Speculative Games

I. Game for Shrimp:

(for 2+ players)

  1. Looking around the play area, individually find a color and give it a name.
  2. With everyone's eyes closed, share the color's name.
  3. Do step 1 again, but with the objective of finding one of your playmates' color.
  4. Share.
  5. If any color has 2 or more names overlap, the compound "name1 + name2 + [...] + nameN" (where duplicates may only appear once) will be how you all refer to it henceforth.
    Any color called out only once will not be named as the proposed name must not have been evocative enough.

II. Game for 1D People:

(for 1+ players)

  1. Go forward.
  2. If anyone's in front of you, invite them to join the game.
  3. Keep going until you reach the end or someone refuses to join, in which case continue to step 4.
  4. Turn around & go back to step 1.

III. Game to play while falling to one's impending death:

(for 1 player)

  1. Begin by letting go of all worries, prejudices, and earthly attachments. These will not help you further on.
  2. Shuffle a standard deck of cards.

IV. Game for a Post-Scarcity World 1:

(for 1 player)

  1. Get rid of everything you own; clothes, furniture, food, etc.
    For the duration of this game, do not accept any gifts.
  2. Survive.

V. Game for a Post-Scarcity World 2:

(for 2+ player)

  1. Get rid of everything you own; clothes, furniture, food, etc.
    For the duration of this game, do not accept any gifts.
  2. Get back to your original level of possession by only taking from other players.

VI. Game for Those who Live on the Sun:

(for 1 player)

  1. Find something that isn't on fire.
  2. Light it on fire.

VII. Game for Mole-People for when Humans are Gone from Earth:

(for 1+ players)

  1. Come out onto the surface in daylight.
  2. Play game of choosing.
  3. Repeat step 2 until you cannot withstand the brightness anymore.
  4. Back inside, repeat step 2 as many times as you did in the surface.
  5. Notice the difference.

Variant for when Humans Come Back to Earth:

    Play the same way, but in step 1 only pretend to be on the surface.

VIII. Game for Those who Just Woke Up as a Roach:

(for 1 player)

    1. Explore the space around you.
      Feel what it's like to crawl and squirm.
    2. Take heart.

    1. Go on about your day as you normally would.
      For e.g.: wear a suit, go to work, etc.
    2. You lose when someone stops you because you are a roach.
      Your score is the number of minutes since you left the house.

IX. Game to play with someone you're never going to see again:

(for 2 players)

  1. Start the game only once your business is done and you're ready to say goodbye.
  2. Stand in front of each other.
  3. Throw a ball to your partner.
  4. Take a step back.
  5. Have your partner commit step 3 & 4.
  6. Repeat steps 3 through 5 until the ball fails to reach the catcher.
  7. Both of you: turn around & go your separate ways.

X. Game to Play Tomorrow:

(for 1+ players)

  1. Get two dice, a full set of playing cards, darts, a balloon, 4 pawns, paper, a pencil, & a spinny top.
  2. Start this step tomorrow.

XI. Game for Fictional Characters:

(for 2+ players)

  1. Every player readies up at the beginning of the story.
  2. The goal is to get to the end of the story as fast as possible. The first player there wins. You may use any tool at your disposal (dramatic irony, character assassination, flash forward, etc.)

XII. Game for Immortal Souls in Heaven:

(for 1+ players)

  1. Start whenever.
  2. Do as you wish.
  3. Repeat step 2 as many times and often as you like.
  4. Finish whenever.

XIII. Game for Damned Souls in Hell:

(for 4 players)

  1. Sit (or, if the ground is full of hot spikes, stand) in a square.
  2. In turn, each player tells one of their most treasured memories from earth.
  3. Any player who starts weeping uncontrollably or begging for forgiveness is eliminated. Eliminated players must stay in the square.
  4. Repeat step 2 until there is one surviving player.
  5. The winner must seek other players to play again. Eliminated players may never play again.

XIV. Game to Play with the Tiger that is About to Eat You:

(for 2 players — 1 human 1 tiger)

  1. Tiger: you win if you eat the human.
  2. Human: picture that the tiger is a tornado then run from it.
  3. Human: picture that the tiger is a bursting volcano then run from it.
  4. Human: picture that the tiger is a speeding car then run from it.
  5. Human: picture that the tiger is the inescapable nature of aging then run from it.
  6. Notice the difference.
  7. Human: if you've outran the tiger, find another one and repeat.

XV. Game to play while an anvil is falling down to kill you:

(for 2 players)

  1. Player 1: Think of an estimate of the time it will take from this step for the anvil to reach you.
  2. Player 2: Think of an estimate of the time it will take from this step for the anvil to reach Player 1. Start a timer.
  3. Player 2: When the anvil reaches Player 1, stop the timer.
  4. Player 2: Compare the time estimates. The player with the closest one to the timer wins.

XVI. Game for the Time Between Today & Tomorrow:

(for 3 players)

  1. Begin this game at the moment when it is not today anymore, but it is not tomorrow yet.
  2. Pick a player (P1) who represents today, and a player (P2) who represents tomorrow. The remaining player (P3) is the judge.
  3. In turn, P1 will tell P3 one thing that is better today than it will be tomorrow. P2 will then give P3 one thing to look forward to tomorrow.
  4. P3 will declare which thing they prefer.
  5. Repeat steps 4 & 5 alternating P1/P2's turn order until it is nearly time for tomorrow.
  6. P3 picks whether they would rather stay in today or go to tomorrow. The respective player wins.

XVII. Game for When the New World Comes Into Being:

(for 8 players)

  1. Every player must bring a different object that represents one of the fundamental constituents of the new world.
    For e.g.: In the current world, this could be dirt, water, gold, etc.
    This will be their playing piece.
  2. Stand in a circle.
  3. Each player makes their piece interact with the piece of the player opposite them. Decide who the winner is based on the outcome. Eliminated players leave the circle.
    For e.g.: salt dissolves in water, so water wins.
  4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 until there is one winner. Their object will be banned from succeeding iterations of the game.

XVIII. Game to Play with a Billionaire as a Non-Billionaire:

(for 2 players)

  1. The goal of the non-billionaire is to kill the billionaire.
    The billionaire may use any means to not get murdered, but may not spend any more money than the non-billionaire is worth.

XIX. Game to Play at the Intersection of Art & Technology:

(for 3 players)

  1. Each player has a different deck of cards respectively titled: technology, subject, & meaning.
  2. In the order above, each player draws the top card from their deck and reads it aloud.
  3. The players wins if the resulting pieces is impactful and/or subversive.

e.g. round:

    P1 draws "Projection".
    P2 draws "The Environment".
    P3 draws "The Current State of Things is Deplorable".
    Players win!

XX. Game for Traveling Waves:

(for 2 players)

  1. Find a player who is perfectly out-of-phase with you.
  2. Travel towards each other as fast as possible. The point is to change course at the last possible moment so as not to neutralize each other.

XXI. Game for Orientals Living Inside the Orientalist's Mind:

(for 2+ players)

To be played in the desert.

  1. Each player gets on a camel.
  2. The goal is to remove other players' headwrap without getting off one's camel. The last headwrapped player wins.
  3. Losers get honor-killed for the shame of being unveiled.

XXII. Game to Play with the Person Currently Robbing Your House:

(for 2 players)

  1. Robbed: secretly pick arbitrary objects around your house.
  2. Whenever the robber takes an object, the robbed says "yes" or "no" depending on whether they initially picked it.
  3. If it's a yes, the robbed must reveal a secret. If it's a no, the robber must reveal one.