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Ask HN: Are there any positive sum board games?

13 points by f0e4c2f7 ↗ HN
Are there any board games that are positive sum or are purpose built for teaching kids positive sum games instead of zero sum games?

17 comments

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rrwo
Not quite positive sum, but there's a German board game called Max.

Players cooperate to get a bird, a chipmunk and a mouse safely to a tree while a cat named Max is chasing them. Players roll dice that decide how much the cat or other animals move, and they decide what order to move each, or whether to distract the cat with milk or catnip.

bombcar
Many of the euro style games are positive sum - you add points at the end and see who had the most but each person built up during that time.

Powergrid and Agricola are two examples.

s1artibartfast
Exactly. Not many euro games are actually zero sum. Most benefit from positive sum interactions.

Settlers of Catan would be a good example with positive sum trading.

bombcar
Yep! I find that many of them can be played with children by just ignoring the scoring; the process of building and expanding is fun enough. At some point, they will naturally start to notice that their line is longer than their brother's, and then you can introduce scoring.
lazyant
Pandemic is a decent team (all players) vs outbreak (board/chance) game.
dnissley
I'm not sure I understand the question -- in a sense pretty much all games that have a single winner are "zero sum" in that only one person can be the winner. But maybe I'm misunderstanding -- could you provide some context?
muzani
Zero sum means that when one player gains an advantage of +1, another player loses the advantage. Chess is a perfect example.

Monopoly does not count as positive sum IMO because when other players get rich, you end up paying more rent. Cooperative games where multiple players are good vs a few bad ones may be positive sum.

BirdieNZ
The original Monopoly, not sure how easy it is to get your hands on a modern version but it has two rulesets and you switch from classic Monopoly rules to Prosperity rules when a majority of players agree. The Prosperity rules are non-zero-sum.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Landlord's_Game

s1artibartfast
Even original monopoly is positive sum. The total cash in existence increases as the game progresses.
QuadmasterXLII
Risk is positive sum as long as you all collectively agree that since Carl controls all of Asia, most of Europe, and most of North America, he's no longer welcome in the sum.

This is perhaps the wrong lesson.

solardev
There's an indie board game company called TESA who makes cooperative educational board games, like Coopoly instead of Monopoly or Strike!.
labarilem
You're looking for cooperative board games.

One of my favorites is Zombicide: https://www.zombicide.com/en/

Although I'm not sure it's suited for kids, when I start playing I always get hooked and then it's sleep time haha.

achillesheels
How about Acquire? The game ends with all players liquidating their built up equity. You cannot lose, only benefit in the tiled “marketplace”.