Beyond Monopoly

HMTKSteve

I'm going to be running four after school sessions at my local elementary school to expose young kids (grades 1, 2 and 3) to board games.

Anyone have any suggestions for games to use?

I expect a class size of 8 and will probably break it down into two groups of four.

Rym

There's a children's version of Settlers of Catan that's very good.

HMTKSteve

I have heard of that but never played it.

Thing is, there is a wide skill range between first graders and third graders. My daughter is in second grade and can play regular settlers.

Games I plan on using:

Walk the Dogs
Apples to Apples
Once Upon a Time
Pop Belly
Liar's Dice
Bringing Down the House

I'm looking for a co-op game for kids, does anyone know of one?

The following month I'll be doing the same thing but for middle school kids. That will be an easier class to run as most of the kids are old enough to play the more common Euro games.

Sail

Eww...kids co-op games...I used to have some, but I got rid of them all. They were all horrible games and not fun at all.

HMTKSteve

I may attempt were-wolf with the kids...

Apreche

I may attempt were-wolf with the kids...

It works great. I've done it. It's easy to re-theme too.

HMTKSteve

How did you re-theme it?

Apreche

How did you re-theme it?

Um... You just call it something different.

HMTKSteve

How did you re-theme it?

Um... You just call it something different.

That's a real help...

HMTKSteve: I need a car that runs on something other than gasoline.
Apreche: I've got one of them!
HMTKSteve: What does it run on?
Apreche: Something different...

Apreche

Um, do you understand what I mean by re-theming? This isn't really brain surgery. I mean, werewolf already has a popular alternate theme of mafia. You can change it to just about anything involving people in secret. Alien invaders, secret agents, robots in disguise, etc. I really didn't think further explanation was necessary.

Sail

Does anyone know if there is an existing Werewolf rule book? Last time I played, there was a dispute.

I bet Google knows.

I'm getting really fast at typing on my Wii ^^

Apreche

http://www.eblong.com/zarf/werewolf.html

HMTKSteve

Were-wolf is a re-theme of Mafia.

Apreche - I understand re-theming, I merely thought you had re-themed it for kids.

Ken

I think maybe you would like to try Bang, as I think the theme of the game would go over well with younger kids.

I've also heard that Memoir 44 can work well with kids. You might also want to look at the newest re-iteration of the system, BattleLore.

You might also want to try Shadows Over Camelot, which is a co-op game (with the possiblity of one player being a traitor). A simpler form of this type of game would be Saboteur.

HMTKSteve

I think Shadows and Memoir would need an audience older then 3rd grade.

Battlelore is two players

Apreche

Speaking of Battlelore, I'm thinking of getting it soon.

HMTKSteve

You can read a review of Battelore Here

If you buy it via the funagain link I get a few pennies

Ken

Well, you may be right about Shadows Over Camelot. It would probably need a child that is slightly older to get a grasp of the multiple tasks in the game.

But I think MM44 would be suitable, and I say so because I think that this particular game can be played step-by-step with the kid. The game provides alot of visual cues that make it easy to pick up (it doesn't take much to know that a tank is stronger than an infantry man). Terrain rules can be abstracted even further, and can be explained plainly in real-world terms ("you can't see through a forest if either army is standing on either side"). Modifiers can be tracked by you if you're playing against the kid.

BatteLore may be less suitable because of it's added complexity of Lore rules and other unit exceptions. But having all kinds of fantasy units may appeal to your audience. Heroscape might also be an alternative.