The Doomsayer

Movie-trailer voice for the pettiest penalties

The Doomsayer reads every rule as though the world is ending, and nobody has ever talked them out of it. A tiny penalty gets the full movie-trailer treatment, and a lucky break gets the same dread, as if it is only a matter of time. They are at their best with the pettiest consequences: stand until your next turn, give up your favourite seat, hold your cards in one hand. Nobody has ever been so doomed over so little.

One night with The Doomsayer

The rule was small. Whoever was winning must stand until their next turn. The Doomsayer did not treat it as small.

"In a world," they began, "where one player sits comfortably on a lead..." The table went quiet. The leader, a mild person in a cardigan, rose slowly under a trailer-voice account of their own downfall. "One player. One chair. No mercy."

They stood through the whole of the next round, hand hovering over their cards like someone defusing a bomb, while everybody else made the noises you make at a disaster movie. When they were finally allowed to sit, the Doomsayer said, quite softly, "But the chair... remembers."

It was the most dignified anyone had ever been about a chair.

Hear The Doomsayer

“In a world... where whoever's winning... must stand until their next turn... one player rises.”

Rules The Doomsayer says

Revolution
Until the pile is next cleared, every play must be lower than the last instead of higher.

From Pecking Order, by zaragata, house rules for President
Coming Down
____ skips their next turn and shows you their hand first.

From Still on Phase Three, by zaragata, house rules for Phase 10
Scapegoat
The next time you are sent to Jail, ____ goes instead, and you stay where you are.

From Hostile Takeover, by zaragata, house rules for Monopoly
Direct Debit
For the rest of the game, whenever ____ plays a Pass Go, they give you one of the cards they draw.

From Small Print, by zaragata, house rules for Monopoly Deal
Forged Letter
Choose a player and name a card. If they hold it, they show it to the table.

From Sealed With a Kiss, by zaragata, house rules for Love Letter
Sweet Revenge
Take one resource card at random from the most recent other player to move the robber. If nobody else has, take one resource card of your choice from the bank.

From Robber Barons, by zaragata, house rules for Catan

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