No-cry Chutes and Ladders

It's so awful playing a game based on pure luck with a very small child. At least with the children I've seen play (including my own), they seem to take their bad luck personally, as if losing reflects on them. Or maybe it's your (the parent's) fault that they lost, and a great injustice has occurred. They don't learn anything much better by winning, because then they just think they're better somehow (and justice is amazingly no longer a concern). But they miss the truth about what "It's all luck" implies.

"Chutes and Ladders" is derived from a much older game, "Snakes and Ladders". The main difference is that there are chutes instead of snakes, which I guess means it's a little less scary. Also, at the bottom of the ladders there are pictures of kids doing good deeds and then being rewarded at the top of the ladder. At the top of the chutes are kids misbehaving and then falling to ruin at the bottom.

The thing is, whether or not you do something "moral" is totally encumbered by pure chance. I've joked that they should make a "Game of Thrones" version of this game, except that the "goodness" or "badness" of the behaviors that make you rise up the ladder or go down the chute would have no relevance. (More true to life?)

Anyway, presuming that the best thing kids get out of this game is the moral lesson it imparts, (and maybe some basic counting skills?), there's not much to lose by making it cooperative. In fact, as far as the morality goes, it's arguable that helping others to make moral decisions and avoid bad ones is really what it's all about. Call me a Universalist, but I'd like to see everyone get to that blue-ribbon "100" space in the sky.

Game Play:

With each roll, decide to use the spin yourself or to help other players. If you are about to fall into a chute, you can instead give the other player the spin. Same if your spin could help another player get to a ladder. Players can also ask for help to avoid chutes or get to ladders.

The goal is for everyone to reach the end, as close to each other as possible.

Another advantage: This game is much shorter.

[Cooperative Chutes and Ladders]