Turning Civ5 into a 2-week summer camp

I work for a children's recreation company and I'm considering adapting Civilization 5 into a giant 2-week role playing game for one of our summer camps for 13-17 year olds. Teams (civilizations) earn gold and other points and try to achieve domination/science/cultural/diplomatic victory. All I have now is a very vague concept.

Camp is 12.5 days long, I'd probably do 4 turns per day, so the whole game would be about 50 turns (one tenth as many as standard play).

Winning different games and sports would earn the teams gold. Attending master classes can earn them points in the related field (science, cultural, etc) in addition to the points they acquire each turn for buildings, cities, etc.

I want to hear your ideas -- how can I adapt the video game for a real life role play at summer camp?

Do you guys have a website?

Yes, but it's all in Russian (we're based in Moscow): robinzonada [dот] ru

In middle of Senior High School we had a "game" that lasted for Days that is kind of similar of what your asking for.

We was dived into 2 Groups each Group was then divided in several lesser Groups each getting one country to rule over.
The two Groups basicly represented two paraells of the same World.

Their was a hugh differns between the countries, some was very developed and others completly underdeveloped an My Group of course did get the least developed of them all.

However that game did not have any goal and was just about ruling a country, we did have a budget to spend and did diplomacy with other countries.

However to do civ with goals to win and such would be kind of different.

having each kid control a city might be cool. that way each person gets to participate in their own way, but the team will have to work together to form a grand strategy.

there could be different types of government, like if you go for fascism then you choose a supreme leader to makes decisions, but if you go democracy, everyone votes on decisions.

how about enacting battles via dodgeball? I used to work at summer camps, dodgeball was always hugely popular. maybe the decisions made in Civ would set up the dodgeball match. Each unit you build could be a dodgeball player and each upgrade would be a bigger ball. So if one side completely neglects their military they would just have 1 player with a tennis ball surrounded by players with beach balls...

That's the first time I've heard of a civ 5 summer camp. I hope it goes well and the kids are entertained!

I assume that the camp is located in a rural area, with some open fields, hilly areas, some forest, a stream, pond or lake, etc. Divide the kids into teams and assign them to an initial base of operations, where they found their "capital." Some will found their capital in grassy areas, others on top of a hill, and others next to a stream or lake.

For the first day or two, they begin designing a civilization based on where they are located, including the name of their civilization, an initial pantheon belief for their religion, the first elements of a culture, and a set of trading goods. Those who settled near a stream might call themselves the People of the Fish, adopt a water god as their pantheon belief, chose a wavy design on a flat piece of wood as their civilization's symbol, and use the smoothest, shiniest rocks from the bottom of the stream as trade goods. Those who settled on a hill might call themselves the Hill People, adopt a Thunder God as their pantheon, construct a monument out of large stones found on the hill, and carve lightening designs on pieces of wood to make trade goods. Those who settle in an open, grassy field might start worshiping a farming god, form a mound of dirt as a monument, and weave grass rings to serve as trade goods. Etc. for other settlement sites.

After a few days, they can each send out three kids to serve as a scouting unit (they have to stay together), with the goal of learning where other settlements are located and initiating trading and diplomatic relations.

Once they meet other civilizations, they need to start considering how they might defend their homeland (perhaps a barricade of fallen branches, or a short stone wall). They may want to try to steal some workers from another civilization, or settle a second site for their civilization (but they dare not expand too aggressively!).

During all of this, the camp counselors are providing advice and ideas, and awarding cards for accomplishments (you have researched mining!, you can now decide whether you want to open Tradition, Liberty, Honor or Piety -- is your civilization warlike, or focused on religion?). The counselors also need to provide structure for any "warfare" and think about how the kids can accomplish a "culture victory", where one civilization spreads its religion to another or becomes culturally dominant over another.

Good luck!

Wait, how would the turn system work? I assume each team has an umpire and a (turn) timer. You would a lot of area to make this work, otherwise it'd be similar to having 2 capitols start just 8 tiles from each other.

Presumably there are other camp activities (meals, cleaning cabins, swimming, etc.) to break things up, so maybe there are a couple of hours in the morning and a couple each afternoon, each of which is a "turn" and maybe they get to pick a technology at the start of every turn and a new social policy every afternoon. In the evenings, after dinner, you could have the kids present some key aspects of what they've created. For example, after they research Drama & Poetry, they can sing songs they've written or do a dramatic presentation about a key event in their civilization's history (the Story of How We Conquered the Fish People).

Warfare could be done "capture the flag" style (conquer the capital!), with strict rules (and no rocks or other dangerous weapons, of course).

I love the idea. I've been asking my school to buy a civ licence so it can be part of the history classes and can be modded as a coding project. Your camp, judging by the site, seems to focus on active experiences. I suggest assigning physical group activities to each of the game elements (like capturing the flag mentioned above). This could take things in a LARPy direction, or are you more interested in having kids make 'tech tree' and 'pantheon' type decisions for their nations?

A second thought: create a map of the camp site with resource yields. Campers can go to locations and perform tasks to yield apples, beakers, and or hammers which they can convert into improvements for their civ.

chazzycat said:

having each kid control a city might be cool. that way each person gets to participate in their own way, but the team will have to work together to form a grand strategy.

there could be different types of government, like if you go for fascism then you choose a supreme leader to makes decisions, but if you go democracy, everyone votes on decisions.

how about enacting battles via dodgeball? I used to work at summer camps, dodgeball was always hugely popular. maybe the decisions made in Civ would set up the dodgeball match. Each unit you build could be a dodgeball player and each upgrade would be a bigger ball. So if one side completely neglects their military they would just have 1 player with a tennis ball surrounded by players with beach balls...

Click to expand...

Great idea, having every kid control a city. I was worried that some people would be the leader and some people a worker citizen. This would make it more interesting for everybody.

Haha I love the analogy about neglecting your military and only being allowed one kid with a tennis ball. I'll definitely have to incorporate that.

Browd said:

Presumably there are other camp activities (meals, cleaning cabins, swimming, etc.) to break things up, so maybe there are a couple of hours in the morning and a couple each afternoon, each of which is a "turn" and maybe they get to pick a technology at the start of every turn and a new social policy every afternoon. In the evenings, after dinner, you could have the kids present some key aspects of what they've created. For example, after they research Drama & Poetry, they can sing songs they've written or do a dramatic presentation about a key event in their civilization's history (the Story of How We Conquered the Fish People).

Warfare could be done "capture the flag" style (conquer the capital!), with strict rules (and no rocks or other dangerous weapons, of course).

Click to expand...

Excellent idea of breaking the turns by other camp activities. I think meal schedule would work best. Thanks!

Cheerios said:

I love the idea. I've been asking my school to buy a civ licence so it can be part of the history classes and can be modded as a coding project. Your camp, judging by the site, seems to focus on active experiences. I suggest assigning physical group activities to each of the game elements (like capturing the flag mentioned above). This could take things in a LARPy direction, or are you more interested in having kids make 'tech tree' and 'pantheon' type decisions for their nations?

A second thought: create a map of the camp site with resource yields. Campers can go to locations and perform tasks to yield apples, beakers, and or hammers which they can convert into improvements for their civ.

Click to expand...

I was thinking of involving both elements: LARP and tech tree and adopting policies and such. Sports and games would award them points which they can use to research tech and adopt policies which will provide them different benefits in the next round of sports and games.