The party game THEY don’t want you to play.
A card-based party game where you find out which of your friends “does their own research”.
Game Overview
Dive into a world of facts, connections, and social dynamics as you determine whether seemingly related information is merely coincidental, part of a grand conspiracy, or simply capitalism at work. This engaging party game will challenge your critical thinking while revealing your friends’ tendencies to see patterns where they may (or may not) exist!
Play it Your Way
With multiple variations and optional blank headlines, “Wake Up, Sheeple!” is a highly flexible game for a large variety of groups. Along with heavy encouragement for house rules and custom headlines, we hope there is a game mode that works for all the free thinkers out there.
Players are encouraged to play as seriously or as ironically as they wish. The game works best when players remember that there are no right or wrong answers, while having fun with the social dynamics that emerge.
The “truth” is whatever the sheep think it is.
Headlines Deck:
Cards containing 1 factual statement “headline” per card
Truth Cards:
Sets of Coincidence (blue),
Conspiracy (red), and
Capitalism (green) cards
Instruction Manual:
Detailed game rules and variations
How to Play:
Set-up
- Each player gets 1 Coincidence Card (blue), 1 Conspiracy card (red) and, 1 Capitalism card (green)
- The Headlines deck is placed where all the players can see and access it
- The person with the soonest upcoming birthday is the first Free Thinker (a.k.a. the leader of the game round)
- Each round is played according to the gameplay section.
- At the end of each round the free thinker role rotates clockwise (or in any agreed upon sequence) through the player group.
Gameplay
- The Free Thinker pulls two cards from the Headlines deck and reveals them to the other players. Each Headline card will have a separate factual statement or news headline.
- The Players read the two Headlines and decide what their Truth is going to be based on their perceived connection between the Headlines:
- Coincidence: No meaningful connection exists
- Conspiracy: There’s a “higher power” pulling the strings (connection that is in some way mysterious, ultra-powerful or supernatural**)**
- Capitalism: Just people trying to make money (connection that is normal business)
- The players will vote for their Truth by each placing either a coincidence, conspiracy, or capitalism Truth card face down (hidden) in the game area.
- When all players have cast their truth, the Free Thinker calls for players to reveal their cards.
- Players who have the same opinion as the Free Thinker are “sheeple”. Players who disagree with the Free Thinker are “radicals”.
It is then time to move on to scoring
Wake Up, Sheeple!
- If everyone in the round chooses the same truth, then “Wake up, Sheeple” is automatically invoked, and every player gets a point.
- Before points (drinks) are assigned, any radical has the right to challenge the Free Thinker by calling: “Wake up, Sheeple!”.
- If “Wake Up, Sheeple” is invoked this way, The Free Thinker and the Challenging Radical will get 90 seconds (45s each) to debate their respective Truths.
- The Free Thinker and the Challenging Radical can leave their cards in the play area to mark the two truths that are being debated. All other players should retrieve their truth cards.
- After the debate, draw a third headline card to be added for consideration. Players will now consider which of the two Truths under consideration best fits all three Headlines.
- All players will then vote again, the same as before, except choosing only between the two Truths of the Free Thinker and the Challenging Radical.
- If the majority of players vote for the Free Thinker’s Truth during the second round, then the Challenging Radical takes the total points of themselves and everyone who voted with them.
- If the majority goes with the Challenging Radical, the Free Thinker takes the total points of themselves and all the new sheep.
- If there is a tie, the Free Thinker and the Challenging Radical simply split the points and continue with the game.
- The other sheep/radicals do not take any points
- If no Radical calls “Wake Up, Sheeple” then each radical simply gets one point, while the Sheeple and the Free Thinker do not. (Default)
The game continues to the next Free Thinker and the next round of gameplay.
Drinking Game Version
Instead of collecting points, players take a drink. Play continues until players decide to end the game, with no formal elimination.
Quick Play
Set a fixed number of rounds (2-5) or time limit and count total points at the end. The player with the fewest points wins!
Team Play
For larger groups, form teams that must come to a consensus on their card choice.
Elimination mode
Set a number of points as a threshold (ex. 10) when a player reaches that number of points they are eliminated. Last sheep left wins.
Wake Up, Sheeple
- “Wake Up, Sheeple” May update
Hello Everyone, I didn’t want to go a whole month without doing an update, but unfortunately, I don’t have much to show you yet. There are a ton of things happening behind the scenes. and we’re super excited to share our plans, but we’re still pretty sparse with the visuals. You may have noticed the new quick explainer image. That’s just a rough draft, and a small sample of what we have coming before we start marketing. There will be more images and videos coming soon to make the page look really nice and also provide more information about our… - “Wake Up, Sheeple!” Updates- April
Hello to the very earliest collaborators, play testers, backers and fans. If you’re reading this, thank you for being a part of launching “Wake Up, Sheeple”. I’m pretty excited about the concept behind the game, and the initial receptions have been very positive. I’m excited to work with all of you to bring the experience to as wide of an audience as possible. Here’s where the project is at so far: Visuals You’ve probably noticed we’re sparse on images, and that is because we are still working on finalizing the designs. We are working on something pretty special in that… - Coming Soon!
This is perfectTiming Games. We’re currently working on our first game “Wake, Up Sheeple”. This is just a placeholder post, but hopefully as we get further in development, there will be more updates. Follow through to the “Wake Up, Sheeple” sub-section for more.