The Game

A Quick Look at a Round of Play

The game board depicts four farms, each with eight 80-acre fields, some buildings representing the community beyond the farms, wetlands managed by the Policy Council, and a river running through it. The farms' fields have steep or shallow slopes, produce abundant (high-productivity) or meager (low-productivity) crop yields, and are close to or farther away from either the river or its wetlands. Each characteristic is evident from the game board. Only those fields that actually touch the river or the wetlands are considered "near water."

Participants will play through up to 10 two-year decision-making periods. In each round, the four farm teams will decide how to manage their fields for the next two years. Having filled out their decision sheets (see the figure below), they place plastic tokens matching those choices on each of their fields. Token placement must match the decisions indicated on the sheets. At any time, farmers may also decide to purchase low-till equipment, as indicated by the card shown below, which they might or might not choose to employ in each succeeding round. They place this card on their tractor when they opt to use low-till equipment, and remove it when using conventional tillage. Low-till applies to all fields or none at all.

Low-till Card:

Decision Sheet for a Typical Farm:

The tokens for field use

Small grains

Grazing

Corn/bean rotation

Alfalfa

Reserve

Public Land

Meanwhile, the Council makes its own decisions about which policies will be put into effect in the following two-year period (see below).

When all teams have turned in their decision sheets to you, enter their decisions into the computer (see page 11), run the simulation, and print and distribute the annual reports (see pages 12 and 13). The illustrations reflect conditions after ten years five rounds of actual play. The teams analyze what happened, make new decisions, and move their tokens as necessary and the next round begins.

Decision Sheet for Council Members:

Decision Screen for a Typical Farm:

Decision Screen for the Policy Council:

Regional Summary Report:

Policy Council Report:

Typical Farm Report:

How to Begin

You may find it easier (at least the first time around) to have someone assist you in running the game. One of you can be in charge of entering the players' decisions into the computer, printing the results of each round, and distributing the reports, while the other can mingle and help the participants. Allow 2-1/2 to 3 hours for the entire exercise (discussing the actions and consequences of each round as it is played), including 30 minutes at the end for a wrap-up "debriefing."

Arrive early. Set up and test the printer, and then print out the initial ("Year 0") output report for each team.

The room should be large enough for the tables you will need: one for the game board, one for the computer and printer, one for each of the five teams, and one for name tags and refreshments if provided. When arranging the tables, keep things "conversation friendly," and allow enough room for the players to walk around. You'll want to create an atmosphere that lends itself to dynamic and active exchanges the best climate for learning!

When everyone has arrived, introduce the game, your objectives in using it, and the player roles. Assign players to each of the five teams.

Your job is to "stir things up," to keep that realistic chaos going. As with learning in general, uncertainty sparks discovery and growth. Don't let your players become complacent. You can use the Settings pages (discussed below) to toss in an occasional zinger: crashing crop prices or an immediate need for higher net income, for example.

Every playing session of AgLand is different. Once the action begins, the natural factors and situations that have been incorporated into the game take much of the control out of your hands. Have a rough mental guide of where you where you want the game to go, but keep things relaxed and comfortable.

Initial Settings

We've built great configurability into AgLand so that you, as the facilitator, can change many of the game's initial settings. Because some of these numbers might prove useful to participants in the course of play, you'll probably want to be able to print copies for distribution. We've included master copies of the default settings, plausible in many agricultural areas. If you decide to keep these settings, just distribute the sheets to the farmers and the Policy Council members as you see fit. If you change any of the settings, you'll want to mark those changes on the Settings Summaries sheets prior to distribution. Do this in advance. We've found it convenient to include the information sheets along with the role descriptions at the beginning of the game, but you could also distribute them later, under the guise of "late-breaking university research."

Team Roles

Each participant takes the part of either a farmer or a policy maker. If either role is already overfamiliar to someone from real life, challenge that person by having him or her play another part. Try to blend the teams so that players do not "think alike": mix genders, mix ages, mix real-life farmers with real-life policy makers, mix students with teachers, mix educators with agency employees. Distribute the farmer and Policy Council role description and decision sheets. Instruct the Council to fill the positions of tax watchdog, wildlife enthusiast, hunter, farm advocate, and clean water advocate.

You might also want to assign farming strategies. For example, have one farm grow as many different crops as possible, tell the players in charge of the second farm to concentrate on maximizing its family's net worth, force the third group of farmers to put most of their acreage in reserve to protect the area's wildlife, and limit the last farm's tillage methods. The idea behind these strategy assignments is to provide a rationale for the decisions that need to be made during each round.

Playing the Game

Distribute the Year 0 reports, and have the farmers place their game tokens on the board, matching their preassigned crops and land uses with the fields, and record the field characteristics (whether the river flows through it or it is adjacent to the wetlands, whether it has a steep or shallow slope, and whether it is high- or low-yielding) on their decision sheets. (Remind each farm team to circle the appropriate letter identifying the farm at the top of the sheet.) Encourage thorough discussion, but keep things moving. After 10 minutes or so (no more), have the farmers choose the crop to plant for the first two-year cycle, the type of tillage to use, whether to put any of their acreage in reserve, or whether to sell any of their fields to the government. Then have them mark these choices on their decision sheets for Year 1-2, move their game tokens accordingly, and give you their decision sheets.

At this same time, the Policy Council is deciding whether to regulate, tax, or offer payments for specific land uses or characteristics. The Council is subject to pressure from often-conflicting special interest groups, prompting it to conduct public satisfaction surveys (as reflected in the various "faces" that accompany each variable). Its members are also privy to some scientific data not available to the farmers. The Council may opt to share this information or it may decide not to. Public forums can be held periodically or can take the form of impromptu discussions at the end of each round, perhaps while you're waiting for the reports to finish printing. Remind the Policy Council that their decisions won't take effect until the next decision round. (It takes time to implement new laws.)

Enter farm and Council decisions into the computer program and generate biennial summary reports for the region, the Policy Council, and each farm.

To save time, you may want to print only one copy of the regional report and put it on the table with the game board for everyone's review. Or, if your printer is sufficiently speedy, you might decide to give each team its own copy. While the reports are printing, it is a good time for players to compare strategies or for you to lead a general discussion: Why did the Policy Council do what it did? What information did the farmers use, and were their decisions wise? Pay special attention to those smiling and frowning faces! Why is the river still dirty? What does it cost to generate more wildlife?

Another way to generate discussion is to hold periodic public forums. The Council can explain the actions it has taken, individual advocates can report what their constituencies have to say, and farmers can voice their concerns and offer suggestions. (If things are moving along quickly enough and the farmers are not pleased with a Council decision, you may opt to have each farm write a letter to those elected officials.)

Even if you run out of time before the twentieth year (and we've found that this very often is the situation), you can still play out the simulation to the end by clicking on Run Simulator until it reaches Year 20. Then, print reports for that round so that you can discuss how life in AgLand would have progressed, given the last set of decisions.

At the end of your last round, it's time to identify the problems and events that occurred during the game and the factors responsible for them. There is no closing script, but a lively (and educational) discussion would focus on how these problems and events occur in real life and what changes can be made to avoid or solve them. Would you make the same decisions again? How easy or difficult was it to consider things from the "other side?" Now that you have played AgLand, will it be easier for you to consider viewpoints other than your own?

AgLand has no set script. Use it to fit the learning situation. As facilitator, you control the game but the game should be only part of the total educational experience.