So I was thinking about what I consider a party game and this idea came to my mind. I don’t know if it works or makes sense, but I just had to write it down. It’s probably inspired by the idea of a lot of interaction due to groups and arguments and I had games like code name, werewolf, scotland yard and a fun little game my brother once got, but we only played 2 or 3 times, that would translate to „Yes Lord and Master“ in mind, while thinking about it.
The game is for minimum 6 Players and needs as many blinks as there are players (+1)
The sketch: The players are secret agents. They just came to a debrief after a terribly failed mission. There were two groops involved in the mission, the red roses and the white roses. The leader (I call headmaster) wants to find out wich of the two groops was responseble for the failing. But their mission was so secret, that they don’t even know who else was on their team. Also there is an enemy double agent within their lines, the blue rose. All Agents know there is a double agent who is responseble for the mission failing, but of course don’t know who it is. And if headmaster can’t find out who the doubleagent is, one of the two groops will be made respnseble for it.
The setting: At the beginning the blinks will be clustered. I actually thought that a circle setting might even be best, so each player already knows wich blink to take in advance. But when the headmaster is decided by vote, other than by chance, it doesn’t really matter who takes wich blink in the end.
So to beginn the game the clustered blinks will be double clickt. Each blink will then take one color WITHOUT SHOWING IT, exept for the headmaster blink, wich turnes yellow. All other might blink a few seconds, but then remain black. (It requries the blinks to know, that there will be only one yellow and one blue blink and a possebly even number of white and red. So when there are 11 Players, 9 either red or blue, it should be 4 to 5, not 2 to 7 or so.)
Each player will now take their blink. This is an identification mark. They can now secretly long press their own blink to show their true color, before setting it back to black, so no one else will know. But during the game they can use the mark trying to hint or trick other players. By single clicking the blink it can be turned red or white.
But the blink of the headmaster is a key, that will reveal the true color of the identification, when it touches one of them. (I actually have no logic reason so far, why the headmaster won’t just use it on everyone, but it’s still a game XD)
The game: I thought about a timer or something, that is the +1 blink. It would have to be playtested by actual groups to see what makes most sense, but so far I thought about following: The timer will be set to 5min. The headmaster now wants to find out who the double agent is. There will be a set amount of rounds (Maybe half of the agents total number, but at least 3) During the rounds the agents can argue, why they are not responseble for the fail of the mission, or who they think is, so this part is kind of like werewolf, but they only want to convince headmaster of who the „enemy“ is, wich is not their own team. So they have to be carefull not framing their own teammates without actually knowing who they are and talk out headmaster of checking their own identification. After the 5min headmaster can choose one player and check his identity. If it isn’t the blue rose, the next round starts. (The agent will get his blink back, btw so it can still be used trying to hint or trick)
The end: The game will end after either headmaster found the blue rose, or the set number of rounds is over without blue rose beeing revealed.
If blue rose was found, they lost.
If blue rose wasn’t found, they won along with the team of wich fewer agents were revealed. (So if there where 3 rounds and headmaster revealed 2 red and 1 white rose, white roses won and red roses lost if there was an equal number of both colors found, both groups lost and only blue rose won.)
And I guess that’s basicly it. First I thought when an agent is revealed, everyone will see who they were instantly, wich might change how people react to them, but they still shouldn’t reveal wich side they are on, because headmaster could then choose to pick a side an reveal the other group.
Don’t showing the true identity and let only headmaster know might have a completly different effect on the players. But this could also be decidet by the players before the game and would also have to be tested with a group, of wich works better.