LEARNING

BY
PLAYING
Training course
3rd-9th October 2018
Els Hostalets de Pierola (Spain)

GAMES TO FOSTER
INCLUSION
A resource for youth workers and youth leaders on how to
implement educational games tackling current social topics.
THE ORGANIZATIONS
VIBRIA INTERCULTURAL
La Vibria was founded in 2003 by a group of youngsters who wanted to

learn new cultures and to work for tolerance and social inclusion

throughout the world. Ever since we have been growing, each time we

added some new activities and project types, both on local and

international level. Our main goal is facilitating youth mobility and,

through this, promoting solidarity, tolerance, non-formal and

intercultural education to our society.

We consult youth and organizations that desire to learn more about

international mobility, about opportunities to travel, work, study or

volunteer in other countries. We also organize workshops in schools,

youth centers and other institutions.  At same time we are actively

involved on different programs sending, hosting and coordinating

international volunteers and internship opportunities.

CONSELL COMARCAL DE L'ANOIA

Oficina Jove de l’Anoia is an information point for youngsters. It

provides service to the rural area of Anoia county, in the province of

Barcelona. It was founded in 2014 with the aim to offer information

about any topic that may be of interest for young people.

Oficina Jove de l’Anoia mainly provides its services in Igualada, the

main city in the Anoia county, but also in a de-centralised way in the

33 villages and towns that compose the county. The orientation

services are provided regularly to the youngster living in smaller towns

using workshops and presentations in high schools.

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THE PROJECT
"LEARNING BY PLAYING"
"Learning by Playing" was an Erasmus+ Training Course organised by

Consell Comarcal de L'Anoia and La Vibria Intercultural in Hostalets de

Pierola, Catalonia, during the period 03-09.10.2018 including 25 youth

workers and youth leaders from more than 18 European Countries.

Learning by playing was designed from the need of local youth groups

of scouts and international partners to develop their competences in

creating games that are fun and educational at the same time. To

tackle the creativity burnout that some youth workers experience, we

wanted to provide space and context for participants to learn how to

design new effective games that lead to a deep reflection process.

The aim of the project was to give youth workers & youth leaders tools,

frameworks and space to create and practice educational games that

address current social topics. By improving the competences linked to

the professional profile of youth workers and providing innovative tools

for designing better educational games, we believe that it is possible to

transfer strong positive values to the hard to reach young people and

thus prevent violent radicalization.

GAMES TO FOSTER INCLUSION

This manual is the result of the work and creativity of the 25 youth

workers/leaders who took part in "Learning by Playing". It is

designed with the aim of passing on the set of educational games

developed during our training course to other youth workers, youth

leaders, teachers and educators from all Europe and the world.

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DETAILED
GAME
OUTLINES
PATHS
GAME DURATION TARGET GROUP
30-45 min People aged 15 to 35

GROUP SIZE
Minimum 8, maximum 50 (at least 4 people per path, and maximum 10 per path)

LOCATION
The game was designed for outside, but can be adjusted for inside, too. The size of the location
depends on the group size. Preferably flat surface, but not necessarily (if more obstacles need
to be added).

LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Game as a reminder that we, as human beings, are social creatures who need to communicate
with each other to survive. For that, we need to learn how to listen, hear, and trust each other.
Connection to life: this game shows that some situations we cannot handle on our own. Sometimes
we need to be team players, and we need to trust our partners and cooperate with them.

2. Each team has a different path. One path is wider, other is longer, other is curvier. It creates
injustice. Just like in life, some people are lucky, but some people need to work harder in certain
situations. Each team in this game has to concentrate on its own path without comparing it to
others. The sooner they accept this reality and focus on their own task, the sooner they will
accomplish it (because after all, it is not about the speed, it is about the quality – how much water
each team has in the jars).
Connection to life: the game shows that sometimes external circumstances can distract us from our
tasks, and in order to succeed we need to concentrate on solving the tasks rather than on comparing
our conditions to other people’s conditions.

3.The game teaches to make compromise. When the paths cross, players from different teams
need to be careful and not to bump into each other. For that, they need to decide who goes first.
Connection to life: sometimes our interests clash with interests of other parties, and it is important
to avoid conflicts by wise negotiation and compromise making.

