Game Evolution

•      How a game can change to match the event

•      How a game can change to be different

Example – Starting a fire

Starting A Fire Game Evolution

•      First Year - Classic String Burn

–  Teams went into the woods to gather material

–  Some came back with clearly natural materials

–  Some materials were non-combustible

–  Some came back with fire starters, paper, etc.

–  Fires were rare

–  Lots of learning, not lots of doing

•      Next year – Classic String Burn

–  Wanted to make the teams be on a more even footing

–  Wanted to make the event happen with the allotted time

–  Gave each team a piece of dry 2x4, a book of matches, a hatchet, chopping block

–  Less time was spent searching for anything to burn, more time was spent doing

•      Next year – Evolve Game – Challenge is to boil water rather than just burn a string

–   Except, they had to boil a correct amount of water

–   Each team was given a piece of 2x4, a book of matches, a tin can with a bail

–   Challenge was to get the water boiling and fill the tea cup, but you don’t get to measure the water into the tea cup before you boil it, you have to guess

–   Theme was Oregon Trail, so event was to boil water to make tea for the Wagon Master

•      Next Year - Evolve Game – Cook a pancake

–   Each team is given a piece of 2x4, a book of matches, frying pan, plastic bag of pancake mix, water

–   Team has to make fire, mix pancake batter (no hint given on how much water), cook pancake, eat it (judged by the event staffer if it is cooked through)

–   Team needed to make a pancake flipper from the wood given (no hint given that this is needed)

–   Theme was Mountain Man, so event was making Flap Jacks

•      More variations

•      Cook a biscuit on a stick

•      Make fire in a rain storm – very hard to do!

•      Make Hero’s Engine run

–  Boil water to create steam

–  Theme was Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, a romp through history

•      Other ideas?

Review of Important Elements of Fire Games

•      Keep materials same for all teams

–   Makes game have even starting point

–   Make game consistent from session to session

•      Keep skills to set that participants have

–   Might not have first year Scouts (just crossed over Webelos) do some games

•    Not all troops get to all skills in first few months

•    Boys have not practiced all skills needed enough to be proficient

–   Make sure the skills are not “under” the maturity level of the boys

•      Make sure task can be quickly understood

–  Game can be quickly started and finished in a timely fashion

–  Participants may argue about who does what, but not with event staffer about how to do the game

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