Crustacean Nation

The card game is a tool for parents and educators to engage students about government and politics at an earlier age to promote political participation. It can also be used in conjunction with geography lessons. The primary target audience for the game are ages nine to fourteen students in the United States. The main objective of Crustacean Nation is to educate America’s youth about primary election process and how the primary systems vary by state. Hermit crabs take on shells that are not their own and continue to move from shell to shell as they grow. Changing shells is representative of how in many states, Independents have to declare as a Republican or Democrat in order to vote in primary elections. The game facilitates conversations about voting laws and the importance of voting in primary election with the help a crustacean that thrives working in together in groups.

Crustacean Nation consists of a twin deck of one hundred and four poker-sized cards. The strategy in designing the rules for the game was to create a reward system structured around voting in different states. The cards are separated into two groups: state shells and party shells. State shells contain all fifty states with each hermit crab shell being visually representative of the state. The state shell card indicates the primary system for each major party, and the voting age. The points needed to vote in a state is determined by the difficulty of system. Party cards consist of Republican party, Democratic party and Independent party and are collected as individual points towards voting in a state. Within each deck there are hidden Event Cards that can help the player or be used to sabotage other players. The first to earn twenty-five points wins.