Being a study of social interactions in a variant of a lifeboat scenario.
Schedule:
- Game rules explained
- Game played
- Examination of the interactions that occurred, with audience participation – Observations of why certain people were chosen for the lynching/victims
- Game played again
- Examination of the interactions that occurred, referencing how the dynamics of the game have changed because of knowing the people now
The lifeboat scenario is one that has fascinated psychology students for ages. In the lifeboat scenario, you are one of several people that are in a lifeboat. For whatever reason, you have to toss one person over, so that the rest may survive (the gamer types among us will have a tendency to toss that person into shark infested waters, just for the fun of it). As the exercise progresses, more people are tossed overboard, until the resulting survivor is left, hoping for rescue.
Since time is short and we don’t have a lifeboat, we are going to play something a little different.
The game uses on Caller to move the game play. There will be one werewolf for every 10 or 20 villagers, depending on how the caller feels out the participants. There will also be one Seer in the village.
A set of cards is arranged so that there is one Ace of Spades for each Werewolf, and the Ace of Diamonds for the Seer. Alternatively, a couple tarot decks could be used, with the Death card for the Werewolves and the Hierophant for the Seer. Additionally, other random cards are added, so that there is one card per person participating.
The cards are shuffled and the participants chose cards randomly without looking at what they are choosing. All participants look at the cards to find out what their role will be. When everyone has chosen the role, they give the cards back, and the Caller announces that the village has gone to sleep. The participants all close their eyes.
Once everyone has closed their eyes, the Caller announces that the Werewolf (s) wakes up and chooses a victim. The Werewolf does so by pointing at the victim. When the victim is chosen, the Werewolf closes his eyes and the Caller announces that the Seer awakens and has a vision. The seer points to the one s/he has the vision about and the Caller gives a thumbs up if it is a Werewolf, or a thumbs down if not. The Seer then closes his eyes.
Once the Seer is done, everyone wakes up and decides who they are going to lynch to eliminate the werewolf threat. In a large group, there has to be an overriding majority, as the players can only lynch one person at a time.
Once someone has been lynched, then the next round begins. Game continues until the players are all dead, or they kill the Werewolf.
Once the first game is played out, the participants will discuss why they acted the way they did. What visual cues made them chose the people they did for the treatment they received? What did they ‘sense’ in the other players? What did they do to hide information or disseminate information as they did?
Once the discussion halts, the game will run again. The second discussion will be to see how ‘knowing’ the people will change the dynamics of who gets chosen for what happens.
Variants of the lifeboat scenarios are often used to create/enhance conflict in stories. This exercise will enable the users to see how different clues can be used to figure out how people would react – realistically – to a lifeboat situation. This will help them when they are writing stories with a similar kind of conflict.