- 45min
- free
- 10+
- English
Description
Demodice is a cube-based storytelling game where players tell a story using symbols on dice. The symbols have preset meanings such as Political system die with its four sides has participation, rule of law, and human rights. Players are also free to define their own meaning for a symbol. In a basic Demodice game, each player in their turn throws dice, picks symbols in any order, and tells a story to other players beginning with “Once upon a time…”. Furthermore, Demodice has multiple variants to spice-up the basic game such as Share Your Story, which we played in this session. The variant emphasizes democracy theme by offering a democracy related question each round in which a player answers with their story. For example, the first question is “What democracy means to you?”.
Watch How It Works
Method & Activity Information.
- Difficulty: Medium
- Session location: Tampere university
- Test date: 20/02/2025
- Duration: 45min
- Costs: free
- Materials used: Self-made Demodice from laminated paper (such as in picture 1). Post-it notes, pens, printed rules and symbol sheet from Demodice materials
- Youth participated: 4
- Registration: none
Case Description
Since we had almost 2 hours for the game sessions, we combined Demodice and Fake Expert into the same workshop. Both methods are from the same Democracy Game Box by Demo Games. In this method test description, we will only introduce Demodice and create a separate document for Fake Expert.
We tested Demodice, because it seemed like a promising method to engage youth to share their experiences and opinions on societal participation and democracy. We wanted to test how easy the game was to facilitate, how much participants enjoyed playing the game, and in which context Demodice could be applied to support youth societal participation. Four university students in total participated in our game session to play Demodice. We provided students with snacks and drinks, and they would also receive points for a university course by writing a report from the game session.
Method Usage
We facilitated the game session in Finland at Tampere university’s meeting room with a long table where participants could face each other. The room also had a screen where we showed our presentation slides to introduce the game session.
In the beginning we gave the participants a few printed symbol sheets, where meaning of the dice was written. We played four rounds where in each a player would answer a democracy related question with their story, and each round 3 new dice would be added. Throughout the game, players struggled to come up with stories, especially when more dice were added, so they started using post-it notes to help with the creative process. The players used a long time searching meaning for the dice symbols from the printables and to plan the story with post-it notes. Sometimes, when a player started their turn and threw the dice, the next player would also throw the dice before their turn, to plan their story to save time. Therefore, they were not focusing on another player’s story as much as they could. However, the players seemed to have fun creating and telling stories, which also made them reflect democracy and human rights.
Method & Activity Feedback
Facilitator
Category
Likert-7 AVG
Description
Effectiveness
5
Efficiency
4.6
Learnability
6
Enjoyability
6
Adaptability
7
Feedback (recommendation)
5
Observer
Category
Likert-7 AVG
Description
Engagement & Participation
4.6
Comprehension & Knowledge
5
Game Mechanics & Functionality
5
Participant Experience
Category
Likert-7 AVG
Description
Enjoyment
5.8
Usability
6.0
Learnability
4.7
Recommendation score
5.5
Positive
Method instructions were quite clear to follow
Negative
Demodice cubes are difficult to create from the printables as some of the cutting marks are not lined up evenly. Our dice turned up uneven, which affected the result when dice was thrown.
Depending on the person, I think it is difficult to tell a story from the dice and instructions do not have enough examples.
Other players need to wait a long time while a player on their turn is thinking of a story. Also, waiting time increases when more dice are added to the game.
When a player had finished a story, there was an awkward silence in the room before the next player would start their turn.
Suggestions & tips
Do not have dice meaning symbol sheet out during playing, since players take too long flipping the sheet trying to find meaning of the symbols. Instead, show the symbol sheet during game introduction and present them briefly. In this way, even if players do not remember the exact meaning, they can interpret it on their own which is more engaging and fun.
After a player has told their story comment, have a discussion, or applaud to fill in awkward silence.
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