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.

Note

Ponzi! is currently free to play at the Soho Theatre bar. See 'Play History' below for details.

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

Optionally, spectators can 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. 100 beads of each colour is plenty.

Assign each player a unique colour. Give each player 30 beads of their colour. Also giving them a matching badge/sticker to remind the other players of who had which starting colour would be a good idea if available.

Prepare as many playing cards as there are players - red cards for the desired number of fraudsters, and the rest black. Two fraudsters seems to work well with six players - a lone fraudster seems to have a big advantage.

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(s). Announce that any player with a red card is a fraudster.

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. The simplest version is just a hat, out of which to draw beads.

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

[IF AUDIENCE ARE TO BE ANALYSTS, provide a "stock chart" with vertical markers for each round. Provide stickers in the same colours as the beads, for use by spectators to make their predictions about who the fraudster is.]

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.

If beads are running low, the moderator can ask for a combination of four beads.

Gameplay

Sequence of each round:

1. The players trade beads among themselves - whatever deals they want to strike are up to them. Set a time limit of about 2 or 3 minutes to keep things moving.

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 a set number of terms or time limit has elapsed. At this point, the Market crashes: see Endgame below.

[OPTIONAL IF AUDIENCE ARE BEING 'ANALYSTS': 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(s) and make every player discard all the worthless beads.

The player with the most beads remaining is the winner.

Announce that the winner (or winners if there's a tie) gets a bonus for steering their company through the crisis, and reward them with chocolate. Then announce that this is banking, everyone has to get a bonus anyway, and give all the other players the same reward.

Making it more theatrical

If possible, the moderator should wear a suit and a bowler hat. A black glove to represent "the invisible hand" seemed like a good idea, but almost nobody got the joke.

The Will of The Market could be a bingo machine with coloured balls, instead of just a hat. [idea suggested by Natalie Catchpole]

If spectators are making predictions, the turn counter and predictions could be projected on a big screen. Maybe spectators could text in their predictions - the colour and their initials - and clever software could put that onto the "stock chart". Ideally the chart would show the numbers of beads in play, somehow.

Variants

Team Ponzi! - to scale the game to a larger number of players, you could group players into small teams who all share the same colour of beads (but still have their own allocation of beads to trade). Make clear that the reward for success goes to an individual and not a team. A member of a fraud team who manages to get rid of the worthless beads might be tempted to betray his team members by admitting he's a fraudster - although he has no way to prove it. [suggested by Kevan]

Shopping list

For N players:

Essential:

• Nx plastic trays to keep beads in
• Clear plastic cups to store the moderator's beads in and display trade combos
• Top hat to draw trade combos from (or bingo machine with coloured balls)
• Beads of N colours - 50 to 100 of each.
• Playing cards
• Chocolate coins (and fruit option)
• Stopwatch

Useful:

• Coloured badges/stickers/hats with stickers on, in the same colours as the beads

If spectators are predicting:

• Stickers of N colours (matching beads)
• Stock chart

Chrome:

• Suit/bowler/red braces etc. for moderator

Play history

'Ponzi!' ran at Sandpit #10 at the ICA, after a test at the Pembury Tavern.

As part of the Everything Must Go! season, Ponzi! is currently running in the ground floor bar at the Soho Theatre, from 23 June to 4 July 2009 (not Sunday).

Sessions start at 9:30pm, with a 5pm session on Saturdays.

Entry is free and a ticket to the preceding plays is not required.

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