OUR FAVORITE AGILE BOARD GAMES - scrumalliance.org · OUR FAVORITE AGILE BOARD GAMES WITH MICHAEL BODÉ • Learn how gamification supports agile learning • Play hands-on with two

OUR FAVORITE AGILE BOARD GAMES

WITH MICHAEL BODÉ

• Learn how gamification supports agile learning

• Play hands-on with two games

• Give away a free game!

Please no drinks on the tables

We will be playing games and

don’t want a spill.

In this session, we will:

I SHOULDN’T BE HERE

Steve Ostermiller,

Agile Trainer

WHY GAMES?

• Fun way to learn

• Systems oriented

• Provide safety for

failure

• Provide fast feedback

• Suppress pre-existing

baggage

• Multi-sensory learning

• Enable multiple

iterations

PITCH CAR

A dexterity race car game,

requiring players to flick

their cars around a track

and to victory.

Design: Jean du Poel

Manufacture: Ferti

MSRP: $89.99

2007 UK Games Expo Special Award Winner

2003 Tric Trac Nominee

1996 Spiel des Jahres “Dexterity Game” Winner

1996 Meeples’ Choice Award

1996 Deutscher Spiele Preis Best Family/Adult Game 3rd Place

GOAL OF THE GAME

The goal of the game is to be the first player to

flick their car around the track multiple times.

RULE 1 – HOW TO MOVE

Flick your car to move. Alternate turns.

Order of play does not change throughout the game.

If you flick your car off the track, then you go back

and lose your turn.

RULE 2 – GOING OFF TRACK

If you skip two complete segments, you must go

back and lose your turn. No shortcuts!

RULE 3 – SKIPPING TRACKS

If your car is hit by another car and goes off the

track, then both go back to where you started.

RULE 4 – HIT OFF TRACK

If your car flips over, it is considered crashed. You

must go back.

RULE 5 – FLIPPING OVER

If two cars hit and neither goes off track or flips

over, then both cars remain where they stop.

RULE 6 – NORMAL COLLISION

GAME SETUP

There are 5 players. Setup the cars at the starting

line in this order. Skip any missing cars.

If you don’t have a checkered starting line tile, then

start where there is a checkered strip under the

tile.

PLAY A ROUND

• Goal is not to win, but to understand the rules.

• We will play another round, so just focus on the

basics.

• Play 2 laps and first to cross the finish wins.

• When your table has a winner, everyone raise

your hands.

AGILE METAPHOR

A workflow?

Tasks, backlog items, features?

What does the track represent?

What are the cars?

What is a lap? Iteration, sprint, release?

Going off track, crashed tasks?What are impediments?

What was your velocity? # of cars lapped in # seconds?

NEW GOAL

As a team, I want you to get as many cars to lap

the track in the time allotted.

You do not need to alternate flicking.

You may adjust all aspects of the game except for

going off the track and for crashes.

Consider – single piece flow, scrum roles,

workflow, impediments.

HOW DID THAT FEEL?

COACH QUESTIONS

• How did we iterate?

• How did we challenge our

assumptions?

• Did we change roles or the

track?

• How did we validate our

count of cars?

• How much work in progress

did you have?

• Did you apply the theory of

constraints?

CLEAN UP AND SWAP OUT

Please place the

cars in the plastic

bag.

Place the bag of

cars and tracks in

the bins.

ESCAPE! – THE CURSE

OF THE TEMPLE

A cooperative game in which players

must escape (yes...) from a temple

(yes...) which is cursed (yes...) before

the temple collapses and kills one or

more explorers, thereby causing

everyone to lose.

Designer: Kristian Amundsen Østby

Publisher: Queen Games

MSRP: $40

2013 Golden Geek Most Innovative Board Game Nominee

2013 Golden Geek Best Party Board Game Nominee

2013 Golden Geek Best Family Board Game Nominee

2013 Spiel des Jahres Game of the Year Recommended

• Explore the temple

• Place crystals

• Don’t get stuck

• Escape as a team!

• Find the exit

AT A HIGH LEVEL

• Roll dice to get resources and move

• Work together as a team

GAME BASICS

5 Players.

Each player get 4 dice.

The entire team gets 16

crystals, placed on this tile.

TEMPLE CENTER

STARTING TILES

The game starts with 2 random tiles adjoining the

center. Connect tiles from open door to stairway.

