The Importance of Morality

Taylor Green, Dayanna Hughes and Tai Bailey

INTRODUCTION:

In a world where human customs have been lost and concepts cease to be, your goal is to survive and to make it to a normal civilization that has preserved humanity. This game is a tale of exploration where you and other players are traveling through a post-apocalyptic world trying to survive. Are you willing to test your luck and lose all sense of morality in order to make it to your destination first? Or will you be able to stay sane and keep your morality intact?

RULES AND ELEMENTS:

The game is played on a game board that represents a trail to a better destination. In order to travel, you will have to roll a die. Along the trail are symbols relating to four different types of cards. If you land on one of these symbols you have to pull a card pertaining to that symbol. The four types of cards are risk, reward, health and morality. A risk card will have a negative impact on your player (i.e., your player enters an empty house however in search of food, however they get hurt instead). A reward card will have a positive impact  on your player. (i.e., your player finds multiple canned foods that are still good quality). A health card will affect your player’s physical and/or mental health (i.e., your player gets sick and their health goes down). A morality card will present you with a decision that will have a negative or positive impact depending on what you choose. This can increase or decrease your morality but benefit you in the game overall. You can keep track of these statistics by using a tally system on the note cards provided. Your main goal is to get to the end of the board first. If you do, the value system won’t apply to you.

VALUE SYSTEM:

Throughout the game, the three main things that players should keep track of is their health, food cans, and morality. Knowing the amount of these things will affect the choices that players will be able to make in the game and their survival. It will also affect the outcome of your character. Whoever reaches the end of the board first is the overall winner and has no negative setbacks no matter their stats. After the winner, the person with the lowest morality loses all sense of humanity. They steal, kill, and seek havoc with no remorse or care.  The person with the lowest physical health dies. The person with the lowest mental health loses their sanity, and becomes a shell of who they used to be. The person with the lowest amount of food takes all the supplies and abandons the group. The players don’t know until the end who will have the worst fate. In this world where everything is forsaken there is really no glorifying circumstance. There are just some circumstances that are better than others.

CONNECTION AND JUSTIFICATION:

Within The Road, the world has been reduced to its basic elements. Because of this throughout the novel McCarthy plays with the aspect of morality, showing that although there is an evident line between good and evil a world where there are no social constructs makes it subjective. This is what makes it difficult to survive. This can be seen on page 88-89 when McCarthy writes, “The world shrinking down about a raw core of parsible entities. The names of things slowly following those things into oblivion...The sacred idiom shorn of its referents and so of its reality.” This quote is basically saying that principals and words that signify them have been forgotten in a post-apocalyptic world. For our game, we wanted mortality and morality to play a big role and go hand in hand similar to the novel.

Luck is also an important aspect of the game, hence why this is a standard board game with a die. Having it this way, leaves the game strictly up to chance. There is no way to get over, or boost your chances of succeeding. Similar to the book, luck determines the boy and the man’s fate. For instance, on page 138 they find a bunker full of food and supplies. It was described as “crate upon crate of canned foods.”  This was pure luck, them being there at the right time provided them with the things they needed. With the whole idea of luck, there is also an equal amount of unluck. One is not over the other, you can get either or.

Slides:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1SbJG_a-iRQb3usVqg2uJnc8lyI6ZFIsctBExVIWhQ0s/edit#slide=id.g35f391192_09

Lauren Nicolella, Aysha Siddiquee & Greg Tasik

This is a card game similar to the format of Cards Against Humanity, but with fewer cards and many different prompts and situations that pertain to The Road.

The rules:

Each of the 4 players starts off with 8 cards, 4 compassion and 4 cruelty. During each round, the person who’s turn it is reads a context card and gets to judge their favorite answer in response to the scenario. They have the power of which card makes most sense to them, that may make or break the situation you’re put in. The player with the most scenario cards at the end of the game wins.

Objective:

Obtain the most cards in the end, while managing to survive through the different scenarios of survival.

