On November 4, 2023, I was invited to Dartmouth college in Hanover, New Hampshire to help facilitate a game for 37 of their incoming freshman. I ran the game with three former military officers. Two of them are experienced war game experts who run official war games for the military involving 4-star generals at the Naval War College.
You can see how well the students roleplayed as world leaders in the above video.
It may be hard to believe if you have never experienced the game, but the students were this engaged for the full 5 hours that they played. The students rolled in at 9:30am, and the game began at 10:30am. We broke for a 30 minute lunch, and wrapped everything up by 4pm.
We have now tested the newest version of the game multiple times with
and older versions of the game have been run in multiple different countries for as many as 72 participants in nations including
Join us for a game of ALLIANCE at the biggest board game convention in America! Help us to celebrate the 10th year anniversary of ALLIANCE by purchasing a ticket to the game when tickets go live on May 18. Tickets to megagames at Gen Con often sell out within the first hour, so be sure to mark your calendar if you want to join us in Indianapolis, Indiana!
Shaun designs educational board games, leads collaborative video game design classes online, and leads educational workshops. You can learn more about his ongoing projects at www.BestClassEver.org.
I have full print and play PDFs of the megagame which I can make available to anyone who wants to experiment with megagames. Simply email me if you would like to receive them. But before you look at the full game, I recommend you download the free 3 player print-and-play tutorial version of the game.
If you have experience with megagames and are ready for the full game, then let me send you my most up-to-date printed version of the game. This involves components from at least 4 different vendors. I order my cards and board game components from The Game Crafter, the map from a friend with a print shop, office supplies from Amazon, and I have the mega-zine rule books printed in full color on tabloid sized newsprint from printnewspaper.com. The Game Crafter doubles their price if you rush the order, so I keep a full package copy organized and ready to ship to you upon purchase.
The package will also include two expansions. One introduces a first-contact scenario to give the game a Watch the Skies type of conflict. The other introduces epic missions to both challenge the teams into a technological arms race and contend with the moral hazards of off-planet manufacturing, genetic modification, sustainability, A.G.I, and the Singularity. All of these are alluded to in the mega-zine newsprint newspaper included with the game.
Even if you have access to free printing, you might be underestimating how much time and energy it will cost you to print and prepare all of the components. The fully printed ALLIANCE package will look more professional, be easier to prepare, and will likely ship in less time than it would take you to do all of the printing yourself.
International shipping is quite tedious and expensive, so email me if you are not in America so that we can figure out what to send and what is better to print locally. I have A4 ready PDFs available for all components.
I love to travel. If at all possible I would love to know the schedule and see if I can personally attend your event!
Until megagames become a popular trend, we are all just doing it for the fun of seeing the niche grow. For this reason all I ask in return for making the game available, is that it not cost me money for you to run your game, and that I be involved in the design evolution of the game. This means I will provide the materials at cost + $100. The additional $100 will help me to prepare the next package and reduce my overhead. I would also like to be notified of any changes you make to the game so I can follow up to find out if your changes improved the experience.
You can use Paypal to make an additional donation if would like to support my efforts and pay more than the bare minimum.
The full package comes with a license allowing you to run the game three times. Should you run it a fourth time, please let me know so that we can celebrate and discuss a proper business model. I like the I-make-money when-you-make-money business model. Once you have 40+ players paying $30+ ticket prices I would like a small royalty.
Keep in mind that this price is extremely low compared to other popular megagames. Other games only appear cheaper initially. This is because all megagame materials available online only provide printable PDFs.
PDF packages are not playable. They must be printed according to instruction, the graphics often look less professional, and the materials are almost always less organized. Printing the map alone for any megagame will cost you at least $45 if you don't have a large format printer.
To bring the game to the table you must consider the time, energy, and financial costs of printing. ALLIANCE will arrive within a week or two ready to play out of the box. All you have to do is assign the players to teams and hand them their materials.
I created a 3 player tutorial PDF as a small play test to help facilitators figure out the essentials of the game. Simply fill out a simple form so that we have an idea of who is taking interest in the game, and we'll send you a PDF with instructions on how to play.
This tutorial version of the game is 100% totally free. I also promise not to use your email for anything other than sending you this free copy of the tutorial, a couple follow-up emails, and possibly an occasional update on the game later on.
