The Beaver Coat board game: Be A Wolff!!

Our project is a board game about the Wolff family, and how they go about their everyday lives "somewhere in Berlin”. They supplement their existence with stolen goods from various people in their small village, and seem to be totally connected and in sync with each other as they commit their crimes. They will go to great lengths to protect their small enterprises.

The players assume the roles of members of the Wolff family in a game similar to Monopoly. Our game has two cards piles that different spaces will prompt players to draw from - the Stolen Goods pile and the Hustle-n-Bustle pile. Hustle-n-Bustle activities are pretty straightforward; they are a random assortment of things the Wolff family members do during their day. For example, activities might be stealing logs, which earns money; alternatively, one might get caught out drunk late at night and need to pay a bribe to avoid being caught. The Stolen Goods pile is more interesting and ultimately more important to the outcome of the game. The objective is to gather the pieces of the Beaver Coat, which will be in this pile. In addition, this pile contains “commodities” - high value cards that can be traded in for their price at the end of the game. When a player lands on a Stolen Goods space, they can either draw from the pile or steal someone else’s goods; drawing from the pile, however, can have serious consequences in the form of going to court. When one player acquires all pieces of the coat, the game ends and each player counts their total money, including cash received for commodities. Each time a player is sent to court, they are penalized a certain amount at the end when the values are being tallied.

Our game displays the primary themes of The Beaver Coat. The players, much like the Wolffs, steal from those around them in the hopes of not getting caught. Justice is repeatedly subverted in the play; if justice occurs in our game, then the players are penalized. The various things that could happen when drawing from the Stolen Goods or Hustle-n-Bustle pile represent the element of chance in both criminal activities and justice itself. A benefit of playing this game could help familiarize players with basic economics-the more players work (steal), the more benefit gained in the end. People sometimes have difficulty managing finances, and this board game could also help them learn important lessons about spending and saving. Fraud happens in everyday life to non-suspecting victims, and people need to be concerned about protecting themselves. The game also promotes a very healthy environment for competition.

Carol Abney
Matthew Brissette