Papilio

15/11 NEW REWARDS

We have just addedd two new rewards in line with the collaboration announced with Ayudar jugando and Aldeas infantiles.

• Donation of 1 game (12 €)

• 1 game + Donation of 1 game (24 €)

11/11 NEW GOAL AHEAD

Following our commitment of knowledge dissemination, from today, with every 75 euros pledged, we will donate one game to an organization working with children or using games as an educational tool. We are collaborating with Ayudar jugando and Aldeas infantiles.

PAPILIO, a card game about the life of butterflies

Papilio is a card game that recreates the life of butterflies in a fun and didactic way. Our idea is, on the one hand, to provide an enjoyable game, and on the other hand to discover the world of butterflies and some of the most common species in the country.

What does it consist of?

The aim of the game, fun apart, is to build the richest habitat, and this is achieved by gaining the maximum number of points: completing butterflies, attracting them with plants, trying to make them breed, or catching them (with final penalisation). You also have to ensure that neither predators nor changes in the weather nor human intervention have a negative influence in the strategy of each player.

What will you find?

The game has a total of 66 cards, and 40 of them represent butterflies, 17 are actions by the players and 9 refer to the weather. The butterflies chosen represent more or less the variety of diurnal species in the country (in the game there are 20 but in reality there are many more) and the majority are grouped by colours, an approximation to the different families that we can find in the country.

Where have the images on the cards come from?

The images on the cards are photographs taken by us of our surroundings, in particular participants of the CBMS monitoring project in the environs of Sabadell or by members of the ecologist organisation ADENC.

Some butterflies from the prototype of the butterfly

Can everyone play?

The game is designed for 2-5 players of all ages, and especially from 6 years old to an adult public. We have devised three levels of difficulty so that the learning process is gradual until dominating all the aspects of the game.

The prototype box

Papilio is a game of simulation yet it is also competitive. This means that the dynamic of the game is agile and with continuous toing and froing, and at the end establishes a score in points that in some way is related to the concept of biodiversity and the biological cycles of these insects.

Thus there are more points for the butterflies that are free than those caught with butterfly nets. The diversity of the butterflies is also rewarded and the number of species of the same group. Finally, points are scored for the combination of plants and reproduction cards (caterpillars). Moreover, given the vulnerability of these insects, the game includes three species of protected butterflies, rare or in danger of extinction, species that in the game cannot be caught with butterfly nets.

Some more images of the prototype

THE TEAM

Behind Papilio is a group of naturalists who recently embarked on the path of spreading information about the world of butterflies and the natural heritage in general under the name of PllD. Papilio combines the desire to learn, the naturalist concern, love of nature photography and a keenness for board and card games.

The PllD team is made up of Mireia Calvet Navarro, chemist with a vocation for didactics and environmental education; Marta Garcia Avellaneda, sociologist, linguistic consultant specialised in educational resources and a fan of macrophotography, and Jordi Martí Fitó, translator with a keen interest in naturalism, photography and board games.

Since the end of 2012 PllD has had a diffusion blog and issued a collection of fridge magnets. Papilio is thus a new, more ambitious idea along this already initiated route.

PHILOSOPHY

The underlying aim of this game is to inform about the natural heritage of this country and, more specifically, that of butterflies. Today the offer of games focused on the environment of Catalonia or the Iberian Peninsula is very scarce, and we think that Papilio could be a good approximation to a part of this heritage. In a shop we can find puzzles and games with giraffes, lions and elephants as the protagonists, but we rarely come across games with autochthonous fauna. This is one of the reasons that encourage us, because knowing about and appreciating the nature we have at home is the first step in defending and protecting it.

Also along these lines we have wanted to add *the popular name of butterflies *. In fact, very few have a widely known name, and we want to use the occasion to publicise the list of popular names that the Museu de Ciències Naturals de Granollers and the Societat Catalana de Lepidopterologia drew up in collaboration with the terminology service Termcat.

Furthermore, within this same initiative, we will print a more modest run in Spanish, since some shops specialising in didactic games have shown an interest in this version. If all goes well, we will be able to offer it in other languages later on.

YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS

What will we use it for?

The money we receive will be used to cover approximately half of the printing and distribution costs of the game through the network we are creating, not counting, naturally, taxes, commissions and postage costs.

Continuing with the idea of spreading information about the natural heritage, we want to offer the game to schools, colleges, free time educational groups, play centres and others that work on this question. We will also ensure we distribute it via shops that have an interest in didactic games.

We will invest the profits of this modest adventure in other informative projects, such as a guide in paper and an application for mobile phones, which is still in a preliminary stage.

CALENDAR AND REWARDS

How will we do it?

Once the campaign is over, we will contact the sponsors to specify the rewards and the delivery method. We expect to have everything ready for mid-December.

What will you receive?

It is not always easy to show gratitude offering material things. That is why, apart from offering the game in question, we have chosen several gifts that may be of use, in accordance with the philosophy of the project, and which you can also keep as a souvenir.

Fridge magnets

There are three species to choose from: apollo, plain tiger and black-veined white.

Desk calendar for 2015

Compilation of 12 photographs, one for each month of the year.

Papier-mâché butterfly

Contribution by the craftswoman Elisenda Avellaneda, with three models: cleopatra, apollo, scarce swallowtail and Adonis blue

Butterfly T-shirt

Which one will you wear?: the Weaver’s fritillary, the green-underside blue or the Iberian marbled white?

Papilio bandoleer

To carry the game and wear.

Didactic pack (school pack)

Compilation of ideas and activities for schools. To make the utmost use of the game and the cards.

Family trip or in small groups (4-5 people)

Half-day trip by arrangement to observe and comment on the different butterflies from a specific natural space.

Naturalist workshop (10 people)

We offer a package of an introductory talk and morning trip to discover more about butterflies and to observe them in their natural setting.