How it’s played:

1. Shuffle two separate decks of 16 compassion cards and 16 cruelty cards.

2. Each player gets 4 cruelty and 4 compassion cards.

3. One player draws one scenario card out of the scenario card pile.

4. The other 3 players choose one of the 8 cards to respond to the scenario.

5. The player that draws the scenario card chooses which scenario they like best. (very subjective and random, such as how the characters in the story act)

6. Repeat steps 3 through 5 till all scenario cards have been drawn.

7. Player with the most scenario cards at the end of the game wins.

Categories of cards:

• Compassion cards (morality)- 16 cards

• Cruelty cards (immoral)- 16 cards

• Context cards (scenarios)- 8 cards

Explanation & Connections:

The main concept of this game is to make the personal decision on whether something is moral or immoral based on the scenario and decisions the players are given to choose from. In The Road, the man and boy had very limited options of how they could survive and get through another day, which is why we are giving each player a random choice at being cruel or compassionate. The scenarios we chose the players to engage with are either ideas based on the novel, or were major scenes that had taken place and affected both the relationship and well-being of the man and boy. There are connections to cases of starvation, cannibalism, violence, and relationship-building that the man endure on their journey together and it is up to each player to decide which way they would want to live. If it gets picked is up to the judge that round, so keep in mind of who is in charge of that since everyone has different views on survival.

Value System:

The value system is based or morals, and it is up to the players of what is valuable to them in the situation they are given. We wanted this to be interpreted as they are given tiny yet significant details of compassion, and more harsh cruelty cards since it is more of a reality in a survival setting. In The Road, there were encounters with different kinds of people who reacted differently to both survival and with others, and it is their choice to be compassionate or cruel to who they come across. The most valuable part of this game is obtaining as many context cards as possible, so making sure that the people playing you are conscious of how to win you over.

Risks & Rewards:

The main risk is losing all of your cards (if the game ends up going to every round) since there won’t be anymore options for that player and will ultimately die. Whoever has the most cards secures a safe spot in being alive, and is the first to go in the next match.

Compassion Cards- These are the cards that correlate with the situations and actions that occur to the Man and the boy’s journey that revolve around kindness.

Compassion: 16

1. Share half of your food rations with 1 person.

2. Allow 1 person to join you on your journey.

3. Help out 1 injured person.

4. Feed a wild dog you find.

5. Share a Coca-Cola with 1 person.

6. Find a new lighter.

7. Save 1 person from being eaten by cannibals.

8. Teach 1 person how to swim.

9. Use first aid-kit on an injured person.

10. You find an abandoned house to stay in.

11. Share multiple cans of food with 1 person.

12. Bury a dead body.

13. Teach 1 person how to swim.

14. Share your dream with 1 person.

15. Make grape flavored-water.

16. Snap out of a distracting memory.

Cruelty Cards- These are tragedies that correlate to the obstacles that the man and the boy have to face during their journey.

Cruelty: 16

1. Kill off the person you across from you.

2. Take the items and clothes of 1 person.

3. Get shot in the leg with an arrow.

4. Shoot at the army passing by.

5. Eat 1 person.

6. Steal all of the belongings from 1 person.

7. Develop a horrendous cough.

8. No access to food for five days straight.

9. Kill a baby to have a meal.

10. Kill the person to your right.

11. Get invited into a truck on the road.

12. You get distracted by a daydream.

13. Face the harsh reality that your partner will die soon.

14. Have false hope.

15. Murder a man who innocently crossed paths with you.

16. Get lost in the woods.

Conext Cards- These are scenarios that correlate to the situations that the man and boy find themselves in throughout their journey

Scenarios (Context)- 8

1. You find multiple people scared and naked in a barn, what do you do?

2. You are starving and are resorting to alternate methods. What will you do?

3. You wake up in an abandoned house and hear someone walking into the room you’re in, what do you do?

4. Everything you had was stolen and you follow the tracks of the culprit, what do you do?

5. You get discovered by the army, what do you do?

6. Another person on the road asks you for your help, what do you do?

7. It’s between your life and your partner both of you are to cross the bridge, but it’s only strong enough for one, what do you do?

8. There is a strong wildfire approaching the area you’re camping in, what do you do to survive?

Photos of game:

Close up of Cards

Fire and Ice

Our board game consists of moral choices that not only affect one group but all groups involved in the game. The objective of, Fire and Ice, is to make it to the coast at the same time as the other team. We felt that since the coast was the man and the boy’s only goal in The Road that it would be fitting to make it the end of the game. There are two paths that lead to the coast. The longer (less difficult) road represents the road that the man and the boy took, and the shorter (more treacherous) path represents the forest that’s beside the road. Within the game two groups work together in order to reach the end at the same time. Throughout the book, the boy and the man are on their own and don’t really work with other people in order to survive but the boy constantly thinks about other people and how they are being affected by the world they live in. The boy has compassion for others and always wants to help even when they have barely anything to offer such as when they ran into Ely or when they returned the one handed man’s clothes after they took them away. Along with the man and the boy thinking about how their choices would influence one another throughout the book such as whether to “take a look” in a house or to camp out a night. Without them thinking about each other they would have ended up pushing each other away making it harder to survive. We wanted to add the compassion and teamwork element to the board game by adding two teams that must work together to reach a common goal but subsequently end up being the same group since they reach the coast at the same time. It makes the moral choices from the demon cards harder to make since it will be influencing both groups.

Each group gets camp cards and supply cards. Camp cards allow them to lose a turn in order to help teams reach the end at the same time. Supply cards are enough food, water, ammunition, etc for one person to survive the game, without a supply card the person evidently dies. In the book supplies is the most important thing for their survival which is why we added the supply card aspect to the game. It makes the moral decisions that they will encounter harder if it involves losing a card, possibly killing a member or taking on another person which means you would need a supply card in order to take care of them. Throughout the game each turn a group will roll a dice in order to decide which card they will have to work with, demon cards or angel cards. Demon cards deal with hard moral choices that people would run into while living in an apocalyptic era. These choices range from bad weather taking away a supply card to finding a child and having to make the decision to either take the child or not with the possibility of going back two spaces if you don’t, and losing a supply card if you do. Along with choices that can affect the other team such as pawning off a child onto them or taking a supply card from them. The team with these decisions would have to think about how their decisions would influence the other team and themselves bringing up the compassion element from the book along with the fact that within this kind of apocalyptic environment moral decisions are very important to survival. The boy and the man run into these decisions very often throughout the book where these choices that they make can influence the rest of their journey. Angel cards deal with the random strokes of luck that the man and the boy have run into such as finding a bunker or finding a tarp. Things that help with survival and make life just a little easier. Angel cards are hard to roll since you must roll a seven in order to earn them. You have the chance to earn supply cards easily or to move forward faster through out the game. There is also an opportunity to get both cards at the same time by rolling doubles. The man and the boy run into strokes of luck by getting supplies or finding a safe space but at the same time they have a hard moral choices to make such as staying the bunker. The man and the boy found a bunker which gave them enough supplies to survive for months but they had to decide how long to stay or wether to stay at all. In this kind of environment luck and choices go hand and hand so we wanted to make sure we included that aspect into our game.

Getting Started

Based on age. The oldest have to make the choice for the youngest. Do they want them to take the harder path with less choices compared to the easier path with more choices.

Start off with a 100% then throughout the game things are taken off of it.

Objective: Both teams reach the coast at the same time.

Items in Box:

• Two dice

• Timer

• The board game

• Angel cards

• Demon cards

• Supply cards

• Camp cards

Rules:

1. 2 or more people should play. It is okay to have an odd number of team members.

