Disappear Here

Disappear is an outside game that should be played in a large, dark area at night. I think it would be best to play with a medium-sized group of people, like 4-10. The object of the game is to try and disappear from the group without any of the other players noticing. These rules are the result of some real-world testing. At first there were not many rules, and people were running off all over the place. I haven't tried to play with these rules, but I think they will help make the game more structured.

At the beginning of the game, all players draw numbers out of a hat. This is their disappearing order number, which is not disclosed to anyone. The group then sets out walking around the playing area. The person who drew the first number will be trying to disappear without anyone in the group noticing. They will suddenly notice that person is missing. If anyone notices someone trying to disappear, the noticer calls their name and they have failed at disappearing. It is now the turn of the person who drew the second number to try and disappear. Each time someone is caught disappearing, the group confirms out loud what number's turn it is to try and disappear. Play continues on in this manner as people are caught disappearing and the next person gets a try as their number is called.

Alternately, if someone actually does disappear, the same thing will happen. The group will notice that the person is gone and call the next number. Or, if the person who is on deck to disappear notices that someone has disappeared, they may disappear without telling the group that someone is missing. Then the group may notice that two or more people are gone and have to count ahead to see what number goes next.

After the person with the last number is either caught disappearing or successfully disappears, play could continue by having the remaining group draw numbers again and restart the whole process.

Disappearing is really hard, so in order to make the game more playable, the group will discuss preselected questions. The questions should be written down so that the topics can keep coming. Hopefully, this will distract the group enough for someone to slip away.

Some examples of discussion topics include:

What is your favorite movie and why?
Who are your parents?
What are your top three favorite foods?
Etc.

If the group knows that it will be very talkative, questions may not be needed.

Play continues until one person is left alone, wondering where everyone went, or until the group agrees to stop. When the game is over, ring a bell or use some other preselected signal to tell all the hiding people that the game is over.

If anyone tries this game, please leave a comment telling me how it went; no matter how old this post is, I want to know. I will put up another post if I try out this rule set and let you know how it goes, but it might be hard to get my friends to try this game again.

This game is hard to get to work right, but I think it has potential. In fact, its true potential may lie in its core concept of leaving a group without the group noticing. I encourage you to disappear from your group of friends without them knowing when you are not playing disappear, when you are doing something else. See how long it takes them to notice or come looking for you. Let me know how that goes too. Even if the game disappear never works, you can always disappear from a group like this and see what happens. In fact, if I can't get a rule set for the game disappear to work, the rule set may become simply tips on how to disappear from your friends.