Better School LIfe
Take it easy to work hard.
Introduction
Age 14+ 2-6 players 20-30mins to play
Target player: School students and other players who want to experience school lives
A card game that each player is a student that tries to get the highest grade out of all the students while maintaining an acceptable mental health state
The details
Better school life is a fast-paced campus experience game in which multi-players will act as school students to finish a whole semester. Players need to find the balance between study and relaxation, make sure to keep yourself in a good mood and try to get high grades for this semester. There are lots of special events during the game, and be ready to prepare for the midterm and final.
You can try our game on Tabletop Simulator, Download it in Steam Workshop :) ---->
Game Mechanics
Core Mechanic
Players need to make a choice to decide what action(study or relax) they want to do in each round. Their decision should be related to their mental status and study process. They need to be prepared for the coming quiz and exam, to make sure they can be the student who has the highest study point in the game.
Secondary Mechanic
In our game, we also have function cards that have different effects to help players. Players can use these cards to cooperate with other players, or disturb others' actions to stop them from getting points. In our function cards, players can decide which effect they want to trigger based on different situations.
Setup
Poker(1-6)
Study and Relax decks
Overall event cards
trackers & pieces
Procedures
First, each player needs to draw poker. The player who draws the largest number will go first, then move in clockwise. Each turn one of the players draws the overall card to check the overall event for this turn then put it into the frame for the overall event card. Players need to choose ‘study’ or ‘relax’ to place their pieces based on their overall events and current statuses. Then players draw cards from the deck they select, check its effect, and then follow the effects to change the study or mental points. At the end of each turn, players need to decrease points that they do not select for this turn. There is a quiz at the beginning of week 5. Players who have higher study points will be rewarded. When players end week 7 turn, players who have the highest study point win the game. If two players have the same study point, a player with higher mental points will win.
More About our Game
Innovation
In our game, the player can experience the pressure and emergent events when navigating through student life. We tried to simulate real study life with different narratives by different cards you draw. It allows the player to empathize with the stress and hardness in university life with different emergent events that they would otherwise have never experienced before.
Relevance
Since the story takes place in the circumstance of university life, and there are mental and study points that represent students’ status in real life, the players can feel immersed in their role as a student who is working hard on a course while taking care of their mental wellness. When an emergent event happens (quiz, exam), the player will feel the pressure of being a student facing these challenges. Also, the mental point affects the efficiency of the study, therefore, the player will be able to empathize with the university students who are facing the challenge of balancing their own mental health while striving for a good grade.
Selling points
Our "selling point" is to let players experience the real life of college students. The reason people care about this game and want to play it is that it reflects some real problems of college students, such as psychological problems. Players can experience virtual university life through this game, and personally experience the dilemma of college students in the balance of study and rest.
Play matrix
Our game requires the player to plan time to maintain a good mental state and academic performance, so it requires the player's skills to make reasonable planning. But in addition, the player's luck is also very important, because there are some personal event cards and function cards in the decks, and the team card will affect their plans and points. Our game is a tabletop card game, so it requires a lot of mental calculation to plan and calculate to win the game, without physical dexterity.
