This 2-person 15-minute RPG that was born from my deep frustration over the situation in Europe right now (May 2017). It’s a strategic, fast-paced, cynical role-playing game where you play either a refugee or an immigration officer.
You need: around 15–20 D6 (six-sided dice). After you’ve read the instructions, tear the following paper in two pieces: one has the refugee’s conditions; one has the officer’s conditions.
The setting is an interview room at the department of immigration in the western country and the game is structured in a series of bouts.
Before every bout, each player secretly chooses one or more conditions and gets the corresponding number of D6. Note that once a condition has been used, it can not be used again. It is therefore important to be strategic about which condition to use when.
The bout starts with the refugee stating one or several reasons why they should be allowed to stay, and the officer countering with one or several reasons why they shouldn’t. The bare bones of the reasons are given in the character conditions sheet, but players should embroider them at will and make a scene out of it.
Once the arguments have been made, players reveal how many dice they bet and then they roll them. Highest number wins the bout, the loser loses a hit point.
Each player has 3 Hit points. Losing all your hit points means the other person wins.
The players should finish and roleplay the scene to the just-determined conclusion (e.g. the winner says “…so you have to accept this” and the loser says “…alright.”)
Note that if a player has no dice left, they have only a single argument left: “Please have mercy!” It is worth 0 dice. They lose the bout. Feel free to play this out.
Have “fun”! Consider switching roles and playing again.
After the game, please have a discussion about the refugee situation in your country.
Then don’t go out and have a beer, and instead donate the money you would have spent on that beer to an organization working with refugees.
As a refugee, you are fleeing from death and mayhem (from a fictional country) and have entered a western country “illegally” in a last-ditch effort to save your life. Your winning condition is to get asylum.
The refugee player rolls 2D6 six times to get six “advantageous” conditions from the list below. Roll again if you get the same outcome. Interpret the descriptions as you see best. Make a mark for the conditions that apply to you. Cross the condition out once it has been used up.
As an officer, you are trying to do your job as best you can. Your winning condition is to deny asylum.
The officer player rolls 2D6 six times to get six conditions to deny the asylum. Roll again if you get the same outcome. Interpret the descriptions as you see best. Make a mark for the conditions that apply to you. Cross the condition out once it has been used up (i.e. used in a scene).