Pirates and Ninjas

[Physics Guy]

I have a vague idea that I've mentioned this here once already, but it doesn't show up in search, and I found it helpful just last week, so here it is even if it's here again. It's an icebreaker game, Pirates and Ninjas. I think I made it up once but conceivably I copied it from somewhere and forgot the source; in any case I don't want any credit. The game goes like this.

The first player proposes two things and asks which one is better. All the next players, in turn, cast their vote for one or the other—and offer one reason why their chosen option is better than the other one. The last player to vote (and give a reason) is the first player, who proposed the two things. The vote is tallied and a winner is declared, if it isn't a tie.

Then the player who was first to offer a vote, in the last round, becomes the new first player. Keep going as long as you like.

Three rules make it actually interesting; the zeroth rule just makes the game easy to understand.

0) The first vote is always between Pirates and Ninjas.

1) Everyone has to choose one option or the other. No-one can abstain or declare that both options are equal.

2) It is not allowed to offer a reason that is essentially the same as one that has already been given by a previous player (at least, not as a reason for the same choice!). If there is an obvious reason why one thing is better, but somebody has already said it, then you have to think of some more obscure and dubious reason, and say that, even if it isn't your own real reason for preferring your option. If there is any argument about whether or not a reason is essentially the same as a previously mentioned one, whoever cares most about the point is allowed to have their way, but if somebody just uses this to slime through with an unimaginative answer, everyone else is allowed to frown on them and mock them.

3) The most important rule is just the emphasis that there are no other rules. Offered reasons do not have to make sense, though frowning and mockery may ensue if they don't. Any two alternatives can be compared: forks or spoons, fruits or vegetables, Saturday or Sunday, green or purple ... whatever. The two alternatives don't even have to be remotely comparable, though it's not usually fun if they're not. They don't have to be obvious peers; in particular, one can be more detailed than the other. You can compare "pirates versus ninjas with flying unicorns mounting lasers, at the task of distributing lemonade". This was once necessary in order to provide a competitive vote when the company had a preponderance of pre-teen girls who loved Johnny Depp.

The game is silly but easy to understand. It involves everyone, gets everybody interacting, and gives everybody a chance to be listened to by everyone else. It lets people show something of their personality, but within constraints that are obviously absurd enough that nobody is put on the spot by any expectation of adequate performance at a serious task. People who are older, or younger, or don't speak the common language so well, are at no disadvantage. If the group is large enough then even potentially controversial choices, like men versus women, tend to become harmlessly silly by the need to invent more and more reasons for either choice.

If you're ever in a potentially awkward situation with a bunch of people who don't know what to say to each other, it's a great thing to try.

[honorentheos]

that's pretty cool. Reminds me of the game Superfights but less about who would win if they fought. Link to the game at Amazon if curious.

https://a.co/d/6k2Trvu

Obama with a flame thrower vs a rhino that can only make left turns is still legendary in our family, at least four years running now. Someone tried to stack Battlecat with Obama and the flamethrower which was frowned on as Battlecat could beat flamethrower-wielding Obama AND the left-turn restricted rhino and have gas in the tank to bring down a solo Power Ranger...

[Physics Guy]

I certainly can't claim any originality for the general game-class of comparing two contestants. The thing that I like about the Pirates and Ninjas variant is the wide-open nature of the comparison, which offers a really wide range of possible topics. Some form of winning in a fight does come up fairly often as a reason, but it's not required.

The occasion for which I invented this game—or first applied it, if I didn't invent it—was a family weekend ski trip with six adults and a swarm of kids over a ten-year age range. I think I had in mind to find something about as versatile as the card came Dixit, but simpler and with no need for a big deck of cards showing crazy images. Dixit is similar in having one player propose something and then everyone else compete over it, and it's also similar in the way it kind of automatically adjusts to include people of different ages or linguistic abilities. Dixit is a great game but it does need its cards.

[Physics Guy]

That same weekend featured a sort-of D&D game for a bunch of the kids, that had to be invented from scratch including all the rules because we hadn't brought any rulebooks. We had the dice from a Zombie Dice set, and that was it. I concocted some kind of Indiana Jones-ish scenario in which the party had to get into the centre of a trap-and-monster-filled pyramid to steal a crystal skull or something, but then when they made it out with the skull they got the urgent message from their mission-giver that what they really needed to do was not take the skull but merely turn it around to face the other way on its pillar. So then they had to go back in and put the skull back. All I clearly remember now was some kind of spider that was too hard to kill and had to be avoided four times, and the climactic moment when saving the world from a horde of little alien cannibals required a Heimlich feat to get the pet snake which had swallowed the Maguffin skull to barf the skull back out again.

[honorentheos]

Dixit sounds like a great game, and I'm glad to see Cards Against Humanity linked in the wiki as a nod to the ties.

Heimlich feat...<chefs kiss>.

[DaveIsHere]

Ah, some reached back to the far off year of WHENEVER to bring us a rousing game of "Pirates vs Ninjas". Love it, really digging the old school vibes, and I gotta say your rules offer a bit of a twist.

That said, could we bring back an old school rule? "Ninja are increasing less effective the more Ninja Involved(a.k.a. the Inverse Ninja rule), and "Bend your backs and crack your oars, Men!"(all pirate crews are increasingly stronger the more sailors they have).