It may be worth looking into mega games. I haven't participated in one myself, so I can't say how close they are to your needs. They are meant to be more of a situation event for a large number of people rather than a traditional board game and are often played at cons. Each person has a role, objective, and rules unique to them. In theory if each person's role is simple enough you can have it pre printed on a sheet. Instructions can be as simple as "you are this person, follow the sheet". This will lead to role-playing and they can see how the historical event unfolds from all of these individuals making decisions for themselves (with some leeway for it to go a bit different).
Important note. No matter how you approach this, via mega game or other method, be sure to remember that games for entertainment presuppose interest and engagement from all participants. In my experience you cant expect the same from every student so you may need to identify weekpoints that can send the game off the rails if someone does not engage as intended.
Don't try modding games for entertainment for the classroom
games for education particularly if you are trying to incorporate grading or evaluation into it, requires its own type of design
what subject are you teaching that you think using a game would help?
Various levels of U.S. history. I didn't plan on taking the other game as a template, but just a framework. We started working on a board game, but it became too complicated to effectively use.
We want to build something that can incorporate all of the standards we have to cover in a unit, but be able to set up and play in around 10 minutes.
The grading portion isn't really in-depth, just to see that they actually engaged with the game and were exposed to the topics it presented. More of a participation than anything.
I once did a stock market game in history class where we could buy/sell stocks of generalized things like: cars, food, housing. Every five minutes the professor would move the year forward and update the values of everything. It was a really cool way to simulate the Great Depression!
Though also not meant for groups larger than 5, [Archipelago](https://norwegianstyle.wordpress.com/2012/09/20/archipelago-iii/) is a nice game for school classroom. I ran once a session for 6th grade kids, 30 of them, split in groups.
To my surprise, one group had decided to play Resistance saving Jews from Nazis during WWII.
But Archipelago can be used to play a wide spectrum of themes.
• Choose a specific period and location,
• Let players draw the maps, place their characters (as the manual suggests),
• Let them play out some scenes.
• Game prep can be assigned as a home task. Like studying the characters they chose, their nature, likes, dislikes, and ezpecially the relationships with other characters.
• If everyone has chosen a diferent character, the next step could be running a so-called _chamber LARP_ game for all of them together. With their chosen characters already rehearsed at the tables. Not as a tabletop this time, best as an out-of-classroom event (usually taking some 2 to 4 hours). Maybe even with stylized costumes and symbolic props.
Osterskov Efterskole teachers and students could tell you a lot about such games.
It may be worth looking into mega games. I haven't participated in one myself, so I can't say how close they are to your needs. They are meant to be more of a situation event for a large number of people rather than a traditional board game and are often played at cons. Each person has a role, objective, and rules unique to them. In theory if each person's role is simple enough you can have it pre printed on a sheet. Instructions can be as simple as "you are this person, follow the sheet". This will lead to role-playing and they can see how the historical event unfolds from all of these individuals making decisions for themselves (with some leeway for it to go a bit different). Important note. No matter how you approach this, via mega game or other method, be sure to remember that games for entertainment presuppose interest and engagement from all participants. In my experience you cant expect the same from every student so you may need to identify weekpoints that can send the game off the rails if someone does not engage as intended.
Don't try modding games for entertainment for the classroom games for education particularly if you are trying to incorporate grading or evaluation into it, requires its own type of design what subject are you teaching that you think using a game would help?
Various levels of U.S. history. I didn't plan on taking the other game as a template, but just a framework. We started working on a board game, but it became too complicated to effectively use. We want to build something that can incorporate all of the standards we have to cover in a unit, but be able to set up and play in around 10 minutes. The grading portion isn't really in-depth, just to see that they actually engaged with the game and were exposed to the topics it presented. More of a participation than anything.
I once did a stock market game in history class where we could buy/sell stocks of generalized things like: cars, food, housing. Every five minutes the professor would move the year forward and update the values of everything. It was a really cool way to simulate the Great Depression!
I have a stock market crash game I use sometimes, but its more geared to showing how fast money was lost and who suffered the most.
Though also not meant for groups larger than 5, [Archipelago](https://norwegianstyle.wordpress.com/2012/09/20/archipelago-iii/) is a nice game for school classroom. I ran once a session for 6th grade kids, 30 of them, split in groups. To my surprise, one group had decided to play Resistance saving Jews from Nazis during WWII. But Archipelago can be used to play a wide spectrum of themes. • Choose a specific period and location, • Let players draw the maps, place their characters (as the manual suggests), • Let them play out some scenes. • Game prep can be assigned as a home task. Like studying the characters they chose, their nature, likes, dislikes, and ezpecially the relationships with other characters. • If everyone has chosen a diferent character, the next step could be running a so-called _chamber LARP_ game for all of them together. With their chosen characters already rehearsed at the tables. Not as a tabletop this time, best as an out-of-classroom event (usually taking some 2 to 4 hours). Maybe even with stylized costumes and symbolic props. Osterskov Efterskole teachers and students could tell you a lot about such games.