"Satan!

"

The year was 2003, Origins game fair in Columbus, Ohio. Ten thousand gamers had gathered to play
board and card games. In a packed dealers hall someone shouted SATAN! Devout worshippers pulled out
dice and dropped to their knees all over the convention center rolling three six-sided dice in the hope of
revealing the sacred number. One by one, these worshippers succeeded, thrusting their hands into the
air in the air showing the sacred horns as they once more shounted SATAN! After a few moments these
worshippers in the midst of gamers went back to behaving as the rest had, blending in perfectly, until the
next time the dark lords name was called when they would again prove their faith. This was the
experience of the first and potentially largest playgroup of the dice game Satan! published by 9th level
games(Kobolds ate my baby) and created by Third world games(Firestorm CCG).

The Satan dice game was advertised as "Your NEW favorite game" and had two prices printed on it's
packaging, 6.66 and 5.00. The game contained two rules reference cards, a small pin showing a flame
with three six-sided dice showing the sixes, and three large black six-sided dice with only the six side
having any markings.

The rules of the game were simple.

1. You do not talk about Satan

Any utterance of Satan! opens the game
2. You roll three dice
You can only roll dice with one hand
3. When you roll a 6, Leave it.
Pick up the rest and keep rolling
4. The last player to close is the loser
When all your dice show 6s, you can close, Shout "Satan!" and show the Metal Sign
5. Losers should be punished
If you open a game while someone is touching a beverage, you are the loser.
6. You must wear the pin
If you are wearing the pin, you are playing the game, anytime, anywhere!

So why was this fun? As a game, it's really lacking. What skill there was in the game was mostly
ambushing people so that they were not prepared to play when you started a round, or hiding a
beverage in your hand so that anyone who started a round would lose instantly. The stakes sure weren't
high enough to be interesting, the slowest person was often just called a "LOOOSER!" and everyone
would get their chance at that dubious honor before the week was out.

Despite the low stakes, non-existent skill requirement, and complete lack of control over the
outcome of the game, this game suprisingly worked. People got invested in the game. Firstly there was
the secret nature of the game. People knew something was happening when people around the
convention were randomly shouting Satan!, but that wasn't weird enough to truly draw scrutiny. When
people did learn what was going on, they wanted in.

From the perspective of the good christian boy I was at the time, this game was just
transgressive enough to be interesting, but harmless enough to just be a game in my head. Sure I
wouldn't be telling my D&D is satan worship parents about this game, but it was harmless fun that
pushed boundaries, and having just Graduated high school and at the time having been attending 3+
church services a week, it was the right amount of blasphemy.

Mostly though, where this game shined was that it was ongoing and massive. Convention games
were a new genre, things that could not only be played anytime during the con, but that could include so
many people were rare, and being part of something larger drew a lot of people into the game. The
simple rules allowed anyone to play, and having 30-100 other people rolling dice made the stakes of
being last to finish feel more important. I saw someone literally play in the crosswalk of a busy
intersection rather than lose. The outcome mattered, even if all rational reasoning said it didn't. Sure in
the end it was mostly my friend and I trying to one up each other, but between other games, between
going out to eat, that year there was always something to do. Whenever you were bored, you could get
on your knees and hail SATAN!