Board Game Faith Daniel Hilty & Kevin Taylor

Board Games and Buddhism, with Takuya Ono

00:00 Introduction
01:23 How I became a Buddhist priest and jushoku
03:52 Duties of a Buddhist temple master in Japan
06:06 Board Gaming in Japan, and the Okuma Disaster
08:13 How I became a board game fan
12:32 Religion in Japan
15:39 Buddhism and games
21:06 My favorite board games
26:55 Buddhism practices compassion
33:32 Connect with Ono-san


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Follow Takuya Ono on Board Game Geek, at https://boardgamegeek.com/user/atiisha.
Links:
Takuya Ono on Board Game GeekOno's website, Table Games in the World

Ideas behind the class

What are board games, what is their history, how do they work, and why do they matter?


Structuring the class

I revisited some of our previous episodes – defining a game, Bernard Suits, Jane McGonigal



Defining a board game
history of board games
mechanisms of board games (card drafting, worker placement, Euro, Ameritrash, bluffing, player elimination, trading, set collection)
Games that teach history or lessons
Games that are roleplaying and open-ended (TTRPG like D&D)
Games and life, such as McGonigal Reality is Broken
Magic circles: games and religion


Board Game Lab: the experience of playing board games


Documents in your syllabus that are familiar to the BGF community (The Grasshopper, Reality is Broken, Theology of Play, Meditations on Tarot), but a new addition is Nietzsche’s Zarathustra.


Games that we have played


Kingdomino – Euro and set collection
Secret Hitler – deception and social deduction
Coup - deception and social deduction
Pandemic (couldn’t finish) – co-op game and so influential
Freedom (couldn’t finish) – a game that teaches
Dune Imperium (couldn’t finish) – card drafting, a race, worker placement, hand management
Happy Salmon – silly party game that is fun but kind of pointless (which is part of the fun)
Bohnanza – trading, set collection, hand management


Things I have learned - What are you taking away from it?


Spending time with young people is pretty wonderful
It’s great to do theory and then experience/practice, especially in a small group/pod setting
People are different – one dude loves the social deduction and bluffing element of Coup, while someone else loves the soothing Euro game Kingdomino
Youths catch on quickly, and they love games

LISTENER HIGHLIGHT!



Jim from Pennsylvania


MAIL BAG!



Episode 21 feedback - So grateful to @CampingMeeple's response to episode 21 - how to start a board game group:  "We are trying to keep a Board game day happening more often at our church, but it was actually interesting listening to your last episode because it’s generally hobby people at ours and you were talking about card games and stuff a lot. I am a relatively newer convert to hobby games, but my addiction started at one of these events. Interestingly, I attended one a few years prior and it didn’t stick the same way. But just like you said it generally needs to be accessible games not heavy and the last time I brought my 10 year old."
This episode - @Reengineer_the_game offers this response to our question about spiritual lessons learned from cooperative games: "Humility is the first one that comes to mind. You can be humbled in competitive games by being out played but in cooperative games you can choose humility over being an “alpha player” or simply get beat by the game."


What is a cooperative game?


You win as a group against the board, and not against each other
You share information and ideas, and sometimes even resources
You have a shared objective (achieve a certain amount of goals)
You coordinate your moves and plan out as a group what to do


Note the original Monopoly game had 2 rules-sets, and the second one (that we don’t play anymore) was cooperative.


From Wikipedia:




In 1903 Elizabeth Magie patented "The Landlord's Game", inspired by the principles and philosophy of Henry George. The Landlords' and designed as a protest against the monopolists of the time, the game is considered to be the game from which Monopoly was largely derived. In it, Magie had two rule-sets - the Monopoly rules, in which players all vied to accrue the largest revenue and crush their opponents, and a co-operative set. Her dualistic approach was a teaching tool meant to demonstrate that the co-operative rules were morally superior.




Spiritual Lessons


Learning to take turns and moves that help the group and not yourself.
Learning that diversity of gifts is important. Many cooperative games assign roles with special powers. Everyone has a different role to play. See 1 Corinthians 12 & Romans 12 in the Christian Bible.
Encouraging everyone to participate in a low-stress way; cooperative games allow players to give and receive advice on what to do in a turn.
The importance of trusting others' choices. Sometimes we have to let others fail in order to respect that actions and choices.
Individual achievement can feel different from communal achievement. A shared victory is much sweeter in the end, don’t you think?


NEXT EPISODE - KEVIN: REFLECTIONS ON TEACHING SPIRITUALITY & BOARD GAMES!


THANK YOU!


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Daniel Thurot of the Space-Biff! newsletter and podcast discusses board games as devotion and religious exploration, Mormonism, and religious identity. What does it mean for board games to explore religious division, change, and history?


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Links:
SPACE-BIFF! | Fiercely Independent. Independant? Crap.The Mission: Early Christianity from the Crucifixion to the Crusades | Board Game | BoardGameGeekThe Acts of the Evangelists | Board Game | BoardGameGeekNicaea | Board Game | BoardGameGeek

We examine the medieval Book of Games, King Alfonso of Spain's 1283 book about chess, dice games, and board games like Backgammon. There are rich insights here into medieval and modern board games – their types, challenges, wisdom, and benefits. Yay for history!


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Links:
SU&SD Present: British Board Games 1800-1920, by Holly Nielsen - YouTube

A regular board game group is a powerful way to build inter-generational relationships and community at your house of worship. But how and where to start? Daniel and Kevin share their experiences: what worked, what didn't, and what to watch out for.


For a one-sheet on this process, subscribe to our newsletter here or email us at info@boardgamefaith.com.


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