I'm a big fan of using murder mystery parties to interest non-gamers in role playing. But some people aren't interested in murder mystery parties, but will attend a more social event. Most people enjoy just getting together with friends and talking.

Here's how to use a party game to get your non-gaming friends doing a little role playing anyway.

The Premise

Spies from all over the world have met at a huge gala party to exchange information. Of course, each spy is only supposed to exchange their information with their contacts. The problem is that they don't know who those contacts are, instead they use signs and countersigns to identify each other.

You know the drill, where one person says, "The weather is warm in Antarctica this year," and the other responds, "That's due to the swallows flapping their wings in Capistrano". They now know that each is a contact.

Now picture that multiplied by however many people you have at the party, each of them with their own sign and countersign. You'll have some wacky fun conversations going on!

The Rules

Each spy gets their own sign and countersign. A spy's sign is a phrase that they must react to when they hear it used in casual conversation. The spy must respond with their countersign. A spy is also given two signs and countersigns for their contacts.

When a spy hears someone say their sign, they must respond with their countersign to initiate a transaction. A transaction is the spy whose sign was said sharing their information.

For example, say that Bob's sign is "Everyone knows the Earth is round", and his countersign is "Have you seen it from Mars lately?". When talking to someone, Bob hears them use his sign in casual conversation. Bob responds with his countersign. This tells his contact that the next sentence will be his information.

The information Bob gives is in the form of a coded phrase, such as "Did you know that Mars' day is only 23 hours long?" Bob's contact will want to write that down unless they have a great memory.

The Goal

The winner of the game is the spy or spies who collect the most pieces of information from other spies. They are only guaranteed two other pieces of information, since that's the number of contacts they are given. They'll have to be tricky to get more than that.

For example, they can hang out around other people's conversations, trying to pick up signs, countersigns, and information. If they hear someone saying to everyone, "Everyone knows the Earth is round", and then hear a response about Mars from Bob, they might guess that what comes next is Bob's information. To check, they can use the sign themselves to see if the countersign and information is the same.

Scoring

At the end of the game, spies get 5 points for every correct piece of information they have collected, and lose 2 points for every incorrect piece of information. This penalizes outright guessing based on overheard conversations, and encourages them to check their information.

You'll want a prize for the winner, such as a DVD of The Man Who Knew Too Little.