Board game: Snakes-Villains

Don't have a hundred rubles, but have a hundred friends. Friendship is tested by time. A tree is held by its roots, and a person – by friends... Such is the old folk wisdom; this is what our ancestors bequeathed to us.  

So... forget this like a bad dream. These rules no longer apply. You are no longer humans or friends – you are snakes, and your goal is to earn as many points as possible and achieve victory. Here, you must be cunning, sly, and think. No more moral boundaries, only harsh, limitless precision in words and facial expressions – this is your new disguise, dear s-s-snakes. The strongest wins, remember?

About the game
"Snakes-Villains" is a board game-quiz with hidden roles, which is perfect for a friendly gathering or even a small party. Following the will of the Tokens of Fate, you will split into two groups: one team of humans and one team of snakes. But there's a catch: humans will not know who among their loyal comrades is actually a snake, and the snakes will do everything they can to prevent the humans from winning. Each turn, you will draw cards with questions, but be prepared for these questions to be truly s-s-slick – you will have to think hard! But only the humans, not the snakes... They will know the correct answer. Will you score the most points in this challenging quiz?

How to play?
Shuffle and distribute role tokens to the players. There are, by the way, only three: human, snake, and mongoose of truth. If you drew the mongoose, flip the token and show it to your friends; if you became a human or a snake, keep it secret until the end of the round. Then choose the most reasonable player among you: they will become the head of the serpentarium – a sort of host for this round. They take a question card from the deck and read out the answer options. After this, all players, including the host, close their eyes. The host blindly flips the card, on the back of which is written the answer, and tells the snakes to open their eyes. At this moment, they silently get to know each other and memorize the correct answer. Then the snakes close their eyes again, and after that, all players wake up.

The discussion phase begins. Set a timer for 2 minutes. The goal of the humans is to reach some decision and guess the correct answer through dialogue. The goal of the snakes is to throw dust in their eyes, lead them astray, and make them err. When the time runs out, the players fall silent, and each, regardless of their neighbor, chooses the answer token that they believe signifies the correct option. So that no one can peek, the token is placed face down on the table. Once everyone has made their choice, the tokens are flipped and the points are counted. The snakes receive one point for each player who answers incorrectly, while the humans and the mongoose (the only one in the game) add a point for each player who chose the correct answer, but only if they themselves did not make a mistake. The head of the serpentarium performs the counting and records the results in a table. This continues for 6 rounds.

Who won? 
Though the game seems team-based and to some extent is, in reality, everyone plays for themselves, as the roles of players change each round. However, the main goal remains unchanged – to score more points than all the others. In case several players have the same number of points, the outcome of the confrontation is determined by the old good game of "Rock, Paper, Snakes." Just like that – no matter how cunning you are, in the most challenging moments of life, Fate-the-Villain decides everything...

Game duration: from 20 minutes

Number of players: from 4 to 8