Schniper

From Ludocity
Schniper
Sniper.jpg
Designer: Kevan Davis
Year: unknown
Players: 2
Stuff required: Walkie-talkies (but mobile phones will do); optional ribbons or other identifiers.
Crew required: None
Preparation: None
Time required: 30 minutes
Place required: A large area with plenty of cover.
Activities: Sneaking, hiding.
This is a playable game - it's finished, tested and ready to play.
Cc-by-nc.png
This game is made available under an Attribution-Noncommercial Creative Commons licence. (What does this mean?)

A two-player game of sneaking and sniping, using walkie-talkies or mobile phones.

Gameplay

Pick a playing area. You want a large, clearly-defined area with plenty of cover to break things up - a park with lots of trees and features can be good, or an agreed area of urban environment.

Each player has a walkie talkie tuned to the same frequency (or simply a mobile phone, after exchanging numbers). If you're playing against someone you might not recognise at a distance, then you should both wear a ribbon or some other distinguishing item of clothing. Pick a start and end time for the game, and disperse into the playing area - the game shouldn't start until both players have had a few minutes to split up.

Once the game has started, each player attempts to hunt down the other, trying to catch them in the open while concealing their own position. At any time, one player (the "sniper") may call the other (the "target") on the walkie talkie to say "Stop! I can see you!", or words to that effect. Both players have to stand perfectly still, and can engage in a little Bourne-style banter to confirm that the sniper really can see the target ("I hope you're enjoying that cup of coffee, as it may be your last").

Once confirmed, the target is "shot" and immediately loses a life, and the sniper has to spend the next thirty seconds reloading - the sniper is allowed to duck behind cover to do this, but cannot move more than a couple of feet, and can't fire during this time (if a sniper is caught moving within thirty seconds of a shot, they immediately lose the game). It's up to the target whether they look around and try to shoot back, or make a run for it.

Each player starts with three lives; when you've lost your third life, the other player wins. If you're both still alive when the game ends, then the player with the most lives left wins.

"Warning shot" variant

One variant we've tested is a "warning shot" - the target has five seconds to get to cover after the sniper calls them, and only takes a hit if they're still in view afterwards. This would be particularly good if you were using mobile phones, as the target would react to the phone ringing, and would only answer it after they'd ducked for cover. (You could even go so far as to use a custom "gunshot, five-second pause, gunshot" MP3 ringtone for the duration of the game.)

From playtesting, it looks like this may mostly be redundant, though - the fact that the sniper has to reload means that the target has some time to escape, and a good sniper will already be trying to trail their target until they enter open space, so that they have further to run before they're out of sight.

More players

Although designed and tested with two players, it should stretch to three or four on the same frequency, and requiring all sniper calls to specify a name - the other players might get to hear dialogue between two of the others, but it'd be a clue that someone was around. The sound of a gunshot.

Schniper probably doesn't scale beyond four players, but it's trivial to split the group into multiple pairs (each pair with its own ribbon colour), and have each player trailing just one other; maybe even teaming up with a differently-coloured assassin if they meet them on the streets.

Play history

  • Schniper was playtested in Regent's Park, London, in June 2009.