Google's Simple Games and Rule Variants - Lynch Mob

My game design philosophy revolves around the combination of four elements in exciting ways, on the foundation that any single one of those elements will provide a shallow experience by itself. Lynch Mob serves to illustrate this point, by involving what I call "Social Factor" but not including any traces of strategy, random factors, or hidden information.

For those who wish some story to their games, points in Lynch Mob indicate the profits a player takes in from a day of hard work and the benefits they yield for that player's family. Lynching players meanwhile are wasting their days killing neighbors out of jealousy.

What you need:

• A large group of players who don't take things personally.
• A pencil and a piece of paper for everyone.
• As much time to play as all other players.

Setup:

Hand each player a pencil and a piece of paper.

Play:

The game is divided into as many rounds as needed to eliminate all but one or two players, with each round proceding as follows:

Discuss, ideally in a heated and passionate fashion why various players should or should not be lynched, until a player begins to write something. All players then have 10 seconds to continue arguing, and/or write things of their own. Typically, the first player to begin writing should count off the time out loud.

Every player reveals what, if anything, they wrote down. If it is the name of another player, the named player is immediately eliminated from the game. If a player did not name anyone, that player scores a point. Players may not write the names of more than one player down in a single round. It is strongly recommended that no official score is tallied. Instead, players should fold over the previous round's writing before proceding, and counting up the total number of names at the end of the game.

Once all but one or two players have been eliminated, count out points based on the number of rounds in which each player was able to name someone, but opted not to. Whoever has the most points, even if they were eliminated, wins. Bear in mind that the round in which you are eliminated however is the last round for which your points are counted.

Variants:

There are a number of variants to Lynch Mob which can speed things up or bog things down, depending on the mindset of the players.

• Witch Hunt: Points are not awarded to those who abstain from lynching. Instead, each player scores a point for each other player who named the same player they did, and an extra point is awarded to any player who does not specificly announce or point at the player who they are naming in a given round.
• Mexican Standoff: Each player has only a fixed number of "bullets." Writing something down over the course of the game, regardless of whether it is a player's name or not. If at any time only one player has any bullets left, that player wins. If two players are left at the end of the game, the player with the most bullets left wins. If the game ends with with two players who each have the same number of bullets, the winner is the first of these players to point at the other with thumb pointed upwards and say "Bang!"

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