Escape from Yuck Mountain

Escape from Yuck Mountain asks families to work together, taking challenges on a journey of healing and forgiveness. It asks players to earn core coping abilities necessary for families to live in a thriving and healthy environment.

This cooperative game is designed to be facilitated by a coach, therapist, or counselor whose role is to guide the difficulty level of challenges and award golden nuggets to family members who lean into challenges and share healing experiences and words.

Objective

Your family is stuck on Yuck Mountain and must work together to earn four coping abilities before tensions rise and Yuck Mountain becomes impassible. Once you have earned those abilities, everyone must meet at the Portal Door to escape from Yuck Mountain.

Players earn coping abilities by navigating to squares with abilities and discarding four matching coping cards. Along the way, players must take challenges to prevent Yuck Moutain from becoming impassible. Players also earn Golden Nuggets for leaning into challenges and sharing healing thoughts and words.

Above shows how Yuck Mountain will look at the beginning of the game.

In Escape from Yuck Mountain families learn about seven themes that can send them to Yuck Mountain and the seven coping abilities that can help them escape.

This shows the starting hand of the Black player and Black's Family Mission assigned by the game's facilitator. Each player has a unique ability that can help the family succeed.

Each turn reveals new challenges. When a Challenge card is drawn, it activates a square on Yuck Mountain. The only way to prevent that square from becoming impassible is to face the challange it reveals.

Above, square "H" was activated revealing a scenario involving Fairness. A family member must answer it's question or challange to return the square to normal, and prevent it from disappearing and making Yuck Mountain more difficult to navigate.

Below are the seven themes that keep families stuck on Yuck Mountain and the challenges families will be asked to face during game play.

Forgiveness and healing growth are the ultimate objectives of any family wanting to escape from Yuck Mountain. The game encourages both by enabling the facilitator to guide the difficulty level of challenges and recognize family members who face challenges with sincerity, courage, and vulnerability.

Notes For Professionals

A general discussion of life's scenarios is easier with Escape from Yuck Mountain. Families are tasked to earn "abilities" with "forgiving" at the core. Forgiveness within the context of "Removing your pain caused by others" promotes healing and discourages resentment. The facilitator’s guide provides a solid but adaptable framework for making the game part of your own practice and style. Game concept and content supervisor: James Otte, LPC