Don't Push Your Luck! (2012)

Overview

Don’t Push Your Luck is an educational game, designed to incite discussion between the players about hemophilia, as well as help youth that live with the condition learn how to make decisions that are in their best interests. The game supports 2-4 players and is played over the course of 45 minutes. The game contains mechanisms that are not normally seen in educational games, and the effect is learning through engagement (fun). It also features attractive youth-friendly graphic design to further increase the accessibility, engagement and desire to play. Don't Push Your Luck combines light strategy of a family Euro with the fun and social exploration of a Party Game.

Just Another Day
Each player in Don’t Push Your Luck takes on the role of a child with hemophilia competing to have the most well balanced lifestyle, while trying to manage the risk they take in their activities. Players will be faced with the constant challenge of balancing of risk vs reward. The game is played over three rounds, each representing one full day.

There is a central board surrounded by 16 activity cards, that are randomly drawn before the beginning of each round. Each activity card represents a specific type of health: mental, social, emotional, and physical. In turn, players go around the board picking up activity cards and placing them in their player area. This represent them performing this activity. For example: on your turn you may choose to take the “hockey” activity card. Hockey provides 2 physical icons on it. These icons are later used to obtain “stars”, at the various “star spaces” around the board. The player with the most “stars” at the end of the game is declared the winner.

Inciting Discussion
Players must be mindful of the activities they choose to participate in during the day, because at the end of every round (3 total), each player tells a story about their day by describing each of the activities they selected. When the storyteller is finished telling describing each of their selected activities, the other players have an opportunity to discuss which of those activities they felt were not in the best interest of the story teller. The storyteller will often be trying to play down the risk of their selected activities, as they will be judged by the other players.