May as well get the competition urge out.
Fanart Update! I got this drawing of Keisha living her jazz ballerina dreams from Victoria:
Thank you Victoria!
My family has never completed a game of Monopoly. We all reach the two hour mark and call whoever has the most properties the winner.
I aspire to be a grandma of Mari’s caliber.
Amanda looks horrified… the poor thing doesn’t know that she doesn’t mean she’ll actually hit her, I imagine she’s cowering off screen. I hope Andi is quick to console her.
Catan!
They already hate each other, right?
Catan I’d one of my favorite games! They have one that’s two-player that’s perfect for couples who want to take out their frustrations on each other non-violently lol
Oh, yes, do please show people that there are more interesting games than the kind of board games I grew up on. (I know you already brought up that one where George was the last man standing. Bring up more.)
Carcassonne is a great one, and easy to pick up the basics. Bang! might be a fun card game for them, and they can play out their aggression in a more directly symbolic way (and also figure out that if they concentrate all their attacks on each other, the other players are going to win). Magblast has screaming space battles (you literally miss your shot if you don’t make a reasonable sound effect, that is IN THE RULES).
If you want to combine cute and ewww, there’s always Kitten in a Blender: Try to get your opponent’s kittens into the blender while reducing the number of your kittens lost in the process.
I don’t think they’d learn much from cooperative games right now, but if those come up later, the two I can think of are Escape and Pandemic. Escape! The Curse of the Temple has a ten-minute hectic rush to get the treasure and get free, and it requires cooperation. Pandemic is about trying to save the world from five diseases all at once. Oh, and there’s Red November, where a bunch of gnomes try desperately to save their failing submarine.
Let’s see… Sushi Go’s too cutesy for them right now… Medieval Academy’s strategy is too complex for board game beginners… Red Dragon Inn centers on alcohol….
Eh, just watch a bunch of episodes of Shut Up and Sit Down on YouTube and pick out the ones that best fit these characters. I’ll be interested in your choices and what they bring out!
For these two, I would suggest the casual games of Zombie Dice, Evil Baby Orphanage, and even Exploding Kittens. I collect board games so I have a few. Ticket to Ride is a fun one, and so is Tsuro. Both are very simple.
Though maybe Forbidden Island or Forbidden Desert are better. Those two are even Co-Op games so it would encourage them to actually work together.
“Evil Baby Orphanage” might not be a good choice here.
I think they could dig the silly pictures actually. While the name may not be the best, one can’t resist Baby Stalin with the tied on moustache or the Unabomber with the animal hoodie and star sunglasses.
Well apparently I need to get that game now. Thanks for the recommend!
I can make a few suggestions if you want other bits of advice. Or send you to Tabletop. That show has lots of good things, and you get to watch a playthrough which will help heavily.
Pit! would be the best here, I think. First, it is about ruthless commodities trading, and second, it has a little bell you get to ring.
Pit is pretty awesome, though we never had a bell. Also they might break the bell.
Also, we recently got a new copy and I swear I don’t remember a thing about the cards actually having values. But it’s fun to have it back. Needs a nice crowd to play it, though, instead of two or three people.
I respectfully suggest that they try “Cosmic Wimpout”. Most fun I have ever had with a board game — been around for decades, rarely seen anywhere, even at Cons, great for 2 to 5 players, dangerously fun with more. Includes the rule: “You may not want to, but you Must.” Very affordable!
Rules of board games growing up (per dad): it doesn’t matter if you win or lose, it’s how much you can cheat and get away with.
any of the various Munchkin themes would be another good choice for a “screw-your-buddy” type game that is fun for all… and i’m partial to “Hirelings, the Ascent” as well. though with the six of them they can all play Haunted House… or whatever game it was they needed six people to defeat “The Baron” in.
Heh, Munchkin. I am kinda sick of it because my nephew wants to play it all the time. And it’s not as much fun with just two players. But, I do like that I’m halfway through my Ninja-Pirate-Zombie-Robot setup, and I’m still waffling between a pure NPZR deck and one spliced with superheroes and starships.
