xeno-fi game days explanation page

welcome one and all to xeno-fi game days! three days this session, campers and leaders alike will join together to play some games, create some chaos, and forge lasting bonds <3 here you can find all the information you need to prepare! I suggest reading through this in full around the start of this session, just to get the gist ;D

when will game days take place?
game days will be held all day on the 5th and 19th of july– along with a slightly chiller event on the 30th to commemorate the end of the session!

where will game days be held?
you can find all of the delights of game day in the comments of the xeno-fi cabin studio ;D

how can I participate in game days?
when it hits midnight utc on any of these dates, pop on over to the xeno-fi cabin and play some games in the comments! there's no specific comment thread for any games– you can start up a game however you'd like <3

is there any incentive for participating in game days?
yes, actually– you'll earn one wildflower per event you participate in!

are there any specific games I should play?
here's a list of our official game day games, and their explanations:
two truths and a lie
with a sudden flapping of dark wings, three crows land on a charred treestump before you. they began to speak - but while two of them always tells the truth, one always lies. if you want to make your way any further, you'd better work out which one..
we're doing 2 truths and a lie! state 3 fun facts about yourself, but one of them is false - try and make it tricky for others to guess correctly. then, go round and try to sniff out other people's lies!

twenty questions
you hear a sound, coming from.. beneath you? you look around, trying to find the source of the noise. between layers of fallen leaves and twisting roots, a small critter lurks in a burrow at your feet.
“hello? what are you, down there?” you ask.
“guess!”
pick something, and let others know what category of thing it is - eg, an animal. they then have to guess in 20 or less “yes or no” questions what it is. partake in guessing what other people are thinking of, too!

guess the terrible plot
the weather worn signposts led you down this path, towards the “great mountain”, and here it stops. From between the trees, as you step forward off the path and into the wild, it emerges, the… oh. Is this it?
stretching out in front of you emerges what seems to be a tiny grass covered mound. it could barely be called a hill.
time for plots explained terribly! Take the plot of a film, show, or book and summarize it.. badly. others have to guess what you're describing, and you have to guess what they are!

fortunately, unfortunately
as you're walking through the forest, two little rabbits hop out of the brush on the side of the path. they're chattering excitedly to each other, and as you bend down to listen to them, you hear the way their sentences seem to overlap…
we're playing fortunately, unfortunately! one person starts a comment chain with a statement starting with “fortunately,…” then the next person replies with “unfortunately,…” and so on and so forth.

word association
you approach a tall, gnarled tree, dark branches twisting into the night sky. the knots on the tree trunk look suspiciously like a face – all of a sudden, the tree shudders, and springs to life. it opens its mouth and says creakily, “trees. what comes to mind next, child?”
word association! one person comments a word and the next comments with what they first associate with that word, and so on.

writing dares
high above you, you hear a high screech. you look up, and see a massive hawk diving towards you. you throw your hands up, but it simply lands neatly on a tree branch next to you. “I have a challenge for you,” it says, pointing a yellowed talon at you.
we're doing writing dares! ask for a writing dare and see what your fellow campers come up with for you to write!

contact
a tiny snake slithers her way out of a moss-covered log, and you notice that the yellow and black patterns on her scaled back resemble a word… you just have enough time to make out the first letter before the little thing disappears into the woods, never to be seen again. you can't help but wonder what the word was… perhaps your fellow animals can help?
welcome to contact! one person will think of a word and reveal its first letter, and the other players will attempt to agree on a word starting with that letter for a guess. however, they aren't allowed to go right out and say it– they have to give short two-word clues, like ‘yellow fruit’ for mango or ‘story pages’ for book. the other player(s) will say a clue back, implying what they believe the before player(s) are saying! once everyone has given their clues, or once everyone agrees, they must all say what they believe the word is! if they're all on the same page, a second letter is revealed… if they're not, nothing happens. the players attempt to reveal the word in around one more round than the number of letters!

ghost
along the path, you find a group of woodpeckers huddled together on a tree, taking turns leaning in to peck at the trunk. you peer up to see what they're all so interested in, and find a string of letters spelling the beginning of a word. each time one bird finishes a word, another bird pecks in the next one. by now, the word is quite long…
“want to add a letter?” they ask, tilting their heads.
it's time for ghost! this one's quite simple; one person has a word in mind and puts in the first letter. another person thinks of a word beginning with that and adds the second letter. the third person comes up with their own word, starting with those two letters, and adds on! the game goes on like this until you can't add on any more without turning it into gibberish… but finishing the word makes for a loss! attempt to keep going as long as you can before there's nothing left to say.

hangman
a yellow-ish green frog hops along battered lilypads in the pond next to you, moving them slightly until they're all lined up in the center of the water. they look a bit empty compared to the rest of the pond. the frog looks up at you.
“pick a letter,” he croaks at you. “my name's as long as this string of lilypads… but they need letters to go in them. what do you think is in it?”

get yet another word in mind, and put some blanks in a comment to match it. people will guess letters, and if that letter is in your word, you'll reply to them with the same comment, but with that letter filled in. if the letter isn't in your word, add a tally to the end of your blanks! if they guess the word, they win. if they make it to six tallies, they lose! yep, it's hangman– and make sure to guess some letters for other people's words as well!

please read the explanations for all of these games if you'd like to participate, even if you've played before, as it may be slightly different when playing in the comments <3
although we'd prefer it if you played these ones, feel free to play some of your own if you don't like any of these! and, of course, we may have one or two extra surprises that may appear on one of these days, so keep your eyes peeled ;D

closing notes
that's about it! make sure to keep those dates in mind this session so you can join in on the fun :-D