Egg Roulette

Egg Roulette is a game of nerve played sitting down. Everyone is on a stool round one table, a nest of ostrich eggs sits in the middle, and nearly all of them are hard-boiled. The rest are raw. You never know which is which until one meets a head, and the round is decided by who keeps cracking when the odds turn ugly, and who gets a neighbour to do it for them.

How a turn goes

On your turn you grab an egg by picking it in the nest. It hops out to you, you hug it up in both hands, and then you decide. You have about 6 seconds to choose, and a turn that runs out before you have done anything cracks the egg for you.

• Crack it on your own head. Hard-boiled, you hear a dry TOK, the shell breaks and nothing happens. Raw, it bursts all over you and you are out.
• Heave it at a neighbour. Swing round on your stool to the player on your left or right and throw. If it was raw, they wear it and they are out. If it was hard-boiled, it bounces off their face and the next egg is yours, with no choice about it.
• Pass, but only after you have cracked one. Once you have survived an egg you may stop, go again, or throw.

In a small ring one turn goes round at a time. In a big one there are several at once, one for every four players, all grabbing from the same nest, so a slow pick can see the egg you wanted taken.

Nerve

A round lasts two and a half minutes. Last one standing wins, and if more than one of you is still sitting at the buzzer, survivors are ranked by Nerve. Every hard-boiled egg you crack on yourself banks Nerve, and it pays more the hotter the nest is. Cracking at one in six or one in five pays 1; at one in four, 2; at one in three, 3; and at even odds, 5. Splatting a neighbour with a raw one is worth 1.

The nest refills once it is certain either way, when nothing raw is left or nothing else is. Up to 4 players it holds 6 eggs, up to 8 it holds 8, then 12, and 16 past that, with about one raw egg in six.

When you are out

You float above the table as a ghost, and you get one move: pick an egg in the nest and spoil it, turning a hard-boiled one raw. The whole table is told an egg went bad, but not which one. Spoil early and you make every turn after it more dangerous; spoil late and you can tip a tight finish.

Round rules

Half the time it is a plain round. The other half rolls one of these:

• Rotten Nest: about one egg in three is raw.
• No Passing: once you start a turn you crack again or throw until someone is out.
• Blind Nest: nobody is told how many eggs are raw.
• Ghost Hands: a ghost cracks the egg it picks instead of spoiling it, which either leaves the nest hotter or takes the danger out of it.

Controls

• Pick an egg: tap or click it in the nest.
• Q: crack the egg on your head, or throw it once you have swung to a neighbour.
• A and D (or the arrow keys): swing between yourself and the neighbours either side.
• E: pass the turn, after your first crack.
• R: as a ghost, spoil an egg.

How good players win

• Crack early, while the nest is cool. At one in six the risk is lowest and it still pays. The big Nerve comes later, at a real price.
• Throw when the nest is hot. A throw risks nothing for you if the egg is raw. If it is hard-boiled you have to crack the next one, so throwing at one in two is a coin flip you have chosen to take on someone else's head.
• Count the eggs. The odds on screen tell you how many raw ones are left in what remains. Watch who cracked safely and how many eggs are gone, so you know when the next pick is nearly certain.
• Know when to pass. At the buzzer survivors split the win by Nerve, so one more crack at one in three can be worth it, but not if staying alive already puts you ahead.
• Pick fast in a big ring. Several turns share one nest. Hesitate and the safe-looking egg is gone.

The table

The setting is a barangay street at midnight on New Year's Eve, round the media noche, the family feast at the turn of the year, with the bowl of fruit moved aside to make room for the nest. Egg roulette itself is a party dare: a tray of eggs, one or two left raw, and a turn each to find out.