(I haven’t really looked through all the offerings but I’m assuming my final deck will be Steampunk Pirate Zombie Fu. Which is close enough.)
I think the game against The Baron was a variant of House on Haunted Hill, which is a fantastic group game with all those ‘win’ options.
Oh yeah, Betrayal at the HoHH definitely!, though that doesn’t present very many ways that Amanda could “get back” at Selkie (and vice versa) until The Haunt happens, and even then, the traitor probably WOULDN’T be either one of them… so even LESS chance to screw the other one over… as for if it was an in-comic game versus an IRL game, if it was an in-comic game, Todd may have gotten a copy of it after the surprise inspection disguised as a play date with Georgie happened. they all seemed to like it, since tall of the players lost track of the time, that is, until the timer went off… so that could be Selkie and Amanda’s turn to shine as instructors to the others, since only Todd has played it before in this group (he was unfamiliar with it earlier, implying that the rest of his family has NOT played it either) but I’m SURE the two of them have played it MANY, Many times thus showing the two of them the benefits of co-operation versus fighting all the time… at least until Selkie goes for the Last Man Standing option, KNOWING full well, that this is NOT the Orphanage where it’s banned… BUT, betting on the hope that Amanda probably won’t think of it, until it’s TOO LATE!… thus She get’s her revenge on Amanda!!… and to quote Monty Python… “and there was much rejoicing!”
I remember playing Monopoly as a kid. There was this one game that lasted 3 weeks, off & on. We’d leave it sitting on the table and play it when ever we had the time.
Ah, Monopoly. Where everyone starts happy and content, dice are rolling, property is trading hands, and the paper money is flowing. Then someone mentions it’d be a great idea to play for pocket change. It’s all fun and games, right?
The evening is then guranteed to end with some little kid walking away with at least one adult’s entire weekly paycheck… 😀
Have them play once upon a time, it’s a card game in which you can create your pwn story all while beating your friends and family to the sweetness that is victory. Amanda would be good at it, and I suspect Selkie would too.
I actually do think that Amanda would be good at it, and Selkie might be, but the times I’ve played with kids it has been incredibly hard to have it feel like a fully-functional game. It’s like a proto-game, where they didn’t include enough structure because they thought the players would be creative enough to take up the slack.
I have no idea what it would be like when played with adults, but it strikes me that it’d probably end up with better storytelling and less “I throw in all the cards I have and just say they happen.”
Like my nephew (11-ish): They see an Ogre and then they find the Key and then they end up in a Dungeon that can Fly….
I think we need to add a rule that says you need to take two sentences to describe the card before you can add a new one.
Dave, in the last panel, Todd’s smile reminds me of Zero Mostell’s or Joe E. Brown’s smiles. Gleeful, in a totally mischievous way. The kind of smile that gives brave people pause to recalibrate, and makes the evil ones stop to re-Calculate.
That is the smile of “Yeeees, this will either knock them both down a peg or force them to learn to work together in the hopes they can conquer her.” (Those hopes are wrong, but he’s not telling THEM that.)
GUILLOTINE! A fun little card game where everyone is trying to get ahead…
and no, I am not making this up. Google it. It’s a fun, fun card game. even comes with a little cardboard standee.
I have played it. So I can confirm this game exists. There’s even a piss-boy. (For those not in the know, this is a reference to History of the World Part One by Mel Brooks.)
Aggravation – with a custom board (my in-laws are serious), it’s a 6-8 player version of Sorry.
I’m just gonna say it:
Monopoly is a terrible game.
Monopoly is actually a great game. It’s how people play it that fails. That little house rule of when you hit Free Parking you get the pot? That’s what kills the game right there. It’s a completely different game without it.
That’s not to say there aren’t additional problems. It’s really a mean spirited game. Which was kind of the point back when it was created, to show that monopolies are bad and so are vicious landlords. But I am going to stop right here before I go into a lecture. 😛
I tried a couple times to post a thing about PBS Game Show’s episode on Monopoly, but it kept giving me an error. Trying a shorter version: Go check out their vid on YouTube.
