three variations on WINK MURDER

MEAN STREETS

a group of folks sit in a circle. one person is chosen to be the detective. the detective's identity is public information. everyone engages in small talk, general looking-around and etc. when you meet someone's gaze, you may wink at them to kill them. they immediately, obviously fall over and die, and may no longer participate in the game. you are now a murderer. anyone may become a murderer at any time, and murderers may be murdered by other murderers. the detective can't be murdered in this manner (because of their rigorous training). the detective gets one chance to identify a murderer, but it's up to them when to take it. if they can successfully identify one person as a murderer, the detective wins. otherwise the detective is drummed out of the precinct and all murderers reveal themselves and ritually murder the detective.


MURDERERS' CONVENTION

all of the players are attendees at a convention of murderers, except for one, who is an undercover agent trying to pin someone, anyone at the convention with murder (which means the organizers will be culpable and everyone's favorite con will shut down). only the agent knows who they are - you could hand out cards to everyone, all of which are blank except one. all of the con attendees want to root out the agent - they also want to be the hero who murders the investigator. as in MEAN STREETS, anyone may wink at anyone at any time to kill them. if you kill the investigator, you win! otherwise the person just dies, and now you're a murderer. the agent can reveal their identity at any time to make an accusation - if they identify someone who is a murderer, they win! otherwise, as a group, the convention-goers ritually murder the exposed agent.


EVIL TWINS

one of the players is an interpol detective, two of them are notorious twin crime lords who have both undergone plastic surgery to look completely different and assumed new identities. you can hand out cards to everyone - the detective makes their identity public, the twins keep their identities private. the twins' goal is to find each other by use of a secret gesture known only to them. if a twin winks at the other twin and receives a wink back, they may reveal themselves and claim victory. if a twin winks at a non-twin, that person dies as usual (they must die to protect the twins' secret identity). the detective is trying to identify at least one of the twins. if they guess incorrectly they are drummed out of the precinct and ritually murdered by the twins. if they correctly identify a twin, they get a free guess at the identity of the other twin.