The premise is that you have between 4 and 8 people (I think 6 works best) pretending to be shipwrecked in the middle of the Pacific ocean, thousands of miles from shore. No one is coming to help them. They've been rowing for a few days and surviving on limited resources when the food starts to run out. First with fear and anxiety, but slowly with a growing, intense hunger, our survivors begin discussing the prospects of selecting the least helpful passenger with the least social value to be eaten by the others.
Use FAKE personalities, to discourage bullying. You can make up your own, but here are three that I came up with:
Laura Bixley--60 Kilograms Laura is a lawyer. She is a very intelligent woman and has a good mind for solving problems, but she also has a very bad temper. She owns the only deck of cards on board and promises to throw them into the sea is anyone comes near her with a fork and knife. She is very strong, and has no family.
Leonardo DiCaprio--70 Kilograms Dicaprio is a famous American actor, who ironically starred in the hit movie TITANIC, for which he surely deserves to die anyway. He is very wealthy and very handsome, but he is also very selfish. He has no family.Celine Dion--140 Kilograms Celine is a pig farmer fom Kentucky. She is a strong woman, but she is also very, very stupid. She is good at rowing the boat and does not mind hard work. She enjoys singing, but has a terrible voice. She sometimes fights with other people on the boat. She is married and has three children.
This game is good because it involves roleplaying and quick, emphatic improvisation. Kids who never speak in class are quick to open their mouths when you tell them that everyone else on the boat is leaning toward dining on them. One girl who played Celine told me that she couldn't be the one to go, because her pigs would sad if she died. I try to involve the whole class by having non-participating students suggest whom should be eaten, and then having the role players defend themselves and accuse others. Most of the time it really takes off. Sometimes it doesn't.
