Party Games, there are 23.7 million of them. How to stand out? Put in some rude words? Make people do some silly things? Ask some inappropriate questions? Have a big quiz? They all work because there are lots of different people whose idea of a party differ.
Well here’s one more to add to the mix, and its just different enough to stand out from the crowd to be making quite a splash already.
We’ve tried it out in the Cafe a few times and are aware its not for everybody, but those who will like it, will love it.
Game play:
The game takes place over a series of 8 minute rounds in which you earn points. Play to an agreed number of rounds, most points wins.
Each round select a bag of cards (from a selection of 30, for 30 different possible locations) and give one card to everyone face down. It’ll tell you if you are the Spy OR Where you are.
So this is what you know every round:
– One of you is a Spy (“You mean its the Resistence?” No its nothing like the Resistence)
– You are all in the same location, which most of you know.
– The Spy does not know where they are.
– Only the Spy knows who the Spy is.
In each round the Spy needs to find out where they are OR not get revealed. Everyone else needs to figure out who the Spy is. At any point during the 8 minutes if everyone agrees on who they think the spy is or the spy reveals themselves and guesses where they are; the round ends. Else, after 8 minutes the group must have a guess on who they think the spy is.
To do this players take turns asking questions. The questions need to give players an opportunity to prove they know where they are while giving the Spy room to hang themselves by. If they are too specific though, they will give away the location and the Spy will win, too vague and you’ll run out of time before you can narrow down who the Spy is.
If the Spy wins they get 2 points, else everyone else get 1.
Examples:
Q: What are you wearing?
A: A Wetsuit.
Great we know that you are not the Spy, but you’ve also helped the Spy narrow down their location to only water based places.
Q: Are you a morning person?
A: Yes I am, I have a lot of drive in the morning?
Nice answer, we know we are in a mechanics, a cheeky mention of driving probably means you are not the spy.
When asking or answering the questions, the pressure is on. You need to think fast and come up with something on the fly. Some people can do that and others can’t and will find the pressure quite unpleasant. It is however, a game that you get better at. Practice makes perfect as they say. The first few rounds will be a bit of a mess and the Spy will either give themselves away very quickly or figure out where they are very quickly. It won’t take long before you get better and that is when they brilliance of the game shines through. The subtle Q&A as the Spy tries to give confidently vague answers and everyone else looks for the ‘nudge nudge’ answer that will clear them of accusation.
Fans of Dixit will love this, so will Resistance addicts. You will need to find the right group though. Introverts will likely find the pressure awful and it only takes one person not enjoying themselves for the game to break down.
Its unlike anything else out there though and well worth a try.