AUTHORS
Bilyana Marinova, Liliya Mircheva, Mariya Vankova, Elina Karagiannidou, Nataliia Zolotukhina.

4
PATHS
STEP BY STEP GUIDE FOR FACILITATORS
Objective of the game:
To go through the path and to fill up with water the jar that is located at the end of the path.
Played in couples and in two rounds in order to give space for everybody to try both roles – a
leader and a follower.

The winner is the team that has the most water in the pot after all teams played 2 rounds
(even though paths are unequal in length, width and curves, it does not really affect the result
because the game is not about speed, but about cooperation and carefulness of execution).

Rules for the teams:

Each team divides into couples, and they assign the roles of a leader and a follower in each
couple for the first round. For the second round, the players change their roles within their
couples. Once on the playground:
One couple from each team starts the path. Then, every minute, a new couple within the
same team starts the path.
The follower is blind (with eyes covered by a scarf), and (s)he needs to have both feet inside
the line; step outside - start from the beginning.
The leader is not allowed to touch the followeR. For giving direction only the following
words can be used: HII/ HAA/ HUU/ HOO (right, left, straight, stop). Other words – start from
the beginning.

Roles of the facilitators

To observe how the teams follow the rules, and to decide whether the players return for
breaking the rules to the start or not.

MATERIALS
To prepare the playground: tape or chalk to draw the paths (all paths should be different in
length/width/number of curves/etc.);
To divide people into groups: smalls papers with numbers 1,2,3 (one per participant);
Hat to put these numbers;
To assign paths to the teams: up to the facilitators;
One empty jar for each path;
One empty cups for each 2 people;
One scarf for each 2 people;
Water (if there is no water resources available around the playground, prepare
bottles/buckets of water in advance or choose another element, such as sand);
Background music.

5
 PATHS
STEP BY STEP GUIDE FOR FACILITATORS
Described for 30 people, to be modified for different number of participants.

1. Players are gathered in a circle and the Facilitator A welcomes everybody to the game.

2. Facilitator A presents the rules to the whole group (rules to be found in additional materials).

3. The group of participants is divided into 3 smaller groups in the following way: each
participant takes a paper with a number from the hat where the number of the group is written.

4. Each group is assigned with a leader – facilitators B, C and D. They take their groups and give
them 3 minutes to discuss a strategy. Correlate HII/HAA/HUU/HOO with right/ left/ straight/ stop.

5. Facilitator A assigns paths to the teams. The game starts. The teams go along the paths
according to the game rules.

6. Facilitators B, C and D control their teams and check that the rules are followed. It is up to the
facilitators to decide how strict to be with the rules and if they need to return any couples to the
start or no.

7. The game finishes when everybody does two rounds – as a leader and as a follower. Facilitator
A compares the amount of water in the jars and selects a winner (who has more water in the jar).

DEBRIEFING QUESTIONS
1. Describe your feelings in three words (bringing up the emotions of people).
2. What happened during the game? What did you observe?
3. What strategies did you use to concentrate with noises around? Do you relate this experience
to your life?
4. What did you learn about yourself and about communicating with others?
5. What would you do differently next time/ in similar situation in life?

6
LORD OF
THE STONES
GAME DURATION TARGET GROUP GROUP SIZE
70 min (45min game Young people 16-24 15-30 people
+ 25min debrief)

LOCATION
Outdoors, enough space to create three stations, one bigger to create the labyrinth.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Experience cooperative work in small teams and in whole team;
2. Understand effective communication importance in team works;
3. Figure out how to build effective teams and achieve tasks together.

MATERIALS
Items (stones) to pick up the teams (as many as participants);
Cards;
Costumes;
Items to recognize the stages (glasses, chair and a book)

TRAILER
In a land far far away there was a beautiful princess and friendly inhabitants, but one day an evil
witch kidnapped the princess! Who is going to be brave enough to save her? Is it YOU alongside
your courageous comrades?

AUTHORS
Lucia Dambrosio, Katarzyna Zemlik, Dominika Lotecka, Ceycey Uzun, Benas Mišeika.

