I recently designed a game for my youngest brother’s birthday party. It successfully kept twelve thirteen-year-old boys occupied and gleeful for nearly two hours, which is a difficult enough feat that I thought it could be worth writing up here for anyone else in need of such a solution.
Enjoy!
the concept
Have you ever played Mafia? Well, I took some beginning inspiration from it, but with the goal to avoid having anyone who were just generic players without specific roles.
In the game, the main two teams are the Robbers and the Heroes; the Robbers are trying to steal five “Treasures” spread through the house, while the Heroes are trying to discover who the robbers are. There are a number of other roles as well, with a total of six separately-scored teams.
Since it was near Christmas, I selected a five-piece wooden nativity set we had in the living room as the treasures and called them “The Lost Treasures of Nativité” (which got a couple giggles). Just about any five items will work, though.
To “win” the game, your team needed to reach 25 points. To get a perfect score, the team needs 50 points.
Something worth noting: this game is pretty complex, as is the strategy, when looking at it from a high level. That said, I designed it to make it easy for each kid to focus on their own role and goals, in which case it’s pretty simple.
the roles
I had twelve boys to design the game for, and this is how I distributed the roles:
2 Robbers
- get 10 points for each successfully-stolen item (I’ll explain how stealing works later)
- if both are arrested, the team loses 15 points and the game ends
- if the robbers get 50 points, the game ends
2 Minions
- the Minions are on the Robbers’ team, but cannot steal items
- instead, the Minions are trying to trick the Heroes into arresting them; the Robbers’ team gets 10 points for each arrested Minion
- if both Minions are arrested, the game ends (without a point penalty)—this raises the stakes for the Heroes, forcing them to select their arrests carefully to avoid ending the game without catching the Robbers
3 Heroes
- can arrest people—the process will be explained later
- receive 20 points for each successfully-arrested Robber
- at the end of the game, they receive 5 points for each non-stolen Treasure (note: after playing, I’m considering revising this mechanic; it made it easier than I intended for the Heroes to get the 25 required points [and made it more difficult for the saboteur—but that comes later]. If I were to do this again, I would instead make specific point counts they get at different thresholds; perhaps 5 points for 3 remaining treasures, 10 for 4, and 15 for 5)
- this is the only public role; everyone knows who the Heroes are, but all of the others are secret.
1 Informant
- the informant is on the Heroes’ team but cannot make arrests
- their goal is to discover who the Robbers are and tell the Heroes
1 Corrupt Informant
- this person is on their own team
- their goal is to try to get the Heroes to arrest the Minions; they receive 25 points for each arrested Minion
- if they get arrested themselves, though, they lose 15 points
- the existence of this role means that the Heroes can’t trust people telling them information, helping “nerf” the “Informant” role
1 Saboteur
- this person’s score is the difference between the Heroes and the Robbers’ scores; for example, if the Heroes get 40 and the Robbers get 20, the Saboteur gets 20. Similarly, if the Robbers get 50 and the Heroes get 20, the Saboteur scores 30.
- this means the Saboteur essentially gets to pick which side to help, and can even change which they’re helping, trying to make a large point disparity between the Heroes and Robbers
- in our run at playing the game, this was the only role not to get at least 25 points; however, if we had adopted the change in point structure I suggest above for the Heroes, the Saboteur would have received 30 points and the Heroes would receive 20 (the Robbers got a perfect 50).
- this is a difficult role—I intentionally gave it to a kid I knew was bright and would enjoy it even if he didn’t win
2 Shopkeepers
- While there can be up to two shopkeepers, they are scored separately
- The shopkeepers each own two of the Treasures that the Robbers are trying to steal
- Each shopkeeper begins with 50 points
- For each of their Treasures that is stolen, the Shopkeeper loses 25 points
- They need to try and guard the Treasures they own, discouraging the Robbers from trying to rob those ones
- I made sure to give each Shopkeeper 1 Treasure on the bottom floor of our house and 1 on the top, making them have to travel a large distance back and forth to guard both. (Them moving around so much actually brought them under suspicion from the Heroes; one of them was falsely arrested.)
stealing and arrests
Whoof, that’s a lot of info. Let’s look at a few small details that were mentioned but not explained.
stealing
To steal an object, a Robber needs to grab it, then take it to one of the people who were organizing the game—in this case, those were me, my two parents, and my middle brother (not the Birthday Boy), four in all. Something to note—there needs to be one more organizer than there are Heroes, otherwise the Heroes could just guard all the organizers to see the Robbers hand off the treasures and discover who they are. If you only have three organizers, for example, you’d have to have one fewer Hero.
Organizers should be sure to wait ten or so seconds before declaring to everyone that something has been stolen, to give the culprit a chance to get out of range.
arrests
After each Treasure is stolen, the Heroes have an opportunity to make arrests. All Heroes must agree on someone to arrest; that person is then put in our “jail” area for the rest of the game. We only revealed the identity of the arrested person if they were a Robber or a Minion; otherwise, the Heroes did not get to learn which role they had mistakenly arrested.
If the arrest was incorrect (ie, not a Robber or a Minion), the Heroes receive the option to arrest a second person. They must arrest at least one person, to keep the game moving forward.
Since Heroes cannot arrest on the spot, but have to wait until after the Treasure has been stolen (or organizers call a meeting, see below) stealing an object is not difficult; what’s difficult is not being seen in the act and arrested right after.
A note about the “jail”—we put it in the center of the house so they could still watch the action, as well as providing a few games and books so they wouldn’t just be bored. Still, if you think one of the players might be particularly bored in jail, it could be worth assigning them as a Hero. (I assigned my brother, the birthday boy, as a Hero, so he wouldn’t have any chance to feel left out at his own party.)