I’ve played with and without that rule (usually without), and I have still always hated the game. I’ve tried different versions, and I find them all tedious and boring. It’s just not for everyone.
I like to fix games and refurbish them. Haven’t done it for a while, a few moves have destroyed my craft kit. I have always enjoyed seeing Monopoly boards in thrift stores because they have everything I need. Pawns, money, the board itself. I have made quite a few new games off of old monopoly games no one cares about anymore. Same with Risk. Those little boxes used for the pawns are some of the greatest things ever known to man.
The key is to completely dominate one corner of the board.
Preferably anyone but the corner of “Go”. But best corner is orange/red.
You can bankrupt people faster than they can say “Can I get a loan?”.
Also buying two streets in those corners to avoid others from getting a monopoly is a really good strategy and gives you leverage to trade.
The real history of the Monopoly game is pretty interesting (and awful).
Originally invented by American anti-monopolist Lizzie Magie in 1903, as The Landlord’s Game. It was intended as an educational tool to illustrate the negative aspects of concentrating land in private monopolies. She patented it and self-published it by 1906. Several other variants were developed afterward, including versions with little cardboard houses and a rent system.
The main point of Magie’s game was this: she created two sets of rules: an anti-monopolist set in which all were rewarded when wealth was created, and a monopolist set in which the goal was to create monopolies and crush opponents.
Being as she was not a large distribution company, the game didn’t become very widespread or famous, until it caught the eye of Parker Brothers in the early 1930s. The bought the patent from Magie for just $500. They produced their own version, Monopoly using only the monopolist game rules, and began mass-producing it in 1935. It became one of their company’s landmark products, and has made them billions.
Lizzie Magie, the creator would never have approved the PB version, which completely subverted the educational point her game was about, but since she’d sold off the patent, she had no legal right to stop them, anymore than she had a right to a % of the massive profits the game generated.
The irony that Parker Brother’s held a near-total monopoly over the board game industry, and thus had total control over the game’s future, was not lost on Magie.
…no lecture on how calling Selkie a fish is a racial slur? No real punishment at all for how she behaves in general towards Selkie? Wow.
Andi called her out over it in the preceding strip – she’s relapsed once so far (that they’re aware of), so more punishment would be overkill, and probably just make her resent Selkie even more.
That’s something better suited to do at home without everyone else present. Andi did in fact say she told her before to stop calling her that though. There’s no real reason for her to belittle Amanda in front of everyone else and especially not with Selkie around. If she were to punish Amanda in front of Selkie, it would make Amanda dislike Selkie even more and make Selkie enjoy Amanda’s punishment and open the doorway for Selkie to think she’s effectively allowed to bully Amanda because the adults allow it.
Andi needs to explain to Amanda at home why the name isn’t appropriate so that Amanda has a better understanding of it. Liken it to when the aquarium associate called her gingerr, how it isn’t her name and can be hurtful. If Amanda better understands it, instead of just being obtusely told to do something, she’s more likely not to do it.
“Don’t you realize that the term you’re using is hurtful?” seems like a crazy way to go about it.
Of COURSE Amanda realizes that. That is WHY she is using it.
Reminds me of an anecdote where a principal thought it would stop bullying if the kids told the bullies that what they were doing was hurtful and the bullies went “Oh, I didn’t realize I was hurting your feelings, I’ll stop now.”
Also, what puts racial/species slurs as any worse than any other name-calling, in this situation? Could someone explain that for me?
Amanda doesn’t understand the nature of hurt she’s doing. Until it becomes real and relatable to her, she can’t understand it, because it isn’t something she can perceive on her level. Sure, she’s making fun of Selkie, she knows being called a fish annoys her, but she, herself, cannot relate to it. If Andi explains to Amanda how she makes Selkie feel and likens it to things Amanda has felt, it makes it something Amanda can now connect with.
It also opens the door to allow Amanda to discuss her abuse, which in turn allows Amanda to heal and possibly even bond with Selkie after she moves passed her horrible experience that made her take out her anger on Selkie. Amanda is a confused, hurt and angry little girl who’s thought process isn’t the same as others because she’s terrified of being hurt and alone, so she hurts others in order to cope with it.
