BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:icalendar-ruby CALSCALE:GREGORIAN X-WR-CALNAME:Games Against Oppression X-WR-TIMEZONE:Eastern Time (US & Canada) BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261014T193722Z UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_46296420784940 DTSTART:20240528T160000Z DTEND:20240528T220000Z DESCRIPTION:MIT Game Lab\, with support from MIT MindHandHeart\, hosts "Gam es Against Oppression" a series of game playing sessions for MIT Faculty a nd Staff focusing on board\, card\, and role-playing games that center the fight against oppression by designers representing historically oppressed groups including women\, people of color\, and members of the LGBTQIA+ co mmunity.\n\nWe invite MIT Faculty and Staff across the Institute to play w ith us and our invited designers!\n\nNo prior experience with these or oth er board games is assumed or required. In this unique experience\, the des igner has been shipped with the box to teach our participants how to play in an engaging way.\n\nWe will also have drop-in sessions for participants to play related games within our game library\, with teaching support by MIT Game Lab staff and students.\n\nWe have limited spots available for lu nch panel discussions each day\, to informally discuss the games and topic s at hand.\n\nOur Designers and their Games:\n\nTory Brown\n\n\n\nTory Bro wn is the designer of Votes for Women\, an award-winning card-driven board game about the American Woman Suffrage Movement and the ratification of t he 19th Amendment. Inspired by the 70 year effort to build one of the most effective political movements in American history\, in her day job Tory i s an experienced activist working on campaigns across the progressive move ment for the last 20 years. She hopes anyone who plays Votes for Women wil l be inspired to become part of a cause that is greater than themselves an d dedicated to the rights and dignity of all people. \n\n\n\nVotes for Wom en captures and celebrates the democratic struggle by inviting players to join the suffrage movement\, organize support\, and campaign for victory a cross the 48 states that were called to ratify the 19th Amendment in 1919- 1920. The card-driven game can be played cooperatively\, competitively\, o r in solitaire mode\, and in each version players must navigate the histor ic events\, movement schisms\, and political challenges of the era to win. \n\nThe deck of over 100 stunning cards feature period art\, portraiture\ , and historic documents and include event instructions that can either be played or discarded to campaign or organize their side of the issue. Camp aigners move across the map to build political power with a roll of the in cluded dice that will determine whether each state votes to ratify the ame ndment or opposes the Vote after three eras of play. Dig deeper into the h istory and maneuver through the critical choices that suffragists faced fo r a chance to guarantee equal franchise for all and win Votes For Women!\n \nCole Wehrle\n\n\n\nCole Wehrle is an ex-academic who decided to abandon the lucrative field of Victorian studies in favor of game publishing. He w orks as the creative director at Leder Games in Saint Paul and is best kno wn for the award-winning game Root\, which uses a children's book aestheti c to explore the politics of police states and insurgency. Root and its ex pansions have sold hundreds of thousands of copies and have been translate d into nearly twenty languages. He is also the cofounder of Wehrlegig Game s with his brother Drew Wehrle\, which handles the publication of his hist orical games which cover subjects related to his academic work including s tate formation in 19th century Afghanistan (Pax Pamir)\, the rise and coll apse of the British East India Company (John Company)\, and queer communit ies in the early 18th century (Molly House\, designed with Jo Kelly).\n\n\ n\nIn John Company\, 2nd Edition\, players assume the roles of ambitious f amilies attempting to use the British East India Company for personal gain . The game begins in the early eighteenth-century\, when the Company has a weak foothold on the subcontinent. Over the course of the game\, the Comp any might grow into the most powerful and insidious corporation in the wor ld or collapse under the weight of its own ambition. Unlike most economic games players often do not control their own firms and will collectively g uide the Company in ways that benefit their own interests. However\, the C ompany is an unwieldy thing. It is difficult to do anything alone\, and pl ayers will often need to negotiate with one another as they work to secure their power abroad and their place in fashionable society at home. \n\n\n \nIn Molly House\, players take the roles of the gender-defying mollies of early eighteenth century London. Throw grand masquerades and cruise back alleys while evading moralistic constables who seek to destroy your commun ity. Be careful\, there may even be informers in your midst! Over the cour se of a couple hours\, players will draft hands of vice cards representing the different gestures\, desires\, and encounters that were frowned upon by the Society for the Reformation of Manners\, a citizen group that sough t to stamp out any behavior it deemed deviant in late 17th and early 18th century London. These cards allow players to host festivities with the hel p of their fellow mollies and create joy. But\, those same cards can also lead players to be arrested and to the ultimate ruin of the molly house. A s players encounter the Society’s enforcers\, they will often have to pa y bribes or may be coerced into becoming informers for the Society. Inform ers must try desperately to undermine the community around Mother Clap’s Molly House without being discovered by their fellow mollies.\n\nNon-Brea king Space\n\nNon-Breaking Space builds game models with an emphasis on ac tor agency. The games put players into positions where the decision space closely resembles that of the actors represented. This allows them to plac e the impacts of their choices into a context relative to the topic being modeled. Their games provide players with the opportunity to understand t he underlying dynamics at play in complex historic and contemporary situat ions\, at a fidelity that compliments modern scholarship.\n\n\n\nCross-Bro nx Expressway from GMT Games looks at the history of the South Bronx New Y ork during the second half of the twentieth century to investigate the imp act the first roadway project to cut through an urban center had on life i n the area. Three factions - Public\, Private and Community - attempt to n avigate the area through the most tumultuous period\, hoping to avoid bank ruptcy and prevent the disenfranchisement of the population.\n\nEverfair\, based on the book of the same name by Nisi Shawl\, is an alternate steamp unk history of Leopold's Congo Free State. It posits the possibility of an international group working with the indigenous peoples of the Cong. They must work together to first resist Leopold and colonial rule\, with the h ope of building a free and independent African nation before the Great War . Everfair is a cooperative game for four players.\n\nWorker Placement: Un der the Table is the first volume of the Worker Placement series which loo ks at the life of individual workers. Players in Under the Table lack the appropriate documents for legal work\, but still must survive their everyd ay challenges and achieve their individual goals. If they can save enough they may be able to get the documents they need to get a job legally. Work er Placement: Under the Table is a solo game with multiplayer modes.\n\nPo pcicleta\n\nPopcicleta is a game design collective that makes culturally e ngaging games about issues affecting Puerto Rico to be played by families\ , activists\, and the broader public. In the Summer of 2018\, Mikael Jakob sson\, Rik Eberhardt and Aziria Rodrigez led an ideation and concept devel opment workshop at Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in San Juan\, Puerto R ico and a design workshop at MIT. At these events\, Puerto Ricans\, game d esigners\, students\, and others interested in counter-colonial game desig n shared their ideas and experiences\, and created game concepts. After th e workshops\, Mikael and Rik continued developing and playtesting one of t he concepts and in 2020\, Graphic Novel artist Rosa Colón joined the team to work on illustrations and graphic design for the game Promesa. \n\n\n\ nPromesa is a cooperative board game for all ages about the debt crisis i n Puerto Rico. One to six players take on the role of the local government in Puerto Rico with the task of getting rid of the debt before the archip elago succumbs to natural catastrophes. Players make strategic and tactica l choices about investments in infrastructure\, education\, and social ser vices while trying to keep the debt from spiraling out of control.\n\nSche dule\n\nSign-ups are required to guarantee a spot at the table when playin g with designers\, but drop-ins will have opportunity to see the games in action or play games from our library!\n\nTuesday\, May 28\n\n12-1pm Lunch (limited to 20)\n\n1-3:30pm Session 1\n Votes for Women\n John Company\ n Cross-Bronx Expressway\n Promesa\n\n3:30-6pm Session 2\n Votes for Wo men\n Molly House\n Everfair\n Promesa\n\nWednesday\, May 29\n\n10am-12 :00pm Session 3\n Votes for Women\n John Company\n Cross-Bronx Expressw ay\n Promesa\n\n12:00pm-1:00pm Lunch (limited to 20)\n\n1:00-3:30pm Sessi on 4\n Votes for Women\n Molly House\n Everfair\n Promesa\n\n3:45-6:00 pm Session 5\n Votes for Women\n Molly House\n Worker Placement\n Prom esa GEO:42.360807;-71.087685 LOCATION:Building E15\, Outside E15-320 SUMMARY:Games Against Oppression URL;VALUE=URI:https://calendar.mit.edu/event/games-against-oppression CATEGORIES:Community Event END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261014T193722Z UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_46296420786989 DTSTART:20240529T140000Z DTEND:20240529T220000Z DESCRIPTION:MIT Game Lab\, with support from MIT MindHandHeart\, hosts "Gam es Against Oppression" a series of game playing sessions for MIT Faculty a nd Staff focusing on board\, card\, and role-playing games that center the fight against oppression by designers representing historically oppressed groups including women\, people of color\, and members of the LGBTQIA+ co mmunity.\n\nWe invite MIT Faculty and Staff across the Institute to play w ith us and our invited designers!\n\nNo prior experience with these or oth er board games is assumed or required. In this unique experience\, the des igner has been shipped with the box to teach our participants how to play in an engaging way.\n\nWe will also have drop-in sessions for participants to play related games within our game library\, with teaching support by MIT Game Lab staff and students.\n\nWe have limited spots available for lu nch panel discussions each day\, to informally discuss the games and topic s at hand.\n\nOur Designers and their Games:\n\nTory Brown\n\n\n\nTory Bro wn is the designer of Votes for Women\, an award-winning card-driven board game about the American Woman Suffrage Movement and the ratification of t he 19th Amendment. Inspired by the 70 year effort to build one of the most effective political movements in American history\, in her day job Tory i s an experienced activist working on campaigns across the progressive move ment for the last 20 years. She hopes anyone who plays Votes for Women wil l be inspired to become part of a cause that is greater than themselves an d dedicated to the rights and dignity of all people. \n\n\n\nVotes for Wom en captures and celebrates the democratic struggle by inviting players to join the suffrage movement\, organize support\, and campaign for victory a cross the 48 states that were called to ratify the 19th Amendment in 1919- 1920. The card-driven game can be played cooperatively\, competitively\, o r in solitaire mode\, and in each version players must navigate the histor ic events\, movement schisms\, and political challenges of the era to win. \n\nThe deck of over 100 stunning cards feature period art\, portraiture\ , and historic documents and include event instructions that can either be played or discarded to campaign or organize their side of the issue. Camp aigners move across the map to build political power with a roll of the in cluded dice that will determine whether each state votes to ratify the ame ndment or opposes the Vote after three eras of play. Dig deeper into the h istory and maneuver through the critical choices that suffragists faced fo r a chance to guarantee equal franchise for all and win Votes For Women!\n \nCole Wehrle\n\n\n\nCole Wehrle is an ex-academic who decided to abandon the lucrative field of Victorian studies in favor of game publishing. He w orks as the creative director at Leder Games in Saint Paul and is best kno wn for the award-winning game Root\, which uses a children's book aestheti c to explore the politics of police states and insurgency. Root and its ex pansions have sold hundreds of thousands of copies and have been translate d into nearly twenty languages. He is also the cofounder of Wehrlegig Game s with his brother Drew Wehrle\, which handles the publication of his hist orical games which cover subjects related to his academic work including s tate formation in 19th century Afghanistan (Pax Pamir)\, the rise and coll apse of the British East India Company (John Company)\, and queer communit ies in the early 18th century (Molly House\, designed with Jo Kelly).\n\n\ n\nIn John Company\, 2nd Edition\, players assume the roles of ambitious f amilies attempting to use the British East India Company for personal gain . The game begins in the early eighteenth-century\, when the Company has a weak foothold on the subcontinent. Over the course of the game\, the Comp any might grow into the most powerful and insidious corporation in the wor ld or collapse under the weight of its own ambition. Unlike most economic games players often do not control their own firms and will collectively g uide the Company in ways that benefit their own interests. However\, the C ompany is an unwieldy thing. It is difficult to do anything alone\, and pl ayers will often need to negotiate with one another as they work to secure their power abroad and their place in fashionable society at home. \n\n\n \nIn Molly House\, players take the roles of the gender-defying mollies of early eighteenth century London. Throw grand masquerades and cruise back alleys while evading moralistic constables who seek to destroy your commun ity. Be careful\, there may even be informers in your midst! Over the cour se of a couple hours\, players will draft hands of vice cards representing the different gestures\, desires\, and encounters that were frowned upon by the Society for the Reformation of Manners\, a citizen group that sough t to stamp out any behavior it deemed deviant in late 17th and early 18th century London. These cards allow players to host festivities with the hel p of their fellow mollies and create joy. But\, those same cards can also lead players to be arrested and to the ultimate ruin of the molly house. A s players encounter the Society’s enforcers\, they will often have to pa y bribes or may be coerced into becoming informers for the Society. Inform ers must try desperately to undermine the community around Mother Clap’s Molly House without being discovered by their fellow mollies.\n\nNon-Brea king Space\n\nNon-Breaking Space builds game models with an emphasis on ac tor agency. The games put players into positions where the decision space closely resembles that of the actors represented. This allows them to plac e the impacts of their choices into a context relative to the topic being modeled. Their games provide players with the opportunity to understand t he underlying dynamics at play in complex historic and contemporary situat ions\, at a fidelity that compliments modern scholarship.\n\n\n\nCross-Bro nx Expressway from GMT Games looks at the history of the South Bronx New Y ork during the second half of the twentieth century to investigate the imp act the first roadway project to cut through an urban center had on life i n the area. Three factions - Public\, Private and Community - attempt to n avigate the area through the most tumultuous period\, hoping to avoid bank ruptcy and prevent the disenfranchisement of the population.\n\nEverfair\, based on the book of the same name by Nisi Shawl\, is an alternate steamp unk history of Leopold's Congo Free State. It posits the possibility of an international group working with the indigenous peoples of the Cong. They must work together to first resist Leopold and colonial rule\, with the h ope of building a free and independent African nation before the Great War . Everfair is a cooperative game for four players.\n\nWorker Placement: Un der the Table is the first volume of the Worker Placement series which loo ks at the life of individual workers. Players in Under the Table lack the appropriate documents for legal work\, but still must survive their everyd ay challenges and achieve their individual goals. If they can save enough they may be able to get the documents they need to get a job legally. Work er Placement: Under the Table is a solo game with multiplayer modes.\n\nPo pcicleta\n\nPopcicleta is a game design collective that makes culturally e ngaging games about issues affecting Puerto Rico to be played by families\ , activists\, and the broader public. In the Summer of 2018\, Mikael Jakob sson\, Rik Eberhardt and Aziria Rodrigez led an ideation and concept devel opment workshop at Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in San Juan\, Puerto R ico and a design workshop at MIT. At these events\, Puerto Ricans\, game d esigners\, students\, and others interested in counter-colonial game desig n shared their ideas and experiences\, and created game concepts. After th e workshops\, Mikael and Rik continued developing and playtesting one of t he concepts and in 2020\, Graphic Novel artist Rosa Colón joined the team to work on illustrations and graphic design for the game Promesa. \n\n\n\ nPromesa is a cooperative board game for all ages about the debt crisis i n Puerto Rico. One to six players take on the role of the local government in Puerto Rico with the task of getting rid of the debt before the archip elago succumbs to natural catastrophes. Players make strategic and tactica l choices about investments in infrastructure\, education\, and social ser vices while trying to keep the debt from spiraling out of control.\n\nSche dule\n\nSign-ups are required to guarantee a spot at the table when playin g with designers\, but drop-ins will have opportunity to see the games in action or play games from our library!\n\nTuesday\, May 28\n\n12-1pm Lunch (limited to 20)\n\n1-3:30pm Session 1\n Votes for Women\n John Company\ n Cross-Bronx Expressway\n Promesa\n\n3:30-6pm Session 2\n Votes for Wo men\n Molly House\n Everfair\n Promesa\n\nWednesday\, May 29\n\n10am-12 :00pm Session 3\n Votes for Women\n John Company\n Cross-Bronx Expressw ay\n Promesa\n\n12:00pm-1:00pm Lunch (limited to 20)\n\n1:00-3:30pm Sessi on 4\n Votes for Women\n Molly House\n Everfair\n Promesa\n\n3:45-6:00 pm Session 5\n Votes for Women\n Molly House\n Worker Placement\n Prom esa GEO:42.360807;-71.087685 LOCATION:Building E15\, Outside E15-320 SUMMARY:Games Against Oppression URL;VALUE=URI:https://calendar.mit.edu/event/games-against-oppression CATEGORIES:Community Event END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR