My favorite game is the one I created for my TPT store.

This game took me a year to create and like anything worth creating had many different forms before it became what it became.

I really wanted to create an original history game that could be used in the classroom in one class period. I also wanted something that could be used as a whole group which mean thinking about something to support 30 players at a time.

Tulip mania was a 6-month period of time in Dutch history when tulips were the most expensive commodity in the world. People went crazy for the new flower and the new middle class with their disposable income went bananas buying and selling tulips.

Alas, the fad of buying and selling tulips ended overnight and many people were left with worthless tulip bulbs that they had spent way too much money on. Yes, they could plant it and next year a flower would emerge for about a week but who wants to bury their $10,000 investment?

Tulip mania is commonly called the first stock market crash or burst market bubble but truth be told it wasn’t. It didn’t crash the economy and other than the people who risked it all and lost, most people were unaffected by all of the events.

My game however, is actually super fun. I make people play it all the time. My husband was not looking forward to being my test subject but pretended to be excited to play. We got through the whole game before he sat back in his chair, exhaled dramatically and said, “that was unexpectedly fun.”

In a classroom setting, students can play individually or in groups and the objective can be to either make the most money or to make the most profit (there is a difference). Tulips are brought to auction and then the fun begins. Randomly, events occur that either halve, double, or normalize the price of the tulips. Collecting three to five of the same tulip will cause a multiplier to kick in which gives the game a tiny bit of a strategic element.

Eventually, students can sell their tulips and hope they make a profit before the end card is drawn.

In the end though, no matter how much people try to resist, they have a great time. We all get swept up in the frenzy of buying and selling and attempting to block friends as we realize the tulips they are collecting. Hopefully though we don’t go bankrupt or hang on too late and the game ends.

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