Welcome to The Global Literature Expedition! As I said in my last project reflection I was really trying to find a way to get away from the traditional essay way so I came up with a great game for this class. The Global Literature Expedition challenges players to stay a float through the crashing waves of questions. Will you sink….or sail to prevail.
Now getting into how to play the game. As I included above there are pictures of the board and the sets of cards. This game is meant for two to six players and is aimed for ages twelve and up. Players will navigate the waters with their game pieces using the roll of a single di. No matter what every time a player rolls they will be answering a question. The tiles on the board that a player can land on are Sailing West, Sailing East, advance a space, go back a space, and Sink or Sail. If a player lands on either advance a space or go back a space whatever space they land on will be the card pile they have to answer from. The player always on your left reads the question for you. The answer is also upside down under the question so the player that is reading can tell the other player if he or she answered correctly or incorrectly. If a player answers a Sailing West or Sailing East question correctly they will stay where they are and there turn ends. If a player answers a Sailing West or Sailing East question incorrectly that player will go backwards one space and then their turn will end. If a player answers a Sink or Sail question correctly they will move forward what they rolled to get to the SInk or Sail space. If a player answers a Sink or Sail question incorrectly they will double whatever they rolled to get there and go backwards that amount of spaces. First hand I can tell you that you do not want to get caught answering one of these questions wrong since it can really set you back! The first player to reach the final space which is a Sink or Sail space will have to answer that question correctly to win!
Now that we have the rules down for the game I bet you would like to know what these cards consist of! The Sailing West cards will have questions about the text itself and are focused around Equiano, Soyinka, and Danticat. The Sailing East cards will have questions that also asks about the texts but focus around Kalidasa, Nguyen Du, and Chikamatsu. These two sets of cards will have a lot easier questions compared to the Sink or Sail cards which we will get into next. The Sink or Sail cards will have questions that cover all of these topics but the questions will be more focused around themes and important quotes to try and sink the sailor. As shown in the picture above I put one of the cards from each pile face up to give an example from Sailing West, Sailing East, and Sink or Sail. The original game comes with forty cards for each of the three for a total of one hundred and twenty total question cards. We will be coming out with more expeditions depending on the release of this one to ensure everybody is having fun and not getting bored with the same questions after a while. After playing this game a couple of times through. I have realized that this game would be most efficient if used to study for a final for this class. I wish you all safe sailing on your expedition!
I love this idea! This is so creative and seems really fun. I like that this is very interactive and includes all of the readings and major plots and themes, I think this is a really great idea. Traditional essays can be good, but doing a project like this is very attention grabbing and I am a visual learner so having something like this helps me learn better. Good job!
Steve!! Good job on this concept and execution! I’ve always had a hard time coming up with board games from start to finish, so this is very impressive to me. It’s simple in concept, but difficult in subject material. It’d be a perfect study tool for finals. I think humans, especially young humans, learn best when we’re playing and don’t realize we’re learning. An educational board game is the perfect way to bridge that gap. Good job, Steve!