What is it:

“Battle for the Presidency” is a mix between a traditional boardgame and a role-playing game. The activites of the game are comparable to what goes on in traditional boardgames about elections, but the game is designed to let up to 30 students play different roles that are all important for the outcome of the game. It takes about three hours to play.

How to get it: It can be bought on in my Teachers Pay Teachers store  or ordered by mail at (malikhyltoft[at]gmail[dot]com).

Since I sell it as a downloadable classroom game, you have to factor in extra time for printing, cutting and packing. The game is downloaded or sent as a zip file, made using Winzip, which Windows is now able to open. Either double click and it should open or right click and choose open with Windows Stifinder/Explorer.

The playing field keeps shifting: Usually, you want a game to be as presentable as possible, and give a good tactile feeling for the buyer, but in this case I have valued speed over thoroughness. Speed is of the essence.

I have been working on the game off and on for a month, adding content only in the last two weeks. And yet, the playing field has shifted significantly. It is not so important with the unending scandals – Trump said this, Trump knew that. The scandals influence the public to a certain extent, but they usually only add on to a narrative we know already. Actual events like wildfires, hurricanes, police killings, and so on feel much more pertinent, and yet seem to have little actual effect on the polls.

Anyway, the game is now ready: it can be bought here for $10 or ordered directly from me for 100 DKK at (malikhyltoft[at]gmail[dot]com). Since it is my only new product this year, I will not reach the minimum VAT-level, so you will get an invoice for any accounting with all relevant information, and I will of course make sure my income is tax registered, but there will be no VAT added to your bill.

So, what is new?

Vice-presidential candidates are more active. The vice-presidential candidates still only have one action each round (the presidential candidate has two), but they have a greater scope. Some speeches have to be given by the vice-presidential candidates, and there is the option of either backing up whatever their presidential candidate does, to give them a bonus, or of doing their own thing.

Cannabis is not an issue, neither are Tea Party, Federal Land, Standardized Testing, War on Terror or Hispanics. This is not to say that they are not relevant issues in American politics, but they have been removed from the game to paint a picture of the debate that is as up to date as I could make it. So QAnon, Anti-Fascism, School Vouchers, Student Loans, America First, Smaller State, Protect the little guy, and Clean Government have taken over in the issues department. Some of the old issues are still touched upon in the event cards, though. Black Lives Matter and police brutality figure more prominently this time, but were already included in 2016.

Republican HQ has more cards. There is also one more card for the Democrats and one for the event cards, but the big difference is with the Republicans. Actually, the Republicans and the Democrats will get to play almost the same number of cards during a game with a slight edge in favor of the Republicans. The real difference is that the Republican card play could go anywhere – they will only get to play about half of the cards in the stack. The corresponding number for the Democrats is two thirds.

Unpredictability is included. I have included an unpredictability chart that the teacher can use, before states are declared every round.

The chart was invented in a limited way in March 2017, when I was going to run a game at G.F. Abela – Junior College in Valletta, Malta. At this point in time, it was of course clear that Trump had won the election of November 2016, and the game I had made, which had been quite consistent in predicting a Clinton victory, was off the mark. So, I added a random factor that would make votes for Trump pop up in a random region five out of six rounds, but without any way to control it. This simulated the dark numbers – all the people who were not asked by the polls or would not admit to being Trump supporters, but would eventually vote for him on election night.

For 2020, that chart has been included in the actual rules, but they also include random flares of COVID-19 and widespread protesting against police brutality (or possibly for some new reason).

Have fun! I hope loads of students will have wholesome fun with Battle for the presidency 2020, and I hope their curiosity will awaken so much that even you have to hit the books to answer the questions.

If you have any questions, I’ll answer mails as fast as possible, but please check for updates here first.

Enjoy! And, if you come across an election; remember to vote.