Troubled Lands Activity

Troubled Lands Explainer

Troubled Lands

  • Rules
    • Talking is fine
    • No talking/interacting with other groups
    • Can see other people’s cards
    • Each person does one thing each turn (before drawing the weather card)
    • Eroded -> Fallow -> Forest/Fields/Pasture
    • Weather are 1-10 (plus extra 6,8), sorted randomly
    • 6/9 are tough to distinguish - make sure raindrops are falling down

Round 1 - Collaborative

  • 8 turns
  • Group with highest total score wins
  • When done, bring weather cards to me for reshuffling and write your score on the board

Reminder

  • Start with:
    • 6 Forest
    • 2 Fallows
    • 2 Fields
    • 2 Pasture
  • Eroded if more rain than forests
    • 2 become eroded
    • Erosion order: Fallows, field, pasture, forest

Can’t plant on eroded, have to turn it to fallows first

Round 2 - Within-group competition

  • 8 turns
  • Person in group with highest score wins
  • When done, bring weather cards to me for reshuffling
  • Write your score and role on the board

Round 3 - Within-role competition

  • Person of each type with highest score wins

Take a few minutes to think/write about:

  • How did you play differently in different versions?
  • What in real life is similar to each version of the game?
  • How did you decide whether or not to help others?
  • What does this have to do with social networks and social capital?!

Debrief

  • What did you think about while playing?
  • How did you feel as you played? Did those feeling change across different versions of the game?
  • When do you help others in real life?

Debrief

  • Were resources and abilities distributed fairly?
  • How should resources be distributed in the real world?
  • What role did communication play? How did your group make decisions?
  • Did you work to make things equal? Why or why not?
  • What kinds of inequality appeared in the game?

Debrief

  • Did anyone sanction someone else? Why?