I Was Born Gigantic
| I Was Born Gigantic | |
|---|---|
| Designer: | Nick Howard |
| Year: | unknown |
| Players: | 5+ |
| Stuff required: | Around 40 tiny, cheaply produced figures ('minis'). An Evil card. |
| Crew required: | 1 to explain events, 1 or 2 moderators. |
| Preparation: | Lots of time to produce the minis, and to hide them. |
| Time required: | 10 minutes to explain, 15-20 minutes to play |
| Place required: | indoors, large room with the possibility of hiding places (in the room or surrounding area). |
| Activities: | trading, finding, stomping |
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A game for people who are larger than life.
Preparation
The game revolves around tiny models of people (hereafter, 'minis'), so plenty of these need to be bought or made. It's recommended that you just make them out of card (image coming soon), but a little research can produce some snazzy results[1]. Buying expensive model figures does limit the exciting prospects of stomping, however.
There should be about 4 times as many minis in circulation as there are players (see #Game Balance, below). Each player starts with 1 mini. The rest are hidden in the vicinity of the starting location.
A card marked 'Evil', with the number of points the card is worth also written upon it, should be presented at the beginning of the game to one of the players (or they should find it stuck under their chair etc – random distribution, anyway). It might be fun to have them ceremonially stomp their mini, once they realise they are the Evil Giant.
Set at time limit for the game, at which point everyone should return to the main room to work out the scores and announce the winner!
Player Instructions
You are a giant. You start with a single mini, and it is your duty to gather as many of them together as possible, the better to protect them. Many more are scattered in the surrounding area. At the end of the game, each mini is worth 1 point.
You may ally with any other giant, and share minis. But at the end of the game, any minis gathered by a team are divided equally between team members. Giants are often untrustworthy, and turn on their team mates when it suits them. When leaving a team, a giant may take one mini unchallenged, or risk leaving empty-handed, by playing Rock, Paper, Scissors for half the team's minis.
The Evil Giant
One of the players is an Evil Giant. It is not their fault, they have a card to prove it. Evil giants cannot gain points in the usual way – any minis which fall into their possession are instantly stomped (no cheating!). Instead, the Evil card guarantees 3 points (or similar, see #Game Balance) to whomever is holding it at the end of the game. It's a good number, but not enough to secure victory. For this reason, the Evil Giant stomps on the minis of the good giants, by challenging any player or team of players to a round of Rock, Paper, Scissors. If the player or team (only one round need be played when challenging teams) wins, the Evil Giant must run away and may not challenge that them again. If the Evil Giant wins, half of all their minis are stomped, and removed from play.
Any player may challenge the Evil Giant for possession of their Evil card, again through playing Rock, Paper, Scissors. If they win, the card passes to them, and all of their minis are stomped. If they lose, half of the minis are stomped and they run away. The Evil Giant may at any time agree to give away the Evil card without challenge – after all, they didn't choose to be evil.
Game Balance
Working out how many points the Evil card should be worth is an important consideration – it is vital that the Evil Giant has to work to make their guaranteed points worthwhile. For this reason, the amount of points on the card should be significantly below that which you expect the leading players to receive (take into account that teams' points are divided) so that the Evil Giant has to do a lot of stomping.
For example, if there are 10 players, there are immediately 9 points (1 each + the Evil Giant) in the game. If there are 30 minis hidden in the area, that's still only around 4 points each, if the players are equally (unrealistically!) proficient. Here the Evil card should probably be worth 3 points.
Rock, Paper, Giant
An awful lot of Rock, Paper, Scissors gets played in the course of this game. Once your players become acquainted with the rules of the main game, why not confuse them totally by introducing this variation. Giant-sized scissors are, of course, ridiculous, so instead, Giant can rip paper, but is clobbered by Rock. Giant is represented by waving one's arms in the air in a terrifying manner.
