In to games, summer camp kind of games
Here at the school, the students and I get together at least once a week and have a group potluck. The potlucks are amazing, everyone comes up with some delicious dishes, there’s always too much food to eat and it’s generally just a great time. They tend to get loud, rowdy, people tend to dance, and the potlucks move along quickly. We also play games. Basic summer camp games.
If there’s some people gathered around, with or without a full stomach and the drinks are a-flowin’, then I highly recommend playing a good ol’ fashioned summer camp style game. Like the kinds camp counselors play with their campers in order to pass the time in the cabin, with no tv, no video games, no internet. Which is more or less what this school feels like this semester — an artsy, Greek version of summer camp. When we’re all gathered around at the potlucks sitting around amusing each other, the games inevitably are brought out.
Some of the games I’ve picked up here and there, from friends, usually European, after cozy dinner parties. Maybe you can call them parlor games. But that sounds too much like something straight from Victorian England, it’s too rawkus for that. I’ll be honest, I tend to push the games on my fellow potluckers who may or may not want to participate in such borderline juvenile activity. Whether everyone wants to play or not, the group tends to move as one, and sooner or later, most everyone is involved.
The only games I know, and from whom I learned them, many compliments to them.
The Wolf Game or Mafia (Karim Triki)
There’s a village, and it’s being attacked by wolves. The wolves are killing the villagers, the villagers are in a panic, and they need protection.
Living amongst the villagers is a wolf hunter, a sorcerer, and a fortune teller. Each of these individuals have their own special power to use to help protect the villagers. The object of the game is for the villagers to kill the wolves before the wolves kill off the villagers.
In the game, each member receives their role on pieces of paper that they do not show to anyone else.
The roles are:
2 wolves (working together can choose to kill a villager, every round)
1 fortune teller(can view any other players’ role)
1 wolf hunter (can choose to kill who they think might the wolf, but only one time)
1 sorcerer (can choose to resuscitate someone who has been killed off, but only one time)
the rest of the players are villagers
*Little Girl (can open her eyes, as inconspicuously as possible, when the wolves are called, to see their identities)
*Optional
There is also a narrator who more or less controls the flow of the game. The narrator can not participate in the game, but simply guides the game along through each round. The rounds change from night to day. When it is night time, everybody closes their eyes. The narrator calls first on the fortune teller to open his or her eyes. The fortune teller points at the player whose paper they want to see. As inconspicuously as possible, the narrator shows the chosen player’s paper to the fortune teller. Then the fortune teller closes his or her eyes and the narrator calls on the wolves to open their eyes and decide if they want to kill some one. The wolves silently work together and point at the player they want to kill. The wolves close their eyes and the narrator calls on the wolf hunter to open their eyes, and to decide if he or she wants to kill someone. After the wolf hunter chooses, he or she closes their eyes, and the narrator calls on the sorcerer to open their eyes. The sorcerer may choose if he or she wants to resuscitate someone (only one player). After the sorcerer chooses and closes his or her eyes, the night has come to an end, and everyone opens their eyes.
At this point, the narrator declares if or if not anyone has been killed, and who the victims are (without revealing their roles). The players (including the victims) then have approximately three minutes to discuss and debate who they think are the wolves. After discussion, each player (except for the killed off player(s)) individually votes for who they think is a wolf and should explain their decision. At the end of the voting, the player with the most votes is killed off, revealing what his or her role was. If two players have equal numbers of votes, then everyone votes again, but only selecting one of the two. The victim(s) who had been killed during nightfall, explain what their roles were as well.
The game continues until the wolves are discovered (and killed off) or until the wolves are able to last until the final round with out being discovered, effectively killing off all of the villagers.
Random figure out the thing in 3 different Stages Game (Julie Cutelli and Kris Digiacomo)
There are two teams. Each member from both teams has three pieces of paper. They must write a word on each paper– anything they want: a person, place or thing. Then fold it up and place the pieces of paper in a hat.
The object of the game is for the teams to be able to guess the most words from the pieces of paper. The game is divided up in three rounds:
Round 1: One member from each team has 30 seconds to explain the words with out actually saying the word itself for fellow teammates to guess from. After the 30 seconds, the teams switch. The teams go back and forth until all of the items have been guessed.
Round 2: One member from each team has 30 seconds to do “charades” to show the word — that is, by using only body language for fellow teammates to guess from. After the 30 seconds, the teams switch. The teams go back and forth until all of the words have been guessed.
Round 3: One member from each team has 30 seconds to sum up each word in one other word, only for fellow teammates to guess from. After the 30 seconds, the teams switch. The teams go back and forth until all of the items have been guessed.
Through out each round the same batch of words are used, so the players must try to remember the words as they continue through each round.
Guess my Identity (Michaela Ripplinger)
Each player sits in a circle and writes a person’s name (alive or dead, real or fictional) on a post-it note and puts it on another person’s forehead with out that person seeing the identity on the post-it note. Then the players have to ask yes or no questions to try to discover their own identity. If the answer is no, then the player stops asking questions and the next person has a turn. Play until everyone has guessed their identity.
These games are good fun. Any others out there?
