Final for The Odyssey

Here are the criteria for The Odyssey Board Game:

The board game must cover Odysseus' voyage and his adventures from Troy back to Ithaca and Penelope' arms.

The player's success must be dependent upon knowledge of the story, the characters, the mythology (Athena, Hephaestus, Persephone, etc.) and the literary terms we covered (i.e., Homeric similes, etc). The success cannot be due to random luck.

The end of the board game should occur when the first player lands on Ithaca, defeats the suitors and convinces Penelope that he is her husband.

Or if you want to take a feminist slant, then the first player who outlasts the suitors and has Odysseus convince her that he is her husband wins the game.

There are many different approaches you can take with the game; one approach might be that all the players vie to become Odysseus and who ever gets to Ithaca first becomes Odysseus.

One way to do the game would be to construct a board game with representations of the various lands and adventures chronicled in The Odyssey. I would suggest Troy as the starting place; other stopping points on the board game should include: the Isles of Circe and Calypso; the Land of the Underworld; the Land of the Cyclops; the Isle of the Sirens; Scylla and Charybdis; and Odysseus's bedroom as "Home".

The player rolls the dice, moves her/his piece (which could be a little ship), lands on a square, selects a card and answers an Odyssey related question. If the player answers it correctly, then the player may progress further along the squares and hang out for a while with Calypso, or is allowed to jump past Scylla and Charybdis.

If s/he answers it incorrectly, then s/he may be forced to languish with Calypso while losing a turn or two, or is forced to go back to the Isle of the Lotus Eater and eat some more lotus instead of taking a turn. Or if the player gets an answer wrong, then s/he loses a couple of turns while stuck in the Underworld or loses a couple of turns because s/he has been eaten alive by Polyphemus. (How you come back to life after being eaten by Polyphemus is your problem.) Anyway, you get the picture.

The effectiveness of the game is dependent upon your knowledge of The Odyssey, the skill and knowledge of the players to win - again, it cannot be random luck - the logic of the game, and the attractiveness of the game. Color and drawings would be a big plus - you can always download some drawings of sea monsters and mermaids, etc., if you're shy about your artistic abilities.

These are just some suggestions. Be creative and think outside the box.

If you cannot remember THE ODYSSEY well enough to begin working on it over the weekend, I have thoughtfully provided some links to help jog your memory. Don't use the excuse that I have your reading logs, 'cause guys, I read many of your reading logs and they are so vague, unclear and factually wrong that they would be less than useless (if that's possible) in helping you recreate the story. So go to these links for a little assistance if you need it:

Links for you:
The Odyssey
The Odyssey
The Odyssey
The Odyssey

Ms. Bridges