I have an idea that occured to me while starting to research different types of housing; maybe have a part of the game with the differing ways of building housing, storage sheds, barns, etc, and the ways they help /contribute to
permaculture, and the ways they are not so great in helping/contribute to permaculture?
The
Food Forest decks have been available since last September, and I'm mailing out packages almost every day now! More ideas are in the pipeline but, as a one-man shop, I need to leverage every tool available to create and test
new instructions. Currently there are several that have been tested or that are still in testing mode. I could definitely use feedback on those that are still being tested. Beyond that, there are so many possibilities for these decks that a team of developers and testers could literally create hundreds of uses for them. But I don't have a team. So this forum is to provide space for folks (including me) to brainstorm new ways of playing, and teaching, with
Food Forest. I'll use this forum to announce new instructions as they are developed, and you can use it to describe ways that you use your own decks, or to brainstorm ideas that you think might be worth developing.
If you don't yet know about FF, you can learn more here:
About Food Forest
So far I haven't created any rules that use the classification found near the bottom of the outer circle of each element. This classification describes the element as either "root/tuber", "fungus", "groundcover", "herbaceous", "shrub", "climber", "understory", "canopy", "structure", "animal", "insect", "natural disaster", or nothing. (See the Blueberry example below. Its classification is "shrub") As you can see, many of these classifications refer to where the element falls in the layers of a food forest. It has long been my belief that these classifications might be used as "suits", if you will. I have been meaning to build rules around this concept, but have not yet gotten around to it.
One idea that has floated around, half formed, in my mind is as follows: each player would be dealt several plants or other items, and there would be several dealt face up in the center. Perhaps these would be dealt in rounds, with some going to each player and some to the center (I don't know how many for each). Each player would add things to the central collection according to rules I haven't yet figured out. The goal would be to build a multi-story "straight", if you will, using the classifications and Permaculture zones (labeled "pz" - see image below), but possibly with other requirements (like one element shouldn't shade other elements, or that the classifications have to exist with one logically following the last (root, then fungus, then groundcover, etc. )
Maybe there would need to be some requirement for input and output matches, etc. The objective could either be competitive, with one player taking the central "trick" under certain conditions, or it could be cooperative, with the objective being to create a food forest with a certain number of completed guilds. Now remember, I haven't even tried this out, but I think it could be a lot of fun to play if we got the rules finalized. There might even be two versions, one competitive and one cooperative.
The idea of a common pool of elements goes back to a brief flirtation I had with Texas Holdem several years back. Maybe just starting with Texas Holdem rules, using the layers to build straights, and the inputs and outputs to create pairs, someone could invent something even better, and less complex, than my idea above.
You can find completed instructions, and some undergoing testing, here:
Instructions for Food Forest
Beyond all this, do you have ideas of your own? Have you found new ways of using the decks with different age groups? Have you invented your own ways to play? I use them in the classroom with elementary school kids where we play Picklet (found on the instructions page above) . I am eager to hear how others are using them. With such a creative group of people, there are probably some really interesting ideas just waiting to be tapped.
And remember, Paul Wheaton has his own Permaculture playing cards which are very cool, indeed. You can see Paul's cards here:
Permaculture Playing Cards
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