The Youth Cartel, 2015, 129 pp., $14.99
At first blush, this book may seem to be an oxymoron. A book about using board games in the age of video? However, the only board game I found missing from this list of old-school games is “Electric Football.” Remember that one?
What youth leaders will find in this book are new ministry adaptations of 24 traditional board games, including “Battleship,” “Candyland,” “Magic 8 Ball,” “Marbles,” “Mastermind” and “Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots.” Yet let’s be honest, board games have made a comeback, and the fact that some of our teenagers might not know these gray-haired options should not deter us from making the introductions. Bringing together the generations to play these games also might prove to be a fun option.
What Steve Case has accomplished with these adaptations are lessons (some biblicaly referenced and others not) on contemporary questions and challenges such as the morality of war, the nature of sin and issues related to friendship, gossip and making wise decisions. Each game is cross-referenced with the original and provides a basic list of supplies and the new rules for playing the games. A quaint background story for each game also provides some interesting cultural twists and facts about each game’s popularity when it was first introduced.
The lessons learned from each game essentially are introduced via discussion questions at the end.
The only drawback I noted was that Bigger Badder Board Games has teeny tiny type, and for an old dude such as myself, who reads with glasses, I would be conferring with a Magic 8 Ball to get through each game.
