Foreign Affairs Game Show
Foreign Affairs Game Show is a collaboration between artists Morgan Page and Tom Russotti. The two met in graduate school at Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts and remained friends and collaborators in the years since completing their MFA. Foreign Affairs Game Show is a game where players score points by learning as much as they can about a stranger in a foreign country; along the way, players learn more about the history and culture of the country they are calling. While Morgan Page designed the playing cards and the space/set that is activated while playing the game, Tom Russotti developed the rules and strategy for playing the game. Russotti was motivated to develop Foreign Affairs Game Show as a means of encouraging more Americans to become more aware of culture, diplomacy, and global affairs outside of the United States.
RULES OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS CARD GAME
Objective: Score points by having conversations with strangers in foreign countries.
THE FOREIGN AFFAIRS GAME SHOW DECK OF CARDS
Country Card: The country card determines which country a player calls. It gives several basic facts about the country and has an outline of the country for the players reference
Topic Card: The topic card determines which topics to discuss in the phone call. Each card has a topic- sports, art, government etc.. with three increasingly harder conversation questions about that topic.
Bonus Card: Bonus cards add chances to score bonus points during phone calls with extra challenges or play opportunities
Rules of Play
Communication rules
Players may never lie during a phone call, nor can they declare that they are playing any sort of a game. If asked if this is some sort of game, a player may respond “Yes” but may not elaborate. If a player breaks any of these rules the phone call is disqualified.
I. Card Drawing
The first player draws one country card, one bonus card, and two topic cards. The country card determines which country the player will call. The first topic card determines the topics he or she will discuss with the person who picks up the phone- the “Callee”. The second topic card determines the questions the player will ask to the callee. The bonus card gives the player extra opportunities to score points.
II. Phone Call
1. The first player must call a number from the FA phone book in the selected country.
2. The player may choose to engage with anyone who he or she gets on the phone.
3. The player starts by answering the first question of the First Topic Card to the callee.
i.e. if the question is “What is your favorite type of music”, the player states, My favorite music is Jazz.
4. If the callee remains on the line, the player earns points, and then must then ask the callee the first question of the Second Topic Card, for example “What is your favorite food?”
5. If the callee answers the question, points are scored for the player. The player then continues
by answering the second question from the First Topic Card. If the callee does not answer the question but stays on the line, the player may continue by answering the second question from the First Topic Card.
6. Play is continued by alternating answering from the First Topic card and questioning from the Second Topic Card.
7. If at any point the callee hangs up the round is over.
Bonus Cards
Bonus cards help players earn more points. There are three types of bonus cards
Extra Info Cards: offer more points to win by getting more info out of the callee
Extra Person Cards: allows player to try to ask questions to a different person during the same call, i.e. a manager or co-worker of the callee
Hang Up Card- allows for another call if player gets hung up on at or before the first answering of the First Topic Card