And I’m not sure what you’re asking about racial slurs? I never said name calling in general was any less of a bad thing than racial slurs. It’s essentially the same thing? You can call someone retarded and it’s equally demeaning to someone who’s mentally impared as saying something is gay when you mean stupid is to someone’s sexual orientation or calling a girl a c**t or a b***h or someone with braces metal mouth.
I don’t know the extent of what’s allowed to be said here so I censored those words out. Sorry if they don’t need censoring or if I didn’t censor them enough.
Nah, the censoring is fine (and preferred, from my side of the screen). The thing I was confused with is that I’ve seen multiple comments now (such as Alcor’s, above yours — remember that replies can reply to larger sections of a conversation, not just the post immediately before) that seem to think Amanda would stop using that term if only she understood it was a racial/species slur.
It seems to me to be expecting boundaries that Amanda might not even have. Maybe she would like to be the kind of person who doesn’t badmouth whole groups of people when she’s trying to badmouth just one, but I don’t see that as a given. Maybe she wants to be good enough that she doesn’t use the really big bad words that adults get all excited about, but I hardly see that either (except as regards how well the adults treat her if she pushes the boundaries).
I have a pretty secure anti-swearing lock in my head so that even when I’m very upset I don’t break out weapons-grade vocabulary. But I’m not Amanda. I’ve been raised to understand that certain words just shouldn’t be used, and I include the list of racial slurs in that list (and add to it whenever I come across a new one, which thankfully isn’t often). I also have the strong desire not to use language that insults people I’m not aiming at.
It would seem to be that if Amanda knew for certain that a particular term was honed in on Selkie with laser precision, she’d be MORE inclined to use it.
As far as Amanda needing to understand what she’s doing to Selkie, that it’s truly hurtful… I’m a bit confused by the point you’re trying to make. You say one the one hand that she’s trying to hurt Selkie to cope with her own hurt, and on the other hand that she somehow doesn’t really understand that what she’s doing hurts Selkie. I don’t see her as that much out of touch with reality. And she IS capable of empathy, as shown in her interactions with some of the other girls (and, heck, even with Selkie that one time), even though certainly her empathy is a bit impaired.
Have you seen “Child of Rage,” the documentary of a girl (Beth Thomas) who had to be taught how empathy works, due to the abuse she suffered as a baby? I can see some parallels to Amanda, but I don’t think Amanda is anywhere near as bad as that. Beth literally had to be trained to associate hurt of others with hurt of herself — because before that, she had deliberately harmed her brother and tried to kill her parents and had no emotional reaction to either of these things. There was nothing there, just “I wanted to kill them. Mom locked the knives away so I couldn’t” kind of thing, flat affect as if she were relating that she saw some bugs crawl past the window and they weren’t even interesting.
Amanda’s deliberate attacks against Selkie don’t seem at all like Beth’s, to me. Not like a science experiment or just a “get this annoyance out of my life,” but definitely tied in to emotions and competition and even a bit of hate.
To me, it’s all just about the same, with very little difference.
Though there IS hierarchy in this.
On top: Racial/species slurs, handicaps and physical deformities. This is hurtful because there’s literally NO way someone can change their race or species, handicaps and/or physical deformities CAN be changed, but with a lot of money that not everybody has. Then again, it can evolve into scar-shaming after that.
Then you have the name-calling on wearing glasses, color of your hair, your weight. These are things that are actually changeable. Please note that you SHOULDN’T dye your hair because others say you have no soul for being a ginger, but when you switch schools it could be a solution to prevent the initial bullying and start building friendships. Same goes with glasses, you COULD wear contacts. You COULD find a weight consultant to help you gain/lose weight.
Again: people should not bully others about it, but if you’re not proud of who you are, you get picked on for it. It’s the ugly human nature. That’s why I feel there’s a *SLIGHT* difference between the two things I just described, and find racial slurs a little worse than fat-shaming, for example.
Before anyone goes on a rant: this is me describing the lesser of two evils, not good vs bad.
