Credentials

Every table is a delegation at a congress. Together you agree a brief: three points to press for. But one of you was sent by an outside power, with a forged dispatch to slip into that brief.

1Your seal, and introductions

Choose the letter of the table you are sitting at. Nobody moves: if a table is too small, it joins the next letter as one delegation. Each phone is given a seal, a drawn symbol with a name. The game only ever calls you by your seal, and nothing is typed.

Before the congress opens, tell your table your first name, your seal, and your answer to the question on your phone, then tap Done. When the whole table is done, the projector receives your delegation’s credentials.

2Your Private card

When the congress opens, press and hold your Private card to read who you are. Let go and it hides again. Every phone looks the same, so nobody can tell roles apart from a glance.

Delegate

Your credentials are genuine. Keep the forgery out of your brief.

Saboteur

Sent by an outside power. You hold a genuine instruction like everyone else, and a forged dispatch. At a large delegation there may be two Saboteurs, sent by rival powers, who don’t know about each other.

Observer

Present at the congress but without standing to speak. Students can ask privately to take this seat before the game. The Observer never speaks, knows who the Saboteur is, votes, and can send one Note.

3Building the brief

Each delegate holds one instruction from their government, in Papers. Read yours out, then put it forward: it appears on every phone at the table, with your seal on it.

More instructions arrive during the round as late dispatches, at random times, to random delegates. A forgery slipped by the Saboteur arrives in exactly the same way. A new dispatch is never proof of anything.

Choose three points and propose the brief. When more than half of your delegation agrees (the Observer votes too), it is sent and can’t change. A new proposal replaces the old one.

4Spotting a forgery

A forgery sounds sensible, but it cuts against what your government wants. The genuine instructions pull the same way; the forgery is a quiet step towards an outside power’s camp. Ask: would our government really want this?

Seal check. Your delegation can check one point that has been put forward. It is stamped Genuine or Forged, for the whole table to see. It never says who planted it. A point stamped Forged can’t go in a brief.

5Calling a Summit

Any delegate can press Call a Summit and accuse one seal. Each person may call one Summit a round, and the delegation has a limited number. While a Summit is on, nothing else happens at the table.

Everyone except the accused votes, in secret, within 30 seconds. Not voting counts as Disagree. More than half must agree.

• The accused is a Saboteur: caught. They can still talk, but can’t vote, propose or call a Summit, and their forgery is stamped Forged wherever it is.
• The accused is a delegate: their credentials are confirmed. They stay in, and nobody can accuse them again this round.
• Not enough votes: nothing is revealed.

Nobody is ever out of the game.

6The Saboteur and the Observer

The Saboteur opens Private actions to plant the forgery: slip it into a delegate’s papers, where it arrives like a late dispatch, or put it forward yourself, presented as a dispatch that has just arrived. Then argue for it, or let someone else argue for it without knowing.

The Observer opens Private actions to send one Note to a delegate. It names two seals: one of them is working for an outside power and one isn’t. The game chooses the pair.

7Winning, the Final Act and the unmasking

• Your delegation wins if it sends a brief with no forged point in it.
• A Saboteur wins if their forgery is in the brief their delegation sends, or if no brief is sent before the tutor closes the congress.

When the tutor closes the congress, the projector shows the Final Act: every delegation’s brief, with forged points stamped and the power that planted them. Then the Saboteurs are unmasked, and the tutor leads the debrief. Being the Saboteur is the best seat in the game: be ready to tell the room how you played it.

8Words used in the game

Seal

Your symbol and its name. The game only ever calls you by your seal.

Delegation

Your table, under the banner of a country at the congress.

Papers

The instructions only you can see, before you put them forward.

Dispatch

One instruction from your government.

Late dispatch

An instruction that arrives during the round. Genuine ones and slipped forgeries look the same.

Put forward

Share an instruction with your delegation, so it can go in the brief.

Brief

Three points your delegation will press for. Sent when more than half agree.

Seal check

A test of one point: genuine or forged, never who.

Summit

An emergency vote on one accused seal.

Note

The Observer’s one message: “one of these two is working for an outside power”.

Final Act

All the delegations’ briefs together, shown on the projector at the end.

Ideas from the reading are in the glossary.