Remaining tiles should be in a stack, to be explored.

TEMPLE STACK

Tiles should be face down.

ROLLING DICE

Any dice a player wants to

keep as a resource is set

aside.

This is your resource pool.

Players roll dice at

the start of the game.

Players re-roll dice

repeatedly trying for the

dice they need.

You can add or remove from

your resource pool at will.

PLAYERS MOVE

You can stay together or explore apart.

You do all these operations at the

same time.

To enter a room, pay the cost from your resource pool.

You can only explore adjoining spaces

to your player avatar.

Pay the cost of the any room each time

to move into it.

EXPLORING ROOMS

Exploring always costs 2 explorers.

The stairway connects to the door.

BLACK AND GOLD MASKS

One gold mask clears 1 or 2 black masks.

A black mask cannot be re-rolled.

Once black masks are cleared, you can re-roll them.

PLACING CRYSTALS

You will find tiles like this.

Pay from your dice resource

pool to place the crystal.

Move crystals from the

backlog to the pillars when you

pay the cost.

COMBINE PLAYER DICE

Players in the same room combine dice.

Players go for 10 keys.

You can only do one

pillar per tile.

COMBINE TO CLEAR MASKS

Blue player rolls all black masks.

Blue is stuck and cannot

move! Help!

Help!

Black comes to the rescue

and rolls enough gold masks

to help Blue.

Yay!

Whee!ROLL TO ESCAPE

Pay as many keys as there are

crystals remaining plus one.

3!

2 + 1 >=

Go here when revealed!

WIN SOME, LOSE SOME

You all leave, you win!.

Hey! Wait

for me!

If one stays, you lose.

You can combine rolls

to get out.

AND ONE MORE THING…

This game is time boxed!

I will play music for each time box. When you hear it

change, you must hurry back to the Temple Center tile.

30 sec. Return to

Temple Center

3 min.

Explore Temple

30 sec. Return to

Temple Center

3 min.

Explore Temple

3 min.

Escape!

IF YOU DON’T MAKE IT BACK

If you don’t make it to the Temple Center, then you

lose a die for the rest of the game.

SETUP – PLACE THE CENTER

Place the Temple Center in the middle of the table.

Place your figures on the Temple Center.

SETUP – SHUFFLE THE STACK

Shuffle the exit in with the last 4 tiles.

Shuffle remaining tiles into a stack.

SETUP – ADD 2 TILES

Place top 2 tiles from the stack and add to

the Temple Center.

SETUP – PLACE 16 CRYSTALS

Place all 16 crystals on the backlog.

Make sure the backlog is in reach of all players.

READY?

Your table should look like this with 4 dice in hand.

Go!

Listen for the cue to go back to the

Temple Center.

Explore and place crystals!

Ready…

READY FOR ROUND 1?

RETURN TO TEMPLE CENTER

Try to get back to the Temple Center!

THOUGHTS SO FAR

If you didn’t make it back to the

Temple Center, you lose one die.

Are you seeing Agile ideas emerge?

Go!

Listen for the cue to go back to the

Temple Center.

Explore and place crystals!

Ready…

READY FOR ROUND 2?

RETURN TO TEMPLE CENTER

Try to get back to the Temple Center!

READY TO ESCAPE?

Go!

Escape if you can!

Ready…

READY FOR ROUND 3?

WHAT DID WE LEARN?

OMG, don’t make me do that again.

• Clear communication!

• Co-location can be powerful.

• A time box forces priorities.

• Impediments happen, often.

• Goals involve discovery.

• Multi-tasking is a myth.

• A missing team member is

more that just their role.

CLEAN UP AND WRAP UP

Place dice, figures and tiles back into the boxes

please and then bring to the front.

USING GAME MECHANICS

Roles and

responsibilities

Randomness

Resources,

skills, or votes

Progress and

roadmaps

Time-boxes and

urgency

WHERE TO GO FROM HERE?

Look at your packet and

review the other games

listed.

Buy some games and

experiment. – BTW, I’m

selling these at cost.

Play games during the

gathering with me.

Tweet @ContactBode.

BEFORE YOU GO

Complete the survey at the back of your handout

and turn in now to enter to win a copy of Escape!

Tweet @ContactBode to arrange a gaming session

during the gathering.

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