Ponzi!

An allegorical game of high finance; players strive to trade beads advantageously. But one of them is a fraudster secretly trying to dump worthless beads.

Overview and theme

The players represent financiers (hedge fund managers, investment bankers and the like). They must increase their assets (total number of beads) as much as possible before the inevitable market crash.

One of the players is secretly a fraudster, whose starting beads are all worthless.

Any spectators represent market analysts, who must try to work out who is the fraudster, based on their trading patterns.

Preparation

The game requires beads, available in as many colours as there are players. For six players, 100 beads is enough.

A turn counter is used to keep track of the number of elapsed rounds. It consists of a stock chart showing a declining market, with vertical interval markers representing rounds, and a pointer showing which round the game is currently at. It should be poster-sized and placed so that the audience can affix stickers to it.

Assign each player a unique colour. Give each player 30 beads of their colour.

Prepare as many playing cards as there are players - make them all black except one.

Hand out cards and ask the players to look at them in secret, remember them, then give them back. Make sure the moderator knows who got the red card. Announce that the player with a red card was the fraudster.

Provide stickers in the same colours as the beads, for use by spectators to make their predictions about who the fraudster is.

Prepare the Invisible Hand, a mechanism which randomly indicates the Will of the Market, ie which combinations of beads can be traded for other beads.

Have chocolate coins (or gold bars) on hand for rewards: 5 x number of players, + 1. Provide peaches/plums as an alternative for those who can't eat chocolate.

How the Invisible Hand works

Each round, the moderator of the game, representing the Will of the Market, will exchange a particular combination of bead colours for a SUBSTANTIAL NUMBER of beads of a particular colour.

For example, the Market might desire two yellows and a blue, and in exchange return 6 reds.

The simplest way to generate this is to have the moderator pull four beads out of a hat; it is up to the moderator's discretion which colour the market is "selling" and what the exchange rate is.

Generally, the Market should only pay out 5 to 7 beads; perhaps larger amounts in the early rounds if players are reluctant to swap.

Later in the game, could increase the desired combination to four beads.

Gameplay

Sequence of each round:

1. The players may trade beads among themselves, including as many IOUs, options, Calls for Difference etc. as the moderator will tolerate.

2. The Invisible Hand indicates the WILL OF THE MARKET: the set of beads, and what they can be traded for.

3. The moderator swaps sets for beads according to the will of the Market.

Repeat until there are no more beads left to give out or a certain number of turns has elapsed. At this point, the Market crashes: see Endgame below.

At any time, a spectator can predict who the fraudster is. To do this, the spectator writes his/her initials on a sticker and affixes it to the turn counter on the current turn. Each spectator can make only one prediction.

Ending the game

Reveal the worthless bead colour and make every player discard all the worthless beads.

The player with the most beads remaining is the winner.

The spectator who FIRST correctly predicted which player was the fraudster gets a chocolate coin.

Every player is rewarded with a bonus in chocolate coins, regardless of whether they won or not. They are blameless victims of an unforeseeable crisis, and it would be illegal to give them anything less than the chocolate coins specified in their contracts.

Possible chrome

The moderator could wear traditional city garb. Maybe a bowler hat for each player, with a sticker of the appropriate colour?

The turn counter could be projected on a big screen, with some high-tech way of adding spectator predictions.

Use a bingo machine with coloured balls as part of deciding the Will of The Market.

Items required for N players

Essential:

• Nx plastic beakers/cups to keep beads in
• Top hat to draw trade combos from (or bingo machine with coloured balls)
• Beads of N colours - at least 100 of each
• Turn counter
• Playing cards
• Chocolate coins and peaches/plums
• Plastic box to display trade combo in

If spectators are predicting:

• Stickers of N colours (matching beads)
• Stock chart instead of turn counter

Chrome:

• N bowler hats (could be novelty plastic ones)
• Stock chart on projector
• Moderator dresses like a stockbroker