An alternative would be to resurrect the Smith family tradition of the “swear jar” and make Amanda pony up every time she calls Selkie the “F” word.
Now THAT’S an idea. “It’s hurtful” isn’t going to carry any weight at all with Amanda. She knows perfectly well it’s hurtful. That’s why she’s been saying it: she wants to hurt Selkie.
“The adults in charge of me won’t allow it” is about the best we can hope for with Amanda at this stage. And letting Selkie call her on it with a “swear jar” penalty would do a lot to defuse the hurtfulness in Selkie’s own mind.
Orientation to morality starts with orientation to authority, and that starts with being forced to obey rules you haven’t internalized as just the right thing to do.
After you’ve been abiding by the rule for a while, you can graduate to understanding why the rule exists, and to do it when no one is looking, when no one is penalizing you. But it’s a mistake to think kids must understand the rule before they can be expected to obey it. Obedience to authority is indeed a virtue and it needs to be trained well in advance of understanding when other virtues might come first (that is, when it’s better to disobey authority for specific reasons, or when certain authorities are illegitimate, etc.).
So yeah. Swearing jar. Good idea.
Swear jar is a good idea but needs to be handled with care. Otherwise it becomes ‘as long as I’m willing to pay the penalty I get to do it’ which in later life becomes ‘I can do what I want as long as I have enough money to throw at the consequences ’til they go away’. Swear jar only works if Amanda puts enough value on her money/material possessions to trump the visceral satisfaction she gets out of namecalling. Otherwise it breaks down to her deciding it’s worth a nickel/dime/quarter/dollar to be able to call Selkie fishface if Selkie makes her angry enough.
Given Amanda broke her game thingy in anger, she’s already got a track record of choosing to lose financially for emotional satisfaction, so I’m not sure swear jar alone would help this problem. The correction needs to involve her losing something she values on an emotional level – like good standing in the eyes of someone’s opinion she respects before it’s going to hit hard enough to make a real change. Not sure she has any adults in her life who fit that bill yet tho.
I agree with the other commenters that it would be a bad idea to lecture Amanda too much in this context (a fun family gathering with Selkie present). Plus, I don’t think Andi realizes that “fish” is a RACIAL slur. I don’t think anyone has told her that Selkie is a different species, so she probably just thinks Selkie is ill.
Again, I don’t see that “Oh crap, you mean I’ve been badmouthing an entire race/species? I didn’t mean to do that!” is any sort of realistic reaction for Amanda. There’s no reason for her to understand that sort of insult as worse than regular insults, and it’s the one that most gets under Selkie’s skin.
If she understands that it’s literally aimed at who and what Selkie is, and is the kind of insult you can throw at Selkie so that she’ll understand 100% that it’s meant for her and no one else, I’d think Amanda would use it MORE.
Meeting Pohl and his family probably has no effect on Amanda in the way to say: “Oh, did I hurt their feelings too with calling Selkie a fish face? I’m sorry!” It was one meeting, and to Amanda it’s only saying “great, she’s not the only freak in existence”
One group of friends who I almost became part of had the rule: No More Risk. Reason 1 is that it takes too long, Reason 2 is that it always ends in shouting. They couldn’t remember the others of the 7 reasons (they put that rule down a good 2 years before I ever met them, and the biggest factor against me actually joining the group was that it was one of my college friend’s friends-from-high-school, and they were all going to college in different states so I only got to meet them a few times.)
I have long been wanting to get… I think it’s Risk Legacy. My group has played Risk a fair few times and it’s fun, but Legacy promises to offer some gameplay changes and a sense of nostalgia as the game develops its own history.
Only I’m nervous about bringing a copy to my particular group of friends. I cringe to think of the kind of names they would give their cities, and I wonder if the board will be family-friendly enough to bring back to my family after that.
You have to have a group that’s distinctly capable of doing 15 games. And then the nature of the game means afterwards, only you and them can do so because otherwise outside players have a distinct disadvantage. It’s a good game, but you have to keep in mind you will have to modify it for other players.
At some point Andi’s gotta fill them in about Amanda’s various bruises – pretty sure Grandma would’ve avoided that phrasing had she known.