If no treasure is stolen for a long period of time, the organizers may call a meeting and require the Heroes to make an arrest. I did this once, near the beginning of the game, to try and thin the crowd a bit (the Robbers were never having a chance alone with a treasure, I guess) and spur the Robbers into taking more risks to move the game forward.
I also threatened to do this at the end of the game, but a treasure was stolen right as I declared a thirty-second warning.
A note: players can still win from jail. For example, our first arrest was the corrupt informant, but since both Minions were arrested, he ended up scoring 35 points anyway. Similarly, a Shopkeeper was mistakenly arrested, and though he was no longer able to guard his treasures, one remained unstolen so he still received 25 points. Minions, particularly, actually want to be arrested, since it scores points for their team.
our results
Here were the scores for our teams:
- Robbers: 1 Robbers arrested (no point penalty unless both are) + 2 Minions arrested + 3 Treasures stolen = a perfect 50 points
- Heroes & Informant: 1 Robber arrested + 2 unstolen Treasures = 30 points, a win (note that they would not have won with the scoring change I suggested earlier)
- Corrupt Informant: Arrested very early + 2 Minions were arrested anyway = 35 points (he got kinda lucky, there)
- Saboteur: 50 Robber points - 30 Hero points = 20 points, a near miss from the goal (note that he would have won under the aforementioned scoring changes). Sadly this was the only loss.
- Shopkeeper 1: 1 stolen treasure = 25 points
- Shopkeeper 2: Arrested (no point penalty, but unable to guard his objects), after which 1 treasure was stolen = 25 points
To summarize, the arrests made were, in order:
- Corrupt Informant (during the meeting I called, before anything was stolen)
- Minion (after the first treasure was stolen)
- Shopkeeper 1 & Robber (in that order, after the second treasure was stolen)
- Minion (after the third treasure was stolen; this ended the game)
some notes on numbering
This game was designed with a specific number of players in mind that I knew beforehand. If you’re considering trying this, you may need to tweak the numbers. Here are some notes to help.
- Two robbers and two minions are hard numbers to tweak, since the game end conditions are dependent on them
- Heroes can easily be cut to two players (though it will make their task a little more difficult). Only one, though, might be difficult, balance-wise. Be sure you have one more organizer than you have heroes.
- Shopkeepers can be cut as needed. I originally only planned to have one. If you need, you can cut both. Still, they do add a nice layer to the game, as by running back and forth between different rooms they draw suspicion and provide extra guarding
- Informant and Corrupt Informant are a package deal; don’t cut one without cutting the other. And honestly, I wouldn’t recommend cutting either. Or adding more; that would add too many voices to listen to. If you decide to, I’d also add to the number of treasures to split the guards between more objects.
- Saboteur can be cut, but I thought it was a nice touch. The reason being, it’s a little boring if everyone wins (though not entirely), and the Saboteur has a vested interest in trying to make sure someone loses.
- As mentioned above, you need more organizers than Heroes. That said, one role I was considering adding is a “Seller”—a member of the Robbers’ team who can’t be arrested. They can hand off objects to that player or to one of the organizers. (This helps if you have one too few organizers.) I ended up cutting it because frankly I think it would be a rather boring role to play, but if you need the role it might be helpful to you.
If you find yourself in this situation and aren’t sure you’ve got the balance right, I’d also be happy to help you design a way around your problem. Just contact me and we can come up with something.
instructors for organizers
Okay, so you’ve read the basic idea behind the game, but there’s some vital details missing: how to actually put it on. Here are the steps you should take.
- Procure all of the items you need.
- Five treasures
- Print out sheets to hand each player with a basic summary of their role—I consider this essential. See “resources” below for a copy of what I used and an explanation of why it’s so essential.
- Hand out the role sheets before explaining the rules, so they know who they are when you explain their role—tell everyone who the heroes are.
- Explain the rules
- Have the other organizers put the treasures in position while you continue. Ideally, the treasures are in plain sight, but within separate rooms so that it’s impossible to see any two treasures at once. If you have multiple stories, even better. Try to put each shopkeeper’s treasures as far as possible from each other; for example, when I ran this each shopkeeper had one treasure on the top floor and one on the bottom, forcing them to run back and forth between them to guard both.
- Have everyone close their eyes.
- Have the robbers and minions open their eyes so they know who each other are.
- Have robbers close their eyes and the corrupt informant open theirs, so they know who the minions are.
- Everyone can now reopen their eyes.
- Designate one organizer people can go to privately if they have questions.
10. Announce the start of the game. They’ll likely all take off running to find all the treasures.
11. Organizers should stay relatively apart from each other so the Heroes can’t just guard all of the hand-off people. It’s fine to move around some, but it shouldn’t be difficult for a robber to hand something to you.
12. When handed a stolen treasure, give them time to get out of range before you announce that it has been stolen, so they’re not implicated by their proximity to you. When you announce the stolen object, gather everyone in the main room for a meeting.- If nothing gets stolen for a while, you can call a meeting anyway to try and pick up the pace and thin the crowd.
- The meeting and arrests proceed as described above in the “arrests” section.
- We had a “jail” area prepared in a location that could see what was going on with games, puzzles, and books, so people who were arrested wouldn’t be totally bored.
- When the game is over (due to one of the win conditions mentioned in the role summaries), tally up the points for each team. 25 points is a win, 50 points is a perfect score.
resources
role summary sheets
I’ve put together a template for role summary sheets, adjusted to match the scoring change I proposed earlier:
You’ll want to make sure the number of roles matches the number of players and fill in the names of your organizers to replace [Organizer Names].
more
If you feel like any more resources would be helpful, let me know (my email is below) and I’ll try to make something for you and add it here.
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