7
THE LORD OF
THE STONES
STEP BY STEP GUIDE FOR FACILITATORS
1. Participants gather around the Storyteller (facilitator), who introduces the fairy tale of a
kidnapped princess by an evil witch. The only way to save the princess is to assemble the
magic weapon and to kill the evil witch. The parts composing the magic weapon are scattered
around the magic land and it is up to participants to figure out the way to do so.

2. The Storyteller distributes stones for the participants. Stones are marked with “.” , “..” or “…”
and the amount of dots on the stones defines the group each person belongs to. Each group
receives three cards with a symbol each (glasses, chair and book) and a piece of puzzle.

3. A - Clairvoyant (glasses card), B - Hunter (chair card) and C - Nun (book card) are scattered
around the magic land and each team has to do Tasks to receive the next peace of puzzle. For
example: there are three teams and three facilitators. First team goes to A B C, second team
goes to B C A and the third team goes to C A B.

TASKS
A. Pass the labyrinth (duration: 7-10 minutes)
Setting: When you are outdoors, chose a space where there are a lot of natural obstacles (trees,
stones, hills, bushes, benches, etc.), add few more obstacles (like chairs) that will be easy to move by
the Witch. Facilitator is a Hunter, (s)he greets the participants by introducing himself and the task.

Participants need to pass the labyrinth, part of the group has blindfolds and others guide
them to the end. The rule in the labyrinth is that they cannot use any words inside and they
cannot touch each other. If they break the rules, they freeze for 30 seconds. They have a few
minutes to create a strategy.

ROLE OF THE WITCH: Changing places for elements of the labyrinth (moving chairs, moving
the finish line), grabbing participants, giving additional tasks (jump on one leg during the
whole task), spinning them around, and doing similar disturbing.
At the end of the labyrinth the group receives a piece of puzzle with the instruction where to
go next. TIP: if you have an odd number of participants, it’s better if there are more guides
than blinds.

B. Solving the riddle

Setting: You need one pink stone with the riddle for every group hidden in different places of the
venue. Hide it in different directions to reduce the risk that participants will find more than one
stone. Facilitator is a Clairvoyant and sits in one place with the correspondent item to allow
participants to recognize him/her (i.e. glasses). The task is to find the stone and solve the riddle.

 Example of the riddle: “The rich wants it, the poor has it and if you eat it you die”.
TIP: Every group can have a different riddle to solve.

8
THE LORD OF
THE STONES
C. Land art (create a picture)
Setting: The task is to help the nun. At the beginning she’s describing the team that she has to
rewrite books, because people can’t even read. She needs some help to show the children some
fairy tale which is called “A blue coral”. Then the nun reads the story. The task for team is to make
a picture of that fairy tale using natural materials like stones, leaves or wood.

Example of the story: “Far out in the sea where the water is very deep, the Sea King ruled the
undersea world. In the deepest spot of the sea was his castle. The walls were made of blue coral. 
On the roof were shells that opened and closed when the water passed by. And that is where the
Sea King lived with his mother and four daughters, each one born a year apart." (Source:
www.storiestogrowby.org)

After all teams successfully finish the tasks, each of them should have 4 separate cards (pic2): on
one side with the facilitator's symbol/empty (chair, glasses, book and empty -after last task they
receive an empty card without explanation what to do afterwards).
With the  cards received, teams have to figure out themselves to unite and put together the
puzzle (pic1). After the puzzle is completed, it is revealed that the teams have "built" a magical
weapon to destroy the evil witch. The story teller comes up and delivers magic cannonballs
(rolled paper balls) and everyone shoots down the witch.
Afterwards players take the key off of the evil witch and open the magical chest where the
princess was locked up.

DEBRIEFING QUESTIONS

Emotions
1. How did you feel? Describe your emotions using different kinds of weather.
Facts/observations
2. Describe what happened during the game.
3. The process of team building is created by 5 steps. (Describe and explain them)
- Forming
- Storming
- Norming
- Performing
- Adjourning
4. Describe all observations using these 5 steps. Which step is the witch during the process of
team building?
Conclusions
5. What have you learnt?
6. Which information will you keep from that experience?

LINK TO MATERIALS

Materials "The Lord of the Stones"

9
BREAKING
NEWS
GAME DURATION TARGET GROUP GROUP SIZE
90-100 min* Young people 16-24 Small groups of 4-5

*Altogether 100 minutes: 30 minutes for information gathering, 20 minutes for preparing the 
presentation, 5-10 minutes for the presentation, 20-25 for debriefing.

