Tedmi Malaysia Fun Retreat:Killer in The Night Game

 
How long has it been you kept yourselves entertained with things either than the television, smartphones or tablet? How long has it been you played a card game or boardgames? Until I went to the retreat with Tedmi Malaysia in Wave Rest House & Cafe, I’d have to say it’s been awhile.

This is not a part of the planned activities by Wave Resthouse&Cafe, but something the people from Tedmi Malaysia cooked up after dinner for some good old times fun.

We played the ‘Killer in The Night Game’ or simply known as ‘The Killer Game’.

There are plenty of variants of the game but here’s sharing one of the variant of the game, the one we played that night.

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Introduction

Killer in The Night Game is an 8 plus player game that takes about a half hour. It has no board so it’s perfect for a large party especially late at night.

The basic concept is that members of the dreaded murderer have infiltrated our community and we, as concerned citizens, need to root them out. So every day we hold a town meeting and lynch someone we suspect of being a member of the mafia (it’s not as bad as it seems: we vote first). Then, every “night” the murderer secretly meet and pick a townsperson to kill; the townspeople learn about it in the morning. There is a also an undercover cop and healer floating around somewhere who can help the townspeople.

At the end of the game when there are only murderer and two townspeople left, the remaining townspeople must shake hands. The problem is that they don’t know who is killer ks and who is innocent and the killer will try to appear as innocent as they can.

If “murderer vs. townspeople” doesn’t suit your taste, you can change the theme to be “werewolves vs. townspeople” where the undercover cop is a psychic. The rules work exactly the same either way.

Set Up

Take a deck of ordinary cards and pull out the two black queens, a red king and an ace. Add to this a as many non-face cards as are needed to equal the number of people playing. Shuffle the cards carefully so that no one has any hint which cards are which. For extra security, face up on the bottom of the deck to hide the value of the bottom card.

Give each person a card, being very careful that no one sees what anyone else gets. If someone sees, collect the cards, reshuffle and redeal; it’s important that it be secret.

The players with the queens are the killer, the player with the king is the police and the ace is healer (it doesn’t matter, anything works) while everyone else is a townsperson (also known as an innocent citizens). Be sure to explain this to everyone several times — there is nothing worse than having a killer ask in a loud voice “what does the queen mean again?”

General Rules

It’s important that no one reveal their cards until they are dead. The one exception to this is the police who may reveal his/her card at any time — this is an important power of the police (one of the few) and so should be emphasized. Dead people are allowed to open their eyes at night but must not participate in the game in any other way kno who the killers are and could easily ruin the game. Have people keep their cards face down in front of them and dramatically flip them up when they die.

First Night

Now that everyone has their identities it’s time for the killers to meet each other. Everyone must close their eyes. Then tell the killers to open their eyes and reveal themselves to each other. The two killer players will open their eyes and look around to see who the other killer is. When they’ve had enough time to do this, tell them to close their eyes and have everyone open their eyes. That’s the first night.

Days — The Lynching

During the first day, as on every other day, the townspeople including the killer and the police, since no one knows who they are have a meeting. The goal of the meeting is to lynch a killer member.

Nominations

First, anyone can nominate someone to be lynched. They should give a reason but the reason doesn’t have to make any sense.

The Defense

When there are three nominations each of the nominees, in the order of their nomination, gets to say why they should not be lynched. Their defense should be one or, if they are longwinded, two sentences — short and to the point, we haven’t got all day. “I’m innocent!”, is.a valid defenses. Common decency dictates that everyone should listen respectfully and not make rude comments during the defense statements but remember that the killer would really like to manipulate the townspeople into lynching other townspeople so you want to watch for that.

The Vote

In the order of their nomination, the nominees are voted on. For example, someone says “All in favor of getting rid of him, raise your hand,” counts the votes and moves on to the next person. Everyone who is still alive should vote for someone; no one may vote twice. In the case of a two way tie, re-vote but leave the third person out. In the case of three way tie (or a two way tie when you’ve already removed the third person) just keep voting until someone gets picked. Getting people to agree on someone to lynch is all part of the game.

Nights — Secret Deeds

The night turns after the first one require a moderator. And — what a coincidence — we now have someone who is dead (i.e. the guy just lynched)! He or she is the moderator. Note that only the moderator may talk during the night (or the killer and police will be revealed) and he or she must be careful not to talk “to” anyone — it’s pretty obvious even if you have your eyes closed when the moderator is talking to someone.

The Killer Kills

The moderator will have everyone close their eyes. Then they will have the killer open their eyes and kill someone. They must note who the killer is and who the killer kills.


The Healer Heals

Then the moderator will have to get the healer heal someone. The person they picked will not be killed. Healer can choose to save themselves.

The Cop Accuses

Now they have the police open his or her eyes and make an accusation. If the police is right, they silently indicate an affirmative otherwise they indicate a negative. There is an odd case in which the police is killed before he or she makes an accusation; it doesn’t matter what you do because they’re dead and can’t use the information anyway. Then the police closes his or her eyes and everyone opens their eyes. The moderator announces who was killed during the night and it’s now day again.

A Script

“Everyone close your eyes.” (Check that everyone’s eyes are closed.)

“Killer, open your eyes.” (Identify the killer and verify that there are two of them.)

“Killer, make your kill.” (Identify the victim, silently point to him/her and get it confirmed with a nod.) If the two killer don’t agree, this is not your problem; just wait until they decide (this can be quite entertaining, watching a silent argument).

“Killer, close your eyes.” (Verify that they have closed their eyes.)

“Healer open your eyes.”

“Healer choose someone to save” ( take note on the one chosen. That person can’t be killed)

“Police, open your eyes.” (Find the police)

“Police, make your accusation.” (Verify who the police is accusing and then indicate whether he/she is right.)

“Police, close your eyes.” (Verify that he/she has complied.)

“Everyone open your eyes.””So-and-so is dead.”

End of Game — The Showdown!

Night follows day which, in turn, is followed by another night. Every day and every night another person is dead. If we run out of killer then the townspeople win! Otherwise, even if only one killer survives, we get to the showdown when only two townspeople are left.

In the showdown, the two townspeople must shake hands to win while the mafia members would like to shake hands with a townsperson. This can take a while but, eventually, someone shakes hands with someone (the killers are not allowed to shake hands with each other) and the game is over. If the two people who shook hands are both townspeople, the town wins and the killer loses.

This is not exactly a card game, but a parlour game. Nice to play when you are having a huge party of people to entertain and expect a lot of snickering, groaning and giggles along the way. Try it soon when you have lotsa friends at your place and let me know if you like it.

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