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OK, I don't know whether or not this is going to be my entry, but I just can't get the damn thing out of my head, so I'm going to talk about it here. Either it will become an entry, or I'll be able to get it out of the way.

The Tea-Party

(working title, was going to be Through the Looking Glass, but it's the wrong book.)

Time: 1 session, 2 hours
Ingredients: Glass, Emotion, Committee

‘Well, I’d hardly finished the first verse,’ said the Hatter, ‘when the Queen jumped up and bawled out, “He's murdering the time! Off with his head!”’

‘How dreadfully savage!’ exclaimed Alice.

‘And ever since that,’ the Hatter went on in a mournful tone, ‘he won't do a thing I ask! It's always six o’clock now.’

-Alice in Wonderland


Introduction

It's six o'clock. It's always six o'clock.

The mad Hatter is having a tea-party - again. Only, this time, he has a plan...

Premise

The characters are at a party, and engage each other in riddles, games and puns. Whoever has the worst score at the end of the session has "murdered time" and is trapped in the eternal tea-time.

Currency

Each player has a umber of tokens (poker chips, coins, beads, whatever). Having lots of tokens is bad; if you win a challenge against a character, you can give them one of their tokens.

Characters

Each character has their own associated emotion. If another character - or player - dispays that emotion, you can give them a token.

The Mad Hatter's emotion is Puzzlement.
The Red Queen's emotion is Anger.
The White Rabbit's emotion is Fear.
The Cheshire Cat's Emotion is Amusement.
The Dormouse's emotion is ?
Alice's emotion is ?

Each character also has a special ability (to be decided)

Play

The Hatter always stats - it's his party after all.

If it's your go, you can challenge another player to a riddle, or make a performance.

The winner of a riddling contest gets to give the loser a token, it's now the loser's turn.

An hourglass is used to time the riddles: you must answer the riddle by the time the sand runs out, but you can make as many guesses as you want.

If you answer the riddle correctly, you can either pass a token to your challenger (winning the contest) or double the stakes, by asking a riddle in return.

A performance must be a poem or pun: a poem either be pertinent to the situation, or a 'nonsense poem'; all poems must be original.

If you make a performance, you can choose another player, who must either take one of your tokens, or make a performance of their own, or criticise your performance.

If you crticise a performance, call for a vote amongst the other players, who must say whether they enjoyed the performance or not. If the majority enjoyed the performance, the critic must take two tokens from the performer. If the other player side with the critic, he can pass the performer two tokens.

At the end of the two hours (the Rabbit is the timekeeper!) whoever has the most tokens has "murdered time" and is stuck forever!

Enforcing the rules

All rules challenges are decided by vote: the challenger and challengee cannot vote themselves. If the vote goes in favour of the challenger, their call is enforeced and they get to give the chalengeee a token; the opposite applies if the ruling goes in favour of the challengee.

Review of ingredients

Glass - The hourglass used in the riddling contests
Emotion - Each character rules over an emotion, and gains a mechanical benefit when that emotion comes into play
Committee - The voting system; the party itself

That's pretty much the game(!), except I need to fill in some details, tweak the emotions, and decide on the abilites for each character.

So, does this sound like a fun game, or is it a bit too screwy? please comment!

Awesome. You must write this.

It sounds like it captures the feel of the tea party very well.

Boredom and Curiosity.

Alice in Wonderland is one of the most wicked and psychedelic books/films ever. This teaparty of yours is not an exception. And I like it.

Perhaps Alice could be 'advernturous' or 'curious' .. more of a mood maybe. I really like the theme and atmosphere of the game you're working on, but it doesnt sound like something I would be able to play being bad at poems or puns. It would make it a very silly game, which fits with the theme but perhaps there could be something else you do and inbetween there are poems and puns. I'm a huge fan of mixing in riddles and puzzles .. but making them up on the spot i'm not so good at. Maybe your game could include them? The idea that you play characters from the book is also excellent for the time restraint, very clever and who wouldnt want to play a character from Wonderland?

OK, thanks to everyone for their encouragement - you've convinced me to run with this.

Here's a couple more ideas, directed at making the game more playable:

1) This is a game that should be playable by children as well as adults, and I need to be consicous of that when writing the rules text.

2) To make it easier to perform, a performance can be a story, a poem, a song, a joke, anything entertaining. Remember that whether or not it's entertaining is judged by the other players.

Oh, and of course, it has to be a real tea-party. With tea (or squash) and sandwiches and little cakes.

Does this sound more playable?

And what rpoppe said about different emotional states and social dynamics? Yeah, totally. I'm hoping to tap into that, but it could mean throwing any game balance out of the window. I'm actually cool with that: this isn't a game you win, it's a game you play. I may reinforce that by giving the 'losing' player a chance to act out a final 'oh no!' scene - in other words, give them the spotlight.