Metakettle

Metakettle overview:: "A game about being kettled for when you're being kettled."; 20+ players; As long as it takes; 6+ yrs; Free!

Metakettle is a game about being kettled, recursively re-enacting the moment of kettling in the middle of a kettle. It difuses conflict into a game - and then distils the game back into a conflict as you realise the cops will always win. "One of the most interesting political games ever made" - Miguel Sicart, Play Matters p.74

This is a Printable Game

All you need to do is download the game files, print them off and you're good to go. Any boards, playing tokens, cards etc. are included in the files, but you may need to source some other bits yourself - typically dice, paper & some coins as counters.

Game Files:

You will need: A printer. That's it!

Download: Mettakettle - fancy version (PDF 1.2Mb | Hi-res JPEG 920Kb) or Mettakettle - ink-saving version (PDF 1Mb | Hi-res JPEG 780Kb)

"METAKETTLE IS A GROUP GAME for 20+ people, played to pass the time while being kettled. The aim of Metakettle is to be the dominant kettling animal by kettling everyone else."

Game variants: Try starting a game of Metakettle within a game of Metakettle. See how deep you can go. Or, for biology students, try a taxonomic variant of the game, where your group animal is only allowed to kettle other group animals in the same genus as your own. This should be especially fruitful for beetle enthusiasts.

Please let us know of any game reports - especially those within a kettling situation. We'll update this page/site with those reports and I think this could even be the beginning of a new game genre: Games in Detention.

About Metakettle

After taking part in a game design jam here in Cambridge and attempting (and failing) to make his first computer game, Andrew reverted to paper and pens and came up with "Metakettle" to respond to the theme of 'cops'

Metakettle is, quite simply, a game about being kettled, to play when you're being kettled, to pass the time until you're not being kettled any more. It's a group game, so all you need is other people; no dice or anything. You pick an animal, shout that animal name constantly and try and recruit other "players". When you have enough people, you capture more players by completely encircling - or kettling - them. They then join your animal team and it's onwards and upwards until you've kettled the entire group. At that point you realise the cops have won and you start again.

It's an attempt to diffuse a potentially confrontational situation but it might also keep your mind off the fact you're being illegally detained in the street without access to basic amenities like toilets, shelter or water.

We produced two versions of the game to print out. One to frame and put on the mantelpiece (left, below) and one that won't use your entire black ink cartridge/toner in one go (right, below). We hope you'll do the responsible thing and circulate the ink-saving version at your next demo/protest/picnic/kettling workshop.