That said, glad to see that my family isn’t the only one that goes Srs Bzns with Monopoly!
Todd’s smile is pretty frightening. Like, Selkie smiling frightening.
When I was a kid, Clue was a pretty popular family game … there were five of us, so games aimed at four players (like Sorry) weren’t really practical. That or Yahtzee. Uno or Skip-bo would also be a good choice, if they’d rather do a card game (if they really want to make things interesting, they’d play team Skip-Bo and make the teams Theo and Mari, Todd and Andi, and Selkie and Amanda).
Had tons of fun at my aunt’s house with Skip-Bo over the years.
Clue might’ve been my first proto-roleplaying experience. It’s somewhat easy to get into the mindset of what’s going on. But still, kinda mainstream. I hope they come up with more interesting offers.
How about the “Sue and Kathyrn” version of Life?
If that’s out, there’s always Mystery Date …
I’ll be making custom card decks for Christmas this year (if all goes well). We’re in the era where you can print-on-demand a single deck for minimal cost (a few bucks plus shipping) and design that deck on your home computer with ease. (This was not the case some years ago when I first investigated POD card decks.)
I wonder what Amanda and Selkie would come up with if they each had to design a suit? Add in Georgie and Keisha and you’ve got a full deck, so make it a full activity and they’ll have their own home-designed cards for playing with.
Nice fan art, Victoria! Dancers are REALLY hard to draw well, but you did a pretty good job!
And Dave, that last panel is just perfect for giving the feel of a medieval-style tournament. Well done.
With all the suggestions about possible board games for them to play, I’m going to toss ‘Sentinels of the Multiverse’ by Greater Than Games out there as something they might enjoy a Selkieverse variation of.
It’s a card-based game, all players versus the deck as a cooperative comic-book capes-and-cowls type thing, with some novel elements to ensure that everybody has things to do even if their hero is currently incapacitated (or which may /only/ be doable with certain heroes currently incapacitated).
…it is, incidentally, also fairly challenging and benefits from a strong sense of cooperation and understanding of your team-mates resources and abilities.
That is currently my favorite game I own. I highly recommend it. Its got an adjustable difficulty. The art, while not up there with Marvel and DC, still get the job done and is bright and dynamic. Each villain and environment feel different.
And the most important reasons? Jurassic Park and Atlantis are totally in it. Two of Selkie’s favorite things. You can fight in both places. Of course Jurassic Park isn’t referenced by name, but it’s a mix of the island, and the Savage Land together. And I can totally see Selkie cheering loudly when raptors or a T-Rex come into battle.
with the way Mari sounds in my head right now, all i can see is Todd doing a Mirror, Mirror episode style salute, and quoting in Klingon, that “it’s a GOOD day to Die!” before he goes and get’s whatever game* they will be playing tonight…
*) see above for one of my posts as to what game it could be…
Selkie continues to appear contrite, or at the very least aware that she shouldn’t have done what she did.
Amanda, on the other hand, is basically going “yeah, whatever, tuning out the lecture until you’re done”
In regards to some of the game suggestions above, I have one: Mille Bornes. It’s competitive without being “violent”, and requires a *LOT* of strategic thinking. (I’ve played rounds where the “Puncture-Proof Tires” were crucial to winning.)
Y’know, I think I still have my old Mille Bornes set around here somewhere? I’d just about half forgotten about it.
I learned to love Monopoly when I was a kid – my dad would play it with me (with what the rules said was “children’s version of rules”), because my brothers were too young to understand things like how the cash worked. Our best game lasted 2 weeks – about 1-1.5 hours per day, when my brothers were asleep. I still have that ancient set (it’s older than me!) as a treasure, though a couple of houses have gone missing, and at least one of the player figures (think it was the shoe) too.
“Your father and Andi”. Nicely-played, Grandma. Nicely-played. (Okay, fine, she can’t say “mother” because Andi’s not Selkie’s mom. But still.)
How about a nice friendly game of War?
The game of Monopoly is just 5 hours of real fighting over fake money.