1. When playing with more than 2 split into teams based on your choice

2. To decide your path you roll the dice.

1. Larger number gets longer path, other group gets shorter path

3. Each group gets a set of cards

1. Supply cards: each group gets 1 card per person, 1 additional card for group use only

1. Supply cards contain supplies such as guns, food, water, clothing, tarp, etc.

2. You must have the same number of supply cards as people in the group when you start. Throughout the camp you may earn or lose some.

2. Group with longer path gets 1 camp card

3. Group with shorter path gets 2 camp cards

1. Camp cards give you the opportunity to camp out at night forfeiting a turn

4. Each turn you roll the dice, for each choice you have 5 seconds to answer

1. 7: Angel card

2. Demon Card everything else

5. Go back and forth till both of you reach the coast at the same time

6. You win by both teams surviving and reaching the coast at the same time

1. You lose by killing the other team or dying

1. Dying: No more supply cards after 4 turns

2. Not reaching the coast at the same time

Title: Carry the Fire

Player(s) should be metaphorically “carrying the fire.” The idea is to protect and keep your fire throughout the game and stay alive.

The Board

Approximately a 4 by 3 foot board. Two inch squares that extend around the board to form a swirly path. The beginning point is titled “Darkness” and the end point is titled “The End of the Road.” Every few spaces reads “Draw Card.”

Gameplay

To start, each player is given 20 tokens. 10 of these tokens are survival tokens and the other 10 are fire tokens, the former representing overall player health and the latter representing the player’s overall compassion “level.” For each players’ turn, a die is cast and the player must move a corresponding amount of spaces along the board. If the player lands on a “Draw Card” space on the board, the player must draw from a stack of “Chance” cards and read their card out loud. Chance cards throw the player into a situation that they are out of control of and will ask them to either give up or collect one of the two categories of tokens (they typically concede or rescind 2 to 3 tokens). Additionally, players may opt to go down certain routes on the board to the “Scenario” locations, where they must draw a card from a separate stack of cards. The cards will present various scenarios, most of which will instruct the player between surrendering a certain amount of one type of token in exchange for the other. This way, strategy is introduced into the game. If a player loses all their survival tokens, they’re out of the game and pronounced dead. However, the goal is to reach The End of the Road with fire token still intact, and the player with the most fire tokens by the end of the path is the winner.

Explanation

Our game combines player strategy with an inevitable construct of luck, or lack thereof. In the book, the father and the boy face a series of unfortunate events that out of their control, such as rainstorms and earthquakes. Many of our scenarios reflect this randomness. However, one of the underlying conflicts worked into the novel is the boy’s unwavering compassion for life versus the father’s self-centered will to survive, and how both dispositions simultaneously interfere and cooperate with certain aspects of the human identity. In an attempt to recreate this conflict, we have made it so that the goal of the game is to collect fire tokens, but all fire tokens will be null and void should someone lose all their survival tokens.

Often in the book, the man and the boy must together come to a consensus of what the right thing to do is. When their cart is stolen, for example, they track the thief down and the father nearly shoots him, but the boy implores him to let it go. When they come across a feeble old man, the father wants to play it safe and show him no attention, but the boy wants to help him. In scenes like these, McCarthy means to demonstrate two divergent conditions of humans: kindness and selfishness. In such a desolate and dead world, decisions like these could mean life and death, and we made the game based on that premise. Accordingly, there are many scenarios that mirror real events in the book. Of course the Fire tokens are a direct reference to the “carrying the fire” motif that most notably appears in the novel at the end, when the man, dying, expresses his faith in his son’s ability to make a brighter world, even in the darkest of circumstances. In this sense, the boy’s compassion ideals triumph over everything in The Road as the most important saving factor. This was our reason for making the collection of Fire tokens the objective for the game; we want to make the statement that value of goodness in the world will always outweigh the benefits of selfishness. We imagine that while playing, players will have an earnest conversation about personal morals and how they affect our world.