Once a month, Georgia and Miriam give themselves one hour to devise an original game concept based on a prompt. Below is an overview of our mascot band social deduction game, Rock-a-Mole!
THE ELEVATOR PITCH
Rock-a-Mole (or Rock-a-Mole Showtime!) is a social deduction party game for 3 – 6 players, about a mascot rock band. Players take on the role of band members during a big concert, but one of the regulars had to take a nap and their friend stepped into the costume – can their bandmates tell the difference?
THE LOOK
Rock-A-Mole’s aesthetic is all about the cute, soft-looking and very expressive characters in the band. Each band member is a mascot of a different animal, and the band leader is a star-nosed mole. We want to include rarer, lesser-known or underappreciated creatures to help the game stand out and raise these creatures’ image.
The components include:
- 6 sets of Action cards, one for each animal (6 cards per set)
- 8 sets of Show matrices (6 matrices per set)
Each set of Action cards is illustrated with the correct animal’s face on the back of each card, while the front of each card is a particular Action the player can take during a song, e.g.:
- Dance!
- Solo!
- Sing!
- Stunt!
- Groovin’!
- Rap!
These actions are illustrated for each character with lots of action and colour (e.g. a rhino busting a sax solo, a pangolin rocking the guitar, or a cuttlefish doing a slow-mo backflip). Every action also has its own simple icon shown on the front of the card (e.g. a star for Solo, a stick figure doing a kickflip for Stunt) and these are consistent across all sets.
Each Show matrix belongs to its own set (matching backs) which corresponds to a particular musical set, in which every band member has a pre-written routine dictating what they will be doing during each number. The columns of a matrix are songs, the rows are characters, and the matrix is filled with icons dictating what Action that character should take during each song. However, each matrix has six of its icons missing, and the selection/pattern of missing icons is different for each card in the matrix set. Additionally, one of the cards is the “Mole’s” card – rather than having 6 icons missing, it instead has only six icons visible. This is the card that will be used by the “undercover player”.
THE AIM
Each player is either a regular band member (the majority) or the undercover player. Over the course of a six-song set, players will be choosing Action cards to play for each song, then choosing to look at the cards played by others in order to narrow down the identity of the undercover player. Meanwhile, the undercover player will try their best to play Action cards well and misdirect their fellow players so that they aren’t found out.
Regular band members win if the correct undercover player is chosen at the end of the game.
The undercover player wins if no player is chosen or the wrong player is chosen. To set up the game, each player chooses a character and takes all the Action cards for that animal. A matching set of Show matrices is shuffled and dealt one to each player. These are private and can’t be shown to other players.
TURNS
In this game, every round is a Song. After three songs, there is an interval where players can discuss their choices and their suspicions. Players may not discuss their reasons for choices or their suspicions during any Song or between Songs – they may only discuss during the interval.
Each Song has two phases:
- Action selection
- Voting and revealing
First, action selection: each player looks at their matrix, chooses an Action card (either the correct action for the Song if they know it, or their best guess if not) and plays that card face down to the centre of the table.
Second, voting and revealing: players take a point-vote (all players pointing at once) to decide whose Action card(s) to reveal. The number of cards revealed is always half the number of players, rounded down. If more than one card is being revealed, votes are taken one after the other.
After three songs, the interval takes place where all players can discuss – asking questions (e.g. “why were you dancing in song 2?”), giving explanations (“I’ve got a blank space for that song, so I guessed”), or voicing suspicions. During this time the undercover player can work to misdirect the other players. For extra fun, we encourage players to discuss in-character, as the band members backstage. The “second half” then takes place, with the final three songs. After cards are revealed for the final song, players must vote on who they believe is the undercover player. If a majority vote chooses the correct player, then the regular players win; otherwise, the undercover player wins.
SUMMARY
We want the spirit of this game to stay cute and friendly – rather than an inquest or interrogation, it is friends & bandmates showing concern for each other. Over about 10 minutes, the regular band members use their senses and their insight to check on their bandmates. The interval provides an opportunity for light conversation without turning too direct or confrontational. Finally, a vote is taken to see if the stand-in has been noticed. If not, they showed their performance chops and maybe they could join the line-up in future!
WHAT’S UNIQUE ABOUT THIS GAME?
This is a quick-to-play, light-hearted social deduction game which lives on its theme.
- Light scenario and friendly spirit
- Cute characters and illustrations with lots of movement & charm
- Easily played in 10 minutes
Big Crow Games 