Make 'em Dance

A group of bored aliens, whose spacecraft has broken down somewhere near planet earth, decide to mess with humans and play a game amongst themselves while waiting for help from space mechanics. Their aim is to come up with the biggest amount of disruptive news to throw at humans and watch the unfolding.

This card game aims at having players acquainted with some of the various ways the media can be manipulative, and at providing them with the ability to recognise and distinguish said tactics from each other in their daily lives.

The game has been created for players aged 16-18 and is ideally played in a group of 4, but can be playerd amongst 2-6 players.

The game assets accessible to the players are as listed below:
- 40 playing cards: 8 “Level 1 : type Propaganda” , 10 “Level 2 : types Sponsored Content or Satire & Hoax”, 12 “Level 3 : types Conspiracy Theory, Pseudoscience or Fake News”, 4 “Show your cards” and 6 “Make it up” cards. The Cards with Levels have information on them, while their levels are not mentioned.
- The "Types of Misleading Media Tactics" Reference Sheet, to help the players figure out the respective level and type of their cards.
- The "Make It Up Tips" Sheet, to help the players come up with their own example of the type of misleading tactic of their choice.
- The Game Board

The facilitator is provided with:
- Scoring Sheet, to keep the scores throughout the gameplay
- Cards’ Info Sheet, as a guide to quickly discern the levels and types of the cards being played.
- A game outine that contains all the rules to be delivered to the players as well as the scoring system details.

Brief gameplay rules overview:
The players start with 4 cards at hand and have to pick one card each, to play on the board. The players all have to state the type and level of their card, and can do so with the help of the reference sheet. The ones who has a card of the highest level and has guessed right wins the round. In case of a draw, the players involved play another card on the table.
The "show your cards" card allows a player to see other players' chosen cards before deciding what to play. The "Make it up" card allows a player to come up with their own misleading tactic content, based on their chosen level and type. The other players are encouraged to discuss about the example presented.
When there are no moves possible anymore, the one with the highest score wins and gets the title of “most disruptive alien of the crew”.
The rules are further detailed in the game outline.

This game was created during an internship at Shokkin Game Estonia (https://et.shokkin.org/).