LOCATION
Three different spaces to explain the task. Indoor for making the presentation
and outdoor to investigate.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Critical thinking
2. Media awareness
3. Refugees/political problems/human rights

MATERIALS
An envelope for each group;
Pens and markers;
White and color papers;
Flipchart paper;
Computers to write the articles (optional);
Projector;
Printer (color).

AUTHORS
Gemma Brum, Stoyan Kostadinov, Marci Szakonyi.

10
BREAKING
NEWS
STEP BY STEP GUIDE FOR FACILITATORS

1. Introduction
If you have:
a) 4 facilitators: one facilitator welcomes the group and this person manages the technical
details at the end, during the presentations. This main facilitator tells the background story:
“You are journalists, and you are applying for a job. You are going to be interns at three
newspapers.” Then (s)he divides the group into three smaller ones.  (S)he brings them to 3
different rooms or locations where the 3 bosses (facilitators) are waiting. Then (s)he explains
the location where they can work on the materials they had gathered  and where is the place
they have to go at the end to present it.
b) 3 facilitators: All facilitators gather the group and make the division. Then they split up and
do their roles as bosses from different types of media.

2. Start of the game

The bosses explain further information about the assignment. They should not be too obvious,
they have to let the players be creative, i.e. don’t tell them what to write about .

a) One group works for a nationalist paper, called “Attack!”. The boss tells the group that the
party needs articles about refugees to support their campaign against them, so their task is to
gather “information” which would put them in a bad light. The boss is angry, strict, (s)he is
insecure about his/her job, obeying everything the party tells. A small, tiny, frustrated person.
The boss can help a little bit by giving the players an envelope with the rules and the written
assignment, and an example of the front page of the magazine. Then (s)he sends them away to
do their assignments. (See attachment)

b) The other magazine is an independent one. They have to write a balanced article, with proper
interviews, maybe statistics. The boss is enthusiastic, feeling responsibility, calm, cooperative,
open minded, gives specific orders to be objective, tells only the truth, does not judge. Players
also receive an envelope with the rules and the written assignment, and an example of the front
page of the magazine.

c) The third one is a tabloid, sensational hunter magazine. The boss is loud, wants the money
and does not care about the truth, reality, real news, (s)he just wants to sell the magazine. (S)he
shouts with the players, offends them in many ways, i.e.: “you are late, time is money, I’ll fire
you!”. Players receive an envelope with the rules and the written assignment, and an example of
the front page of the magazine. Then he sends them away to do their assignments.

* Call from the boss: if a team is stuck and the boss is not around, they can call him on phone.
Also, the boss can call them as well: if the group of facilitators is bigger, they can send these
people "out", and they can play a role. The angry old man, the young activist... We came up some
ideas: intervene with calls, send them somewhere where we organised a scene, put up posters...

11
BREAKING
NEWS
3. End of the game
When the time allocated to carry on the research is finished, groups come together and they
have to present it in 5 minutes (if needed, it could be more) in front of the rest of the group. After
every team presents, the facilitators announce the end of the game and start of debriefing.

DEBRIEFING QUESTIONS
1. How did you feel during the game
2.What did you observe while you were on the field
3. Do you think that this happen also in your country
4. Did this experience change you? If yes, how?

ATTACHMENTS

Attack!
You are working for a nationalist, right wing agency. You have specific orders from the party to put
refugees in a bad perspective, position, to justify the new campaign. You must write an article about
the refugees that fits the paper’s style. Do interviews, ask the locals, make a presentation!
Be creative!
 
One or two people can stay to prepare while you are away.
If you are stuck, you have one call for advice from the boss.
You have to be back at __:__.

Equilibrium
You are working for an independent newspaper. Its motto: “The truth, and only the truth”. Be
objective, specific, do not judge. You must write an article about the refugees that fits the paper’s
style. Do interviews, ask the locals, make a presentation! Be creative!
 
One or two people can stay to prepare while you are away.
If you are stuck, you have one call for advice from the boss
You have to be back at __:__.

