INTRODUCTION:
Welcome to CODE NAME: UROBORUS. This is a live roleplaying game scenario. Participants take up a character and dress and act out that character while trying to fulfill the character's goals. The host/game-moderator will settle any rules questions and the like (Note to Game Moderator: Make things quick, simple, easy, fast, consistent, and fair . . . if the game doesn't explain something then go ahead and quickly make something up.).
This game was originally created as a classroom exercise for my English as a Foreign Language writing and conversation classes at National Chengchi University in Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China, but it is appropriate for native speakers of English too - or if you prefer to play in another language that's okay too. The game is intended to be the framework for a party or similar social situation. It is not intended to be a heavy highly competitive event but there are some such elements present in the game. Over all it's intended to be fun.
Since my classes at NCCU are predominately women, the characters are set up that way. If you prefer, many of the characters can be changed to accommodate more males or to even out the ratio, albeit a few of the characters are very gender-specific.
Game Moderators, give a copy of the character sheet for the appropriate player character to each player - players should only get the character information for their character nothing more. This is very important. I would suggest giving the character sheets to the players at least one week before you plan on playing the game - this way the players can get costumes and the like together. On the day of the game, distribute the various clue and special ability cards.
The first round of the game is the Prologue, the Game Moderator should recap what the "game event" is suppossed to be - a meeting of Service muckety mucks who need to select the new World Chief to replace the retiring Chief - and have the players introduce themselves to one another. Rather than have everyone sitting around in a circle, it seems to work well if you have the players circulate with no group comprising more than three people at one time (for larger groups you might expand this to five). This works best for educational purposes - for social gaming, your mileage may vary.
Do remind the players that they only need to tell their Public Information to others - they can keep their Secret Information to themselves (alternatively, they must tell the Secret Information if asked directly about it).
Have the folks go through this conversation process until the predetermined time limit is up. The Board then votes on who the new World Coordinator for the Service will be and the new Chief collects secret ballots to determine who the Board assumes the murderer to be. The Chief then announces the results and the guilty party is executed on the spot.
Once the actual Murder Mystery portion of the game has begun, remind players that they the innocent must tell the truth when asked about the murder - they can still lie about their secrets though (unless someone employs a Special Ability). The murderer may lie at any time (including when someone uses a Special Ability). Traditionally in murder mystery party games, the innocent must always tell the truth about everything although the killer may lie - if you prefer that system for this game, feel free to use it (it might also make things easier for student groups if you are using this scenario for educational purposes).
Once the murderer is executed (Service Justice is swift and harsh), the game is essentially over and the "real killer" if different from the poor executed slob is revealed. Players may then have an unwinding session in which they can reveal "everything" and discuss any loose ends.
If you don't like certain mechanics, then feel free to change them. The game is supposed to be fun so if at any time the rules get in the way of the fun, then fun should win out everytime. The game ends when the party dies down. After play, it's a good idea to have a nice unwinding session so everyone can share what the others didn't figure out about their characters. This is often as much fun as playing the game - okay, maybe not as much but it can still be fun.
Enjoy and happy gaming!
Brian David Phillips, Ph.D., C.H.
phillips@nccu.edu.tw
Copyright 1996 (1998), Brian David Phillips, Ph.D., C.H.
