Filipe Tavares in Portugal told us about Casino Fatale, which he hosted for his scout group. (We suggest Casino Fatale is suitable for ages 18+, but Filipe and he was happy the scouts could manage it.)
Filipe says: “It’s been a couple of weeks since I hosted Casino Fatale with my scout group, and I want to give you some feedback.
“As before, with Way out West, everyone seemed very excited and enjoyed it a lot. I asked some of them which game they liked most, and they said that Casino Fatale worked better.
“I sent the characters the week before so everyone could prepare their costume and study their character. I think it’s much better this way. The problem is if someone with a critical character ends up not attending the game due to a last-minute issue, so I had two extra participants, one male and one female, ready to get in the game if needed.”
He had two autistic players, so cast them in assistant roles that meant they could get guidance from the others. According to Filipe, “They didn’t really play the game as the others did, but I think they were happy.”
Filipe continues, “I use theme music to create the mood in our activities, so I had James Bond soundtracks for opening and all events that required to get the group together.
“I set up casino tables and opened them at the start of the game. I thought the first minutes were the best time for the players to experience the casino games since nothing really happened in the game except for each one secret agenda.
“I replaced the casino chips tokens with play-money euro banknotes and they could use the money to buy casino chips. You advise not to do that, but I limited the casino bets to just 1 euro, so they couldn’t win or lose much money. I think it worked well, and the bills were very realistic.
“One of my colleagues spent the whole day preparing the food! We were casino staff serving the food to the guests on trays, just like a real casino. We set up a bar with bottles of Martini, rum, vodka and so on – but filled with iced tea, Coke, Sprite and other soft drinks.
“As I had to pass messages to the secret agents without the others seeing, I hid them in specific places out of sight. I agreed with them on a special secret phrase to let them know whenever a new message was available.
“In Way out West, the sheriff could arrest people, and I found a bit strange that the police couldn’t do the same in Casino Fatale. So I told them to carry out their investigation and if they found enough evidence by the end of the game, they would arrest the criminals.
“As you can see, it was really hard work but it was worth it. I love both themes, Western and James Bond, and I really enjoyed preparing this.”
(By the way, we didn’t include arrests in Casino Fatale because it’s not in keeping with the James Bond idiom for secret agents to be at risk of arrest by the local police. In Way out West, on the other hand, malefactors being arrested by the sheriff and then being broken out of jail is very much part of the genre.)