Hot News
You are working for a sensation seeker magazine with celebrity news, aggressive style, paparazzi
photos, alien abduction stories. You must write an article that fits the paper’s style, i.e.: “Hillary
Clinton adopted an alien baby”, about refugees. Do interviews, ask the locals, make a presentation!
Be creative!
 
One or two people can stay to prepare while you are away.
If you are stuck, you have one call for advice from the boss
You have to be back at __:__.

12
SKILLS
PILLS
GAME DURATION TARGET GROUP GROUP SIZE
60-70 min Young people 16-24 20-40 people
LOCATION
Depends on the amount of people playing and the weather. The ideal is a big space with inside
and external rooms to place the evidences and spread people.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. To think outside the box. Don’t trust everything you see.
2. Learn how to connect things, stories and other people's opinions.

MATERIALS
For players:
FBI stickers for each player
Folders/envelope with:
- A map with the evidences’ location;
- An FBI chart to collect all the information found;
- A pen;
- Sheet with written rules (See point 4)
For facilitators:
FBI costumes
TV screen frame
Cleaning lady’s costume
Printed examples of evidences which can be found as attachments.
Self-made newspapers
Printed Pocket guide for facilitators

TRAILER
Today the FBI received a new case, Dr. Wow Pau lost the intelligence pill he designed. He was in a
hotel in Hostalets de Pierola the day before the official presentation of the pill to the world. Who
could have taken it?

AUTHORS
Andra Štāle, Elvira Schestakow, Helena Rodríguez Bolzoni, Marius Mutu, Ares Riart.

13
SKILLS
PILLS
STEP BY STEP GUIDE FOR FACILITATORS

0. Backstory for facilitators:

There will be 3 main suspects on this case:
1. Ms. Samantha Adams: Adams is a rich family who runs a car factory. Externally, they have a
happy and perfect image. However, she is an obsessed mother who thinks that her son, Charles
is not intelligent enough to run in a near future their family’s factory. With some contacts, she
found about Dr. Wow Pau and his intelligence pill and she wants to buy it or steal it.

2. Dr. Evil: He is scientist who is working on an intelligence pill as well, but he is blocked. He
wants to meet Dr. Wow Pau to ask for some support, and they meet in the Hotel. He is
threatened by mafia to give them an intelligence pill, either his own pill or Dr. Wow Pau’s pill if
it’s not possible to design it.

3. Mr Power: He is currently the president of Hostalets de Pierola. He want to conquer the world
with more intelligence and control of the people. As the Hotel in which Dr. Wow Pau is staying in
is on his city, he managed to stay at the same hotel as well to have a chance to steal the pill.

In each stop they find 1 evidence and a piece of newspaper inside a plastic bag/laminated so
FBI agents don’t destroy them:
1st stop – They will find a letter from the mother;
2nd stop – They will find a bank check from the mother;
3rd stop – They will find a diary from the politician;
4th stop – They will find a mobile phone message from the scientist;
5th stop – They won’t find any evidence.
Examples of this evidences can be found on the attachments. You can print some of them and
do others by hand.

*Newspapers: they should contain information about one of the suspects and also not relevant
or confusing information about other issues. For example: you can post a family photograph of
the family describing their happiness and at the same time post an hurricane on California.

Function of the newspaper:

As one of the aims of the game is to develop critical thinking, newspapers aim is to show lots of
news and make participants think – is it true or is it fake? Should we pay attention to
newspaper?
All evidences should give an idea why each person could be the suspect – all of them have
reasons to steal it but in the end everyone should realize that even if people have reasons to do
something it doesn’t mean they do it. In the end the pill will be founded lost on the ground,
which is needed for people to understand that it is important to think about what to believe and
think or what not to.

14
SKILLS
PILLS
1. Preparation and introduction:
Place the evidences and the newspapers in each stop, and additionally a newspaper is hanging
where the investigation starts (The FBI agents stay there over the time of the game and when one
group is passing by having a dialogue: for example: “Did you hear about...”).
When all the stops are located, you should create a map of the space and mark the stops  so the
players can move and find them with more autonomy. The recommendation is that the stops are
not very near so group don’t meet and have time to look and think.

