Game Files

You will need: Scissors, a paperclip; a pen

"Playing cooperatively as a group, you have to protect a town from an imminent flood. In this town, you must protect two things - "population" and "infrastructure" - by using the available actions. Each action has a cost and you have a limited budget so every action counts. The better your choices, the more people and things you'll save!"

About Flood!

A large part of CAFOD's work is in raising relief funds and working with partner organisations around the world to mitigate the impact of disasters before they take place and then help communities recover and rebuild stronger when they happen. They wanted a game that would let players explore the different pressures and choices involved in such work and teach them how CAFOD works as an organisation.

We created a game that had a timer built into it - a timer that would herald the arrival of a terrible flood. The only problem is, each game is different, so you never know how long you have to prepare for the disaster.

Players then have to work collboratively with a limited budget and decide on the best possible protective measures to take. Once the flood hits, there is a slight predictive quality to the path it will take which guides further choices as players find themselves caught between further last-minute protective measures and rescue and relief work.

Flood is a simple-looking game that gets very emotionally involved and high pressured very quickly. Today it's regularly used in over 200 secondary schools, while a more complex, open-ended version of the game is used internally by CAFOD for away days, team building, new recruit training and other events.

Links

• CAFOD emergency schools resource pack