[Drill] - Vive la Résistance!

[Darcy Burgess]

Vive la Résistance!
a high-stakes drill

Introduction
a word on black-balling
I don't know where the term originated, but the first time I heard it used was in reference to my Dad's initiation into the Masons.  If you don't know what the process involves, it's a vote.  Someone wants something to happen, and each voter secretly casts a single ball into a closed container.  Each person has 2 balls -- one black, one white.  If even one of the balls is black, then the "something" does not happen.  In my Dad's case, no black balls were cast and he got to join the businessman's drinking club.

Vive la Résistance! uses blackballing.  Don't worry -- you don't need to build yourself some byzantine masonic device (although, I suppose you could).  Any binary object (Othello tokens, coins, fingers, etc) and a cupped hand will do.  Just be sure to decide which "face" is the "black" side.


Vive la France!
It's 1942.  The Nazis have occupied France.  The Vichy government has capitulated, and the Republic is overrun by jackbooted bastards.  Standing up to this threat are the men and women of the French Resistance, aided from afar by Britain's SOE.


et Maintenant?
1) Everyone agrees on a goal that the Resistance is trying to achieve.  It's best to keep this something small but meaningful.  Good examples include: "Steal some supplies."  "Meet an SOE operative parachuting in."  "Hide some Jewish children from the Nazis."

2) Everyone agrees on an endgame statement.  It should be grand, sweeping and represent the worst possible thing that could happen.  A good default endgame statement is "The Nazi taint stains France forever."

3) One player (at random) begins the drill by turning the goal into a statement of action: "Our cell raids a small convoy, hoping to deprive the Nazis of supplies."

4) The same player immediately suffixes that statement with "Alas, it wasn't meant to be."

5) The next player (clockwise) finishes this statement: "The damned Nazis had the upper hand, and..."  The completed statement must place a new challenge in the Resistance's way.

6) The entire table ratifies this statement through a black-ball vote.

7a) If the statement is blackballed, the sequence of play is reset to step 5.
7b) If the statement is not blackballed, the player who uttered it now describes how the Resistance attempts to overcome this new Nazi obstacle.

8) Go to step 4.


Mais, ça Fini Jamais!
During step 5, the active player can choose to use the endgame statement to finish the sentence.  If this statement isn't blackballed, then the drill is over.