The players are gathered in a circle by FBI Boss and his helpers (the facilitators).
(The FBI boss and his helpers are dressed in black and wear sunglasses and earphones in one ear),
being serious and strict like a real FBI agent when there is a case to solve. Tell participants that
from this exact moment they are FBI agents and give them stickers with the FBI sign.

2. One of the facilitators tells a flash news in a TV box:

Explain what has happened: the pill is gone. Show them “news on the TV”. For that, one of the
facilitators becomes a TV reporter (you will need to create a TV screen box”/ fake TV” where you
can broadcast these news on what has happened:

Good morning!
Last evening we received news about the world wide known scientist, who has done so much good
for the humanity. Dr. Wow Pau developed the Intelligence Pill! A pill that makes everyone smart, 3X
smarter than Bill Gates and Einstein together.
Dr. Wow Pau will give a 1.000.000.000 $ reward to find the intelligence pill. Seems like a really
important pill, if you ask me. Ok, back to the news… (the TV stops).

Tell them that because it’s a big case, all his TEAM of FBI agents will be divided into 3 smaller
TEAMS. Also say that the team which will have results in this investigation, who will discover what
happened, will receive a salary raise and promotion at work (this will trigger their brain into being
competitive).

Pay attention – we said team in the beginning – you are one big team of FBI investigators/agents.
Specifically use the word TEAM. Don’t tell them that they can or cannot work together.
That’s one of the game aims – they have to listen carefully to what the boss says and interpret it
in their heads. We did it this way and separated the big team into 3 smaller teams. Our aim was to
see if they will compete against each other (even though that’s not what we said) or will they in
the end come together as one team. In the evaluation you can ask them questions with questions
like –did you worked as one team or did you felt like working only in your team? The groups start
at different check points.

15
SKILLS
PILLS
3. The FBI Boss tells them the game story:
- Hello everyone. Welcome back at FBI headquarters. I am the FBI Boss. You are detectives at FBI
and you have to discover what happened with the intelligence pill.
-You will form teams.
- Each team will receive a detective file with the map of where the evidences (clues) can be
found, a detective notebook (paper and pen) to write your observations, a sheet with the FBI rules
and a sheet with the information/story of what the FBI know so far about Dr. Wow Pau and the
intelligence pill.

4. Rules:
The FBI boss also tells them the FBI rules they will have to follow:
- You can´ t take the evidence (clues, news) you find, because you will damage/spoil the evidence.
You can write in your notebook or take photos of the evidence.
- The time is short. You have 25 minutes to gather all the evidence and then present a conclusion
to me (the FBI boss)
- After 25 minutes you have to get back to me (the FBI boss), regardless of if you got all the
evidence.
- You must also reserve time in the 25 minutes to discuss the evidence among the team and
decide on the conclusion which will be presented.
- The team who finds what happened to the pill will receive a promotion and a salary raise.

Ask once again they understood rules. If not, repeat. Ask them what time they should be back in
the same place where you started (just to make sure they heard the boss saying how much time
they have for investigation). Give them all their materials in the folders/envelopes.

5. Start of the game

The Boss separates the players into teams of 3-5 people and give them the GO.
When you give them the map, make sure that all teams don’t go to the same first clue. If you
have 5 clues in different places, send the first team to clue Nr.1, the second team to clue Nr.3
and the third team to clue Nr. 5.
Make sure they follow the map of clues. If possible, then there is one facilitator going with the
group by staying the role reminding of the time which is left for the stop.

6. Closing
If teams are struggling, the FBI boss can help them. 5 min before ending go to team and tell
them that in 5 min you are waiting them in the starting (meeting) point.
In the last 5 min they have to put all evidence and clues together. They have to come up with the
guilty one. During this time there is a cleaning lady walking around cleaning the ground.
The teams gather at the starting place, where the FBI boss is awaiting them.
The boss asks them: Did you get all the evidence on the map? Did you come to a conclusion?
What is your conclusion? What happened to the pill? The teams each indicate their conclusions
and the Boss congratulations all of them.

16
SKILLS
PILLS
7. Win/Lose
If one of the teams comes to a single suspect and have a believable story, the boss
congratulates the team and tells them they are indeed right. They have one the promotion and
wage increase.
If none of the teams makes a single suspect with a valid story, the boss tells them that this
time the bad guys won. We will do better next time.

After the congratulation, the boss takes off his FBI badge and tells the players: Ok, now, work
day is finished. It is time to get back home. And in between of this sentence the cleaning lady
finds the pill on the ground (throwing it in the rubbish heap that was collected) and screams, so
everyone looks there and sees the pill.

DEBRIEFING QUESTIONS
1. What is the weather inside you now? Scream it out one by one.
2. What do you think happened in this game? FACTS.
3. How did you came to your conclusions and what elements did you used?
4. How to did you filtered the information? How you managed fake news and real news? Evidence
– fake or real?
5. Other areas in your life where your are given information? And how you analyze it?
6. What would you differently if you would play this game again?

Add theory in the end of debriefing. Tell who is the founder of critical thinking and his theory.
Socrates. Show a chart of critical thinking step by step.

LINK TO MATERIALS

Materials "Skills Pills"

17
SOCIALPOLY
GAME DURATION TARGET GROUP GROUP SIZE LOCATION
Approx. 90 with 13+ 2 to 5 groups, Indoor or outdoor but not
debriefing 1 to 3 person each group windy because of papers

LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Empowerment of social entrepreneurship
2. Manage resources to be profitable and social at the same time
3. Increasing awareness on social side of social companies

MATERIALS
Board; events, opportunities, company information and investment cards; dice; figures; money;
voucher paper; 1 paper for team to record transactions and a pencil or pen for each group, printed
manual for facilitators.

AUTHORS
Tanit Giner i Martínez, Mária Franková, Carles Cunill, Hikmat Mursalzade.

STEP BY STEP GUIDE FOR FACILITATORS

(See the manual to the game for usage)

0. Intro to the purpose of the game (background)

Socialpoly is a board game which aims to be an educational board game about social
entrepreneurship based on decision-making process and a bit of “luck” or hazard factor during 6
years of doing business on the market with a social enterprise. Decision-making process
happens when the opportunities (not obligatory opportunities for social enterprises as applying
for a grant, renovation, new business partner, etc.) are in the market and luck/hazard factors
aimed by events (events are obligatory happening every year according the conditions written
on the cards for events).

The game is designed to open the discussion about thinking more socially and care more about
the environment, youth, social issues and research & development when doing business. The
discussion can be open thanks to special marked cards of opportunities the facilitator knows
according to the Opportunity table and according to the notes which we recommend writing
about how players think when deciding to take marked opportunities. Every time the
player/team chooses to take a marked opportunity, they get special colorful card and later, they
put their cards together to form the Social Responsibility Index where everybody will see how
many points they have from the possible points and how much at the end they care about
society, not just earnings and high income.

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There are two possibilities how to play the game. First, the facilitator can present the
background of the game to players and present also the “social responsibility index” cards, so
they will know why they are getting them. Designers of the game do not recommend to tell
players in the beginning, just giving them the special cards and telling them to keep them, and
not answering the questions about why, in order to make people think.

1. Preparation
Before the game starts, facilitator prepares the game. The events should be turned on the blank
side up and ordered in the way, that event 1 is the first one to be picked as well as opportunity 1
card. The stone is placed on the first-year sign on timeline and the money is ordered by
numbers, we need to be sure that we printed enough money for the game, it will depend of the
number of companies participating but we recommend to print at least 300.000 socialpoly
money for each company.

2. Welcoming the players

We kindly recommend putting some thematic music to engage the participants when entering
the room (you can also put the title on door – Welcome to Socialpolis (which is the name of the
city where 5 companies are placed) like:
- Travie McCoy: Billionaire ft. Bruno Mars
- Rihanna - Bitch Better Have My Money
- Abba - Money, Money, Money
- Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - Thrift Shop Feat. Wanz

In order to make it funnier you can play also a song when bankruptcy happens:
- Galantis - No Money
... or when they will be successful:
- Die Antwoord - Rich B***h

Fig.1 Illustration how to place the board and its elements.

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SOCIALPOLY
3. Start of the game
Participants will sit down individually or in the group from 2-3 and receive the profile card of each
company and the token in the company color.

There are 5 companies in Socialpolis which are trying to run the business as good as possible for
them. Every year during a 6-year period, 4 opportunities appear on the market. Each company can
choose as many opportunities as it wants according to its money balance and business attitude.
Opportunities are not obligatory. But during every year there are three events which can affect
more-less every company. Events are obligatory.

The players start in the first year by putting the token on the field of 50.000 on the board, which is
their initial annual income (the starting position can be also different according to the
preferences, but the opportunities and events are suitable for companies having the annual
income of 50.000 when starting). During the game, they receive in the beginning of every year the
amount (annual income) of the field where they ended in the previous year after transactions (so, it
́s their new annual income thanks to the transactions they made by taking opportunities or
changes on the market because of the events).

After they have the money, the facilitator presents the opportunities 1,2,3,4 by reading them one
by one and putting in the middle of the game board. Teams have then 3-5 min. to decide which
opportunities they will take. After they decide, facilitator should write down in the table
(Opportunity table) which opportunities they took, and if any of them are “special one “ (marked
ones), the players need to get badges (special colorful cards) according to the field of social
responsibility index.

*Voucher: in the game there is one opportunity where, if you invest in a startup focused on graphic
design, you will get a voucher and later on in the game there is an event where you can use it or pay
for re-branding your company. The voucher is something like recognition that you invest and have
it to use it (the players do not know if they would have chance to use it or not during the game while
they are investing).

When the time to take opportunities is over, opportunities are taken back and put away from the
pack and the game continues with the events 1, 2, 3. Each year, the facilitator presents three
events by turning the three event cards and read them and according to them there are actions
made. Events do not have time to implement after presenting, players make what the event card is
saying one by one. So, after reading event 1, players do the obligatory actions and transactions,
after event 2 and 3 the same.

After finishing the event 3, another round begins. The stone is moved to second year on timeline
and next 4 opportunities are presented for the players, they have again 3-5 min. to make decisions.
After the events are presented, the game continues in this way until the end – sixth year.

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4. Ending part – Social Responsibility Index
After the game play, the players put badges (special colorful cards) to the board for social
responsibility index and have debriefing. (TIPS: you don’t have to print the colorful paper, but
you can use colorful post-its and write on them numbers of areas environment 1, youth 2, etc.
according the Social Responsibility Index paper and make this Social Responsibility Index
evaluation on flipchart, so players can put their post-its).

DEBRIEFING
At the end, we recommend you to sit with the participants with the possibility to see the result
of Social Responsibility Index. Describe the social responsibility index with the colorful points,
tell about the disproportion of colors (it means that some companies were trying to care more
about the society) . If there is, disproportion of fields means that people were more focus to
care about environment or social issues depending on field), describe how many points they
get/ how many points were possible to get. Do not analyze it in the beginning.
1. According your perspective - what was the game about?
2. How did you feel, how was the experience of having a company and the possibility to change
the earning or investing into something?
3. Did you feel like having power to change something?
4. Why did you decide to invest in social opportunities? (ask the ones who did the most)
5. Why did you decide not to invest in social opportunities? (ask the ones who did not get lots of
the special cards)
6. What strategy did you take in the decision process, were you focused on earnings or some
kind of balancing?
7. If you should form vision of your company, what it would be according your transactions,
decision making and position on the market now, after 6 years?
8. Could you do more in terms of social responsibility, did you think about it?
9. What is your overall feeling about the leading your company now.
10. Would you change something in strategy of playing Socialpoly? Are you able to give
recommendations to the players next time?

Possibilities to lead the discussion/reflection/debriefing

a) Ask the ones who have less money but more opportunities if they feel like losers in
comparison with the ones who have more money. Try to open a discussion about perception of
money and added value.
b) There is an event concerning kid upcoming. You can open discussion about balance between
family life and being entrepreneur and ask why they decided for example to go 8 fields down, if
they could go 2 field. If they would do it in real life. Ask the ones who decide go 2 fields down, is
the family is not important for them. (This question is designed it to start thinking about balance
between family and business, about values on personal level).

LINK TO MATERIALS

Materials "Socialpoly"

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GRAPHIC
RECORDING

CHECK THE OFFICIAL AFTER

MOVIE OF THE PROJECT

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Design and graphic recording: Olalla González

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This game compilation booklet reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission can

not be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.