Super Power Hour is an ongoing collaborative project initially created in the Game Design Workshop class. A four-week-long experiment in collective world-building and complex systems, it begins with each participant conceptualizing a “Character,” and what agency it may have in a world. After all the characters are presented the group builds the world and designs all of its rules and systems needed to accommodate all vectors of agency. The characters are then all revised to build rules that describe their possible actions and vulnerabilities to interface with the world’s systems and all of the other characters. Finally students design a playable deck of cards and miniature game pieces, and scenarios that make up mini games in the world.

Characters

Scenarios

Target Run

Isabella Morante, Alani Hendriks, Angela Romero, Madison Kayla and Halle Kauffman

It’s Black Friday and a heavy November rain has driven thousands of people standing outside of an indoor mall, all eager to snag the best deals. Among the crowd, five determined characters stand in line, each with their eyes on the ultimate prize: a flat-screen TV at half price in Target’s aisle 40. In this high-stakes race, each player must overcome crowds, obstacles, and each other to be the first to grab the TV.

PDF rulebook

Tides of Fate

Yash Nasikkar, Nicolas Distasi, Yongjia Tang, Jingzhi Hu (May), Pam Ladawan

Set during the thrilling Age of Sail, Tides of Fate is a free-for-all, 3-6 player game in which each player assumes the role of a daring captain on a mission to explore mysterious islands, seize valuable territories, and rise as the dominant force of the high seas. Your objective is simple: be the first captain to have your flag planted in three islands, one in each zone. Though, simple as it may be, this task will be far from easy. Along the way, you’ll encounter unpredictable and violent weather, uncover Salvage Parts on remote islands, and use them to upgrade your ship and make you more fit to face the dangerous scenarios that arise on the high seas. Yet, the greatest danger may come from rival captains — fellow adventurers who share your ambition for maritime supremacy and will stop at nothing to casts your flags into the sea and claim your islands for themselves. Will you brave the unknown and outmaneuver your enemies to become the true hegemon of the seas?

PDF rulebook

Void Domination

Zuhair, Rae, Olivia, Kenji, Charity

On the abandoned planet Galastia, a group of interstellar bounty hunters arrives with a single goal: to capture the healer, Tree Trunks, a forest troll with healing abilities. The players must battle each other while defending against trees that guard the healer. The bounty is high, but only one can claim it. To win, players must carry Tree Trunks back to their starting hex while surviving attacks from other players and the planet’s defensive trees. The last remaining player to complete this task wins the game.

PDF rulebook