buy some games for the club. The list of games I'd like to teach the kids includes, but is not limited to:

Mancala
Checkers
Chess
Settlers of Catan
Carcassone
Monopoly
Payday
Cribbage and other card games

Some of these - chess, checkers, mancala, cribbage - can be bought quite cheaply, for a few bucks apiece. I could budget thirty bucks for ten to twelve kids to play at once and supply those games. The others are more expensive, with Settlers and Carcassone topping the list. I doubt I'll get much of a budget for this - I'd be surprised to get fifty bucks - so any help anyone would like to offer would be valuable.

I'll repost this in August when I'm sure I've a) got the job, and b) looked at my own supplies to see what I can come up with. Right now it's the genesis of an idea. I'm thinking six weeks per grade, starting with the older grades around the end of September. We'll see how it works.

Comments

[amazonvera.livejournal.com]

We LOVED it. The city itself is just beautiful, and the local museums and the aquarium (oh my god, the aquarium) and Stanley Park are all wonderful.

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

If you don't find one, I can ship you my copy. We had to buy a new one when we lost our old one, and I HATE IT and want my old one back. So if I can find it...we also have Carcassone lying around, I think, if you can't find either of those locally.

Ever played Set?

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I'll let you know - it might cost more to ship it than to just buy it here, especially across a border. I've got Carcassone and I rarely play it, mostly because Piet has never really got the hang of it so he doesn't want to play it much. (Translation: instead of winning about 60% of the time as I do at Settlers, I win about 80% of the time at Carcassone.)

I've never played Set. What is it?

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

Set (http://www.setgame.com/set/index.html). We also have Set Cubed and Xactica from the same company. Michael's mom (she teaches math) uses it in her classroom quite a bit, which was what made me think of it.

Oh, I <3 Set so much. It was the first iPod app I actually paid for, and I play it constantly. Drives Michael the Math Major up a wall that I routinely whump him at it. =)

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I am SO getting that. There are a couple of stores in Burlington that sell it, so I'll buy one as a prototype and then get a budget for the ones for school.

Thanks!

[melstra.livejournal.com]

I was planning to suggest "Set" as well. Two years ago I ran a tutoring program at my high school which brought high school kids into the elementary schools to be buddies (sometimes providing academic help, but just as often simply playing games with them to help social skills, etc.). I taught them all "set" and many of the high schoolers loved it and got the elementary kids to love it too. I love spreading the games virus like that! You will adore Set and find a zillion ways to teach with it, too. :) I find myself creating probability rules in my head when I play with it. One of the best parts is that you can have a game going on somewhere and people can just walk up and insert themselves into the game if they want to, just by watching. Conversely, since there are no real "turns", people can sit back and watch and not feel intimidated if they don't "get it" at first. One of the best ways of learning ever!!

[dragonsong.livejournal.com]

My boyfriend would also like to add that Settlers teaches "Peer Relations" or "How not to piss off everyone you're playing with enough for them to gang up against you."

If I had an extra copy, I'd send it to you in a heartbeat. More Settlers love!

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

That's a skill my grade fives could use these days.

[hendrikboom.livejournal.com]

When my kids were in primary school I ran a Go club there as a parent volunteer.

Real, official Go sets are unreasonably expensive, but you can make a very usable one out of a sheet of cardboard for a board, and two colours of bingo chips for the pieces. Officially, you need about 180 of each. I just bought hundreds of them. I think I could get them in boxes of about 200. I chose lots of colours, just for the fun of it, so they could choose what colours they wanted to use.

You mark the board with a rectangular grid, 19 lines by 19 lines. As far as the game is concerned, it might as well be square, but it's traditional to have it slightly longer form player to player than from side to side. Beginners can play on a 13x13 or even 9x9 board.

Go is, as far as anyone can tell, older than chess. Its rules are lots simpler, yet among players proficient in both, the strategy of Go is considered deeper than that of Chess.
The wikipedia article on Go (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(game)) is pretty good, though a bit overwhelming.

It was fun while it lasted, and then the school ran out of space and dropped the GO club in favour of others...

Another place to look for (new) games is Looney Labs (http://www.looneylabs.com/). They sell game components that can be used for multiple kinds of games. Be inventive! They're not cheap, though.

-- hendrik

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I'll check those out! Thanks!

[mrs-dm.livejournal.com]

I see your nefarious plan: trying to create a new generation of board-gamers! Are you sure you're not getting kickbacks from Bayshore Hobbies?

[mrs-dm.livejournal.com]

Actually, that gave me an idea: Why not ask Rose at Bayshore Hobbies to donate a couple of games to the school? (Brian may be able to intercede -- I think he's her best customer).

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

That's a really good thought - or at least ask for a discount off the expensive stuff.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I wish. I'd use the kickbacks to buy more games for the school. :)