Mediocrity!
Mediocrity!
What do you need? Three players, three vertical writing surfaces, and three writing utensils.
What's the goal? Be the most mediocre player!
What are the rules?
Each player secretly selects a whole number between 0 and 30.
Then the choices are revealed, and whoever chose the median (i.e. the middlemost) number wins that number of points. (If two people choose the same number, then the player who picked a different number gets to break the tie and assign the points to whichever other player they wish.
Here's the twist. You play a fixed number of rounds (say, five), at the end of which the winner is not the one with the most points, but the middlemost number of points.Â
Rules and image from Math Games with Bad Drawings by Ben Orlin.