Summary
Making a fully functioning educational board game. The area of education being media literacy.
Group: Ishika (Research), Daisy (AN), Ishita (CD), Kyawasaanu (Bdes), Kimaya (Bdes)
Type
Course project
Duration
1 week
"Source? Trust me, bro." is a tabletop game that we worked on during the game design module. The task was to create an educational board game, and, we chose media literacy as our theme. It is a chaotic bluffing game that puts you in the world of media, where confidence matters more than the truth. Players take on the role of news outlets, creating and presenting outrageous headlines. The challenge is to convince others that your story is real or fake.
The key to winning isn’t just the story but how convincingly a player delivers it, to catch others who are lying, and scrutinizing every single headline.
Headline Cards
News cards or newspaper cards have random scandalous news on them with a little description. There are a total of 40 different news cards.
Fact/Fiction Cards
A deck of cards labelled either fact or fiction, they are paired with a news card for each turn. A Total of 40 cards.
News station labels with desks, and scoring tokens with tracker
Assets
ON TODAY’S NEWS
MAN FROM U.P. CLAIMS THAT HE INVENTED BUTTER CHICKEN BEFORE IT WAS “COOL”
“I tossed the leftover chicken pieces into a tomato-based gravy, added butter. The result was magic." he added, shaking his head in amazement.
ON TODAY’S NEWS
Study Finds 99% of Indian Dads Measure Success by Turning Off Lights in
Empty Rooms
Dads claim the habit saves millions annually. Families are petitioning for recognition of their stealthy savings skills.
ON TODAY’S NEWS
Man Wins Lottery, Immediately Quits Family WhatsApp Group!
The man stated the group’s constant good morning messages were harder to deal with than his financial struggles. Relatives now demand a share of his winnings.
The Presenter’s Turn:
Choose a headline from your hand.
Assign a Fact or Fiction card from your hand to the Headline. (Do not reveal this!)
Present the headline to the group with flair, confidence, and maybe even a little over-the-top drama! You are allowed to make up any details about the story to sell it.
Challenge the Presenter:
The first player to ask Source? Followed by if they think the story is Fact or Fiction becomes the challenger.
If the challenger is right, they get 8 Credibility points while the presenter doesn’t gain or lose points.
If the challenger is wrong, Presenter gains 8 points and the challenger gets -2. (The points can go in negative)
Discard this headline and fact/fiction card into the centre and showing.
If no one challenges, the presenter automatically earns 8 points for a convincing delivery. The Presenter then places the used Fact or Fiction card face down on their news desk with the headline card over it face up.
Player Count: Playtime:
3–6 players. 20–30 minutes
Age:
12+ (Perfect for teens and adults who know the chaos of modern media!)
The Influence:
Any player, on their turn, is allowed to take an unchallenged story from any News Desk and present it. This player is allowed to look if the story was Fact or Fiction. The original Presenter cannot challenge this.
If this story is Challenged correctly, the challenger gains 8 points and this presenter gets -2.
If the challenger is wrong, Presenter receives 8 points and Challenger get -2.
If the story is again left not challenged, it stays on the present Presenters News Desk (can be again adopted by remaining players in their turn).
Remember, every unchallenged story on your desk adds 4 Credibility points
Special Event: Credibility Audit
When a player reaches 40+ points, any opponent can initiate a Credibility Audit during their turn.
The opponent selects an unchallenged past headline on the 40+ player’s News Desk.
Reveal the Fact or Fiction Card for that headline.
If it the challenger wins, earns 12 points, and the audited player loses 12 points. If Presenter wins, the challenger loses 4 points but Presenter doesn’t gain anything.
Winning the Game:
The first player to reach 50 points wins! (Don’t forget to add 4 points for each unchallenged story on your desk) If there’s a tie, play one final round to declare the master of media.
Convince others to believe your story and call out their bluffs to become the ultimate master of media navigation. First to get 50 credibility points wins.
Setup for each player:
Gameplay
ON TODAY’S NEWS
MAN FROM U.P. CLAIMS THAT HE INVENTED BUTTER CHICKEN BEFORE IT WAS “COOL”
“I tossed the leftover chicken pieces into a tomato-based gravy, added butter. The result was magic." he added, shaking his head in amazement.
ON TODAY’S NEWS
Study Finds 99% of Indian Dads Measure Success by Turning Off Lights in
Empty Rooms
Dads claim the habit saves millions annually. Families are petitioning for recognition of their stealthy savings skills.
ON TODAY’S NEWS
Man Wins Lottery, Immediately Quits Family WhatsApp Group!
The man stated the group’s constant good morning messages were harder to deal with than his financial struggles. Relatives now demand a share of his winnings.
ON TODAY’S NEWS
Neighbour Returns Borrowed Bowl After 6 Months; Claims It Was a 'Social Experiment'
The neighbor insists the delay was a test of patience. The owner is demanding a replacement for the now-rusted bowl.
ON TODAY’S NEWS
To simulate the Moon’s surface, ISRO lands moon lander on Mumbai roads
ISRO praised the city’s craters as ideal testing grounds. Locals argue they’ve been enduring lunar conditions for decades.
Fact-Checking in real life | Game message
The game inculcates the practice of questioning the news that we come across on a daily-basis; fact checking and scrutinizing the source before believing it. How to track lying habits or catch on to someone trying to manipulate you into believing something is also a part of the game.
Check the Source: Trust reliable outlets, not random social media accounts or WhatsApp forwards, it can never hurt to question it.
Look Beyond the Headline: Sensational words like "shocking" or "unbelievable" are red flags. Read the full story and understand the context.
Verify with Multiple Sources: True stories are reported by multiple credible outlets. Use fact-checking sites like Snopes or Alt News.
Inspect Evidence: Trust stories with quotes, data, or official links. Be cautious of vague claims like “studies say” without citing anything or quoting it.
Use Reverse Image Search: Check if images are old or used out of context with tools like Google Reverse Image Search.
Remember: If it feels too outrageous to be true, question it!
