Inhuman Conditions is a two player, five minute long, interrogation based game. You play as either a cop, human, or robot. The cop is interrogating a subject and has to determine if they are a human or robot. The cop takes notes and asks questions. The human has no worries and answers as truthfully as possible. The robot however, will have a different set of rules depending on the type of robot you are. The goal for the robot is to be deemed a human by the cop.
The cop does have to worry about dealing with a violent robot because if the robot's terms are satisfied then it can kill the cop. As the robot, you have to follow rules laid out on the card drawn. So if you are a patient robot you can’t use certain words or if you are violent you describe tragedies in the same terms, along with a bunch of other conditions. If you violate any of the rules laid out on your card you then have to pay a penalty. That penalty is in the form of a card that has a special rule on it, like interrupt the investigator or rhyme your words, etc. Things that make it more and more difficult to seem as though you are human.
Inhuman Conditions might be the coolest game I have seen on Kickstarter in a while. So let me start with why I love this idea. First, it is a two player game. My wife and I are constantly on the lookout for games that offer good fun and depth for just us to play, that aren’t the classic card games. Secondly, it only takes five minutes per round, yeah you heard that right. So, it would be easy for a large group of people to play and just rotate players in and out of each role. Finally, the idea of a “Turing Test” board game is awesome. It seems like they were able to lift an idea from Isaac Asimov’s writings and bring it to proper life. So head over to Kickstarter and check out Inhuman Conditions campaign and check out their gameplay stream.