“We’re Not Really Strangers” is a get-to-know-you game created by Koreen Odiney and designed to be played by 2-6 players aged above 15. Through having players answering card questions, WNRS can both help strangers break the ice and facilitate deeper connections between friends and families. The game has multiple editions, for friends, couples, self-love, etc, and can be played with either physical or digital cards. I played the classic version of WNRS using the digital cards with 3 friends I got acquainted with more recently in person. 
I argue that WNRS helps players open up to one another by (1) the procedure of gradually increasing the intimacy of questions as level goes up and (2) allowing very flexible answers so as to make space for players to be as vulnerable as they want to be. WNRS also encourages players to interact with each other by (1) having players shifting between