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

Museum Break-In

Ryan, Katie, Mega, Nhan, Naomi

Thieves break into the museum, each competing to steal items before the night ends. Players move around the board, collect treasures, sabotage opponents, and race back to their bases to secure what they have taken. Day and night cycles, spotlights, and a rising alarm meter create hazards that change every turn. Each treasure provides a small boost, so every item picked up or stolen can change the balance of power. The game ends after ten rounds or when all valuables are taken, and the thief with the highest total value is the winner.

PDF Rulebook

Menagerie Mania

Gracie Lu, Ash Ericson, Kennedy Campbell, Micky Wright

You work for an underground organization seeking to rescue neglected animals from zoos all over the world. During your most recent mission, you see another group trying to infiltrate the same zoo at the exact same time as you. You and your team must work together to rescue your targets and escape the zoo before the other team blows your cover.

PDF Rulebook

Wizard Tower: Evil Amulet Edition

Neha Kanive, Amelia Hernandez, Mateo Delgado, Rafael Larranaga, Samantha Chen

Deep within the Wizard Tower lies the Evil Amulet…a relic of immense, unstable power. Its magic bends with the cycle of day and night–under the sun, it grants dazzling strength; under the moon, it whispers curses. Players must fight each other across the board, harnessing spells, items, and luck itself to claim (or survive) the amulet’s power. The game alternates between day and night each round, twisting the effects of the amulet and the cards drawn from blessing to curse. Only those clever enough to balance power and peril will endure the Tower’s madness.

PDF Rulebook