Among Us: the wide game.

Do you remember the famous game everyone was playing during the pandemic, Among Us? Even Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez played it! If you don't know the game it's alright, we won't hold it against you.

The premise of the game is that there is a crew on a spaceship with tasks to do. (Empty the rubbish, refill the fuel engine, fix the electricity and whatnot)

Up to 3 crew mates are impostors who try to kill the crew without being found. They also have a list of tasks but are not required to do them, it's just so they can look less suspicious. 

The impostors have to be discreet when they kill crew mates. When someone is found dead, the person who found them calls for a meeting to discuss what they saw, who they think did it, they can accuse people, say why they think so and so did it etc. Impostors are allowed to call for meetings too. You can limit the discussion time. After that everyone takes a vote.

The person who gets the most votes gets thrown from the ship and we discover if they were indeed an impostor or not. Dead players should keep working on their tasks. The game goes on like this until all impostors have been found or until everyone has finished their tasks or until the number of impostors is higher than the number of regular crew members in which case the impostors win.

And how do you play it live as a wide game?

Well first you'll give each Cub a crew mate or impostor card (last night I'd forgotten to bring the cards so I lined the Cubs up facing the other way with their eyes closed and I squeezed 3 Cubs' shoulders to let them know they were impostors) and a list of tasks. Impostors also do the tasks so it's more fun for them, also they can't really pretend like in the video game.

Each task needs to be completed with a leader. Leaders are spread out in the game area. Each time a Cub finishes a task, the leader marks it off.

Impostors kill other players by touching their shoulder and those players lay or sit on the ground or just crouch if the ground is wet. When they are found, the play who found them reports it to the game leader who calls everyone with their whistle for a meeting and a vote.

Last night I took the Cubs out in the park and as it is Winter it was completely dark. I arrived early to define the game area beforehand, I found big patches of grasses with some huge bushes which were great obstacles. I had prepared two sets of task lists to play two rounds but the game lasted for the whole meeting.

The tasks I used were:

• Tell your best joke to Mang
• Tell Rikki a fun fact about yourself
• Make Sahi laugh (you are not allowed to tickle or touch him)
• Show Bagheera where North is
• Spell a word out in the phonetic alphabet to Kaa

The ones I'd prepared for round two were:

• Beat Mang at Rock, Paper, Scissors (3 rounds), if you fail you can try again later
• Invent a short dance and perform it for Rikki – you can do it with someone
• Make up a short poem about Sahi (be kind or Sahi won’t sign your task off)
• Spell your name in Morse Code to Kaa
• Show Bagheera where South West is.

But the possibilities are infinite, you can adapt tasks to your programme so it covers badges requirements, make up silly ones or have a mix of both to keep it entertaining. Other ideas include Tie this or that knot, name 3 different types of trees/bugs/birds, recite the scout law, point to this or that constellation, name the planets in the solar system, etc

Kaa surprised us with some hot chocolate and biscuits and I'd brought shokobons as a prize for another game so we had a feast in the cold dark night at the end of the meeting.