Leper Colony! A fun party game for children!

"Ok, kids. One of you is a leper. Everyone look under your chairs and see if you have the red spots!"


The children all look under their chairs.

"It's me! Me me me me me!"

"Hold still and let me put the leper spots on you. Ok. Now your job is to count to ten. After that, whoever you touch will also become a leper and will get the spots."

"1... 2... 3... 7... 9... 10! TAG!"

"AAAAHHHH! NO FAIR!"

"Leprosy isn't fair. Come here and get your spots. Now we have two lepers. Count to ten and we'll see who gets tagged next."


All of the children run around and scream.

And run.

And scream some more.

One after another, the children get tagged and then get their spots. Soon all of the children are covered in spots.

"Ok. Now you are a leper colony. You are shunned by the outside world. But there is hope and redemption in the form of the special holy cupcakes. After you eat these cupcakes, you will be able to take the spots off of you."


"AAAAAHHHHH!!!! CUPCAKES!!!!!"



***

What you have just read is an example of the fun and edu-tain-tional game where children learn about the horrors of leprosy, as well as a valuable spiritual lesson in the form of cupcakes.

Leper Colony! is a simple and fun game designed for a large group of children with natural tendencies to run around and scream a lot for no good reason. With Leper Colony! you give them a reason to run around and scream - they have a horrible disease.

All you need to play Leper Colony! is a collection of red dots (which can come from construction paper) and a mild adhesive so you can stick these dots all over the visiting children (crazy glue is not appropriate - glue sticks are borderline acceptable).

The rest is up to you and the power of your imagination. If you want to encourage the children with great stories of leprosy or dramatic, yet clinical descriptions of what the disease is and what it does to people, then by all means do so. The beauty of this game comes from its flexibility.

Have fun!

Another Creative Challenge Lands at My Feet

So my friend Sherri blogged about her recent trip to a church's alternative to Halloween party. A party that featured such exciting, non-ghost-and-goblin-themed games like "Cover the Bleeding Man in a Loincloth with Band-Aids."



I grew up going to events like this, so I feel that I am coming from a safe place when I openly mock them. And, if you read the comments on her blog post, there will be a little note from me which reads, "All I'm sayin' is that there should have been at least one game about leprosy."

Because Sherri is not one who lets a snark go without a reciprocal snark, she responded with a nice little, "if you develop a leprosy game concept that I can actually execute given the restraints of my limited time and budget, I will have it at Colin's birthday party in January. And I'll post pictures."

When people ask me, "Where do you get your ideas?" I should just point them to this blog post. Because now I have an idea that I want to see happen.

Sometime before January I want to develop, Leprosy! A Game for the Whole Family and post it here on the blog. I only hope the job, the holidays, the screenwriting, the book publishing, the schoolwork, and all of the other nonsense doesn't get in my way, because this has to happen. Leper love is upon us now.

And who knows? When all is said and done, this game may involve pasting band aids on a man in a loincloth.