As a child, we had a plastic tangram set that I would sometimes play with, discarding card after card of solved shapes and images. I hadn’t touched (or seen) a tangram puzzle in many years when I was re-introduced to them as an adult. In another life, I used to work for my county/city level emergency management office. With is roots in the cold war era Office of Civil Defense, emergency management is the office responsible for mitigating, preparing and planning for, responding to, and recovering from disasters both natural and man-made. This is done at the local, state, and federal levels, and I worked for my local emergency management office. A major preoccupation of mine was training (a constant, never-ending stream of FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] and NIMS [National Incident Management System] training), and at one point I took the more intensive ICS-300 course. You don’t really need to know much about it; it’s basically a more in-depth course teaching us how to coordinate disaster response. But anyway, at one point, our instructor broke us into multiple groups and gave us a collection of cardstock shapes. I think most of us immediately recognized the iconic tangram shapes. He then had one, hapless volunteer come to the front of the class with a piece of paper. The instructions were simple: using only words, and without showing the teams the paper, convey how the shapes should be assembled in order to create the image on the paper. And the catch? The teams couldn’t ask questions or communicate to the volunteer, only the volunteer could relay information. It was a nightmare. “Take the -- the kind of long triangle shape, and have the long side face the west side of the page, then take the square and place it on the far left side of the short edge…” etc., etc. Needless to say, NONE of the groups came out with an image that even remotely resembled the one on the paper. The instructor then had us try again, only this time, the teams could ask clarifying questions. While none of the teams managed to re-create the image on the sheet perfectly, we were all A LOT closer than the first go around. The entire exercise was meant to show us the importance of communication, and how we can come to a common understanding easier when there is two-way communication (and also how easy it is for communication to break down when you can’t see what the other is seeing). We then explored that deeper for what that meant for us when working a disaster, but you get the idea. Oooo New idea!![]() Inspired, I decided to use this idea of one person having an image and needing to convey that image to the rest of the party with my Pathfinder group (the poor souls). They were exploring a fey realm, and for one reason or another, I decided to have a spaceship at the bottom of the ocean (it’s the fey, I can do what I want!). My player’s characters didn’t necessarily understand what they were interacting with, but at one point, they find multiple panels that, essentially, need to be “calibrated”. These panels are located all throughout the ship and needed to be calibrated at the same time, with only one panel showing the correct pattern. The player with the complete pattern had to convey that image (they had found walkie talkies) to the other players, and once everyone solved the tangram, someone else’s panel had the complete image that they then conveyed. First of all, my players loved it! They enjoyed figuring it out and working together to solve the puzzle. Second, it was comical! Everyone enjoyed trying to explain where the different shapes should go and laughing at the word combinations people thought of to explain them. Third, I believe it may have been a lesson in social sciences. You see, I had five players. I gave each of them a set of tangram shapes, chose one of the players and gave them the solved pattern to convey to their party members. The first person to convey the information struggled, and the first player’s pattern took the longest to complete. The second player struggled as well, though everyone did solve their puzzle faster than the first time (when I say struggled: it was in the fun way, not the frustrating way). With each subsequent pattern, the players got faster and faster at solving their individual tangrams. I realized as I watched them engage with the puzzle, that with each pattern solved they learned what language helped them best solve the puzzle, so when it was their turn, they used the same effective language that allowed their party members to solve it faster. Which was all pretty cool to witness. It ate up about 30-45min of play time, was a welcome change of pace, and it was a puzzle that was difficult, but simple in design so it wasn’t intimidating. Most everyone has played tangrams, so it was a familiar set of tools and rules. Where to use?Obviously, this would work great with science fiction TTRPGs, but you can find ways to make it work with fantasy style ones as well. Just remember, you need a situation where one person has the answer that can’t be seen by everyone else, and everyone else has to solve their individual puzzle at the same time. You could also have them solve one puzzle as a group while one person conveys the shape, but I can attest that it worked well with everyone solving their own individual puzzle. It also gave me an excuse to give everyone a turn “conveying”. How to Conduct a Tabletop TangramStep 1 – print off a set of these tangram shapes, one for each player, then cut them out. Tangram Shapes – Print and cut 1 sheet for each player PRO TIP: use plastic sandwich bags to keep the shapes all together. Step 2 – Create or find a tangram pattern(s) that you want to use. If you’d like each player to have a turn “conveying”, then create/find one unique pattern for each player. You can find tangram patterns for free online. Make sure that the complete patterns have the shapes outlined, so the conveying player can describe where each piece should go. PRO TIP: Print each pattern out on its own, 8.5 x 11 (Letter), 110# cardstock paper, that way, it’s harder to see the backlit pattern on the opposite side. Step 3 – Print this player instruction card (either one to share or one for each player, depending on what is best for your table). Step 4 – Play the game! This puzzle works particularly well for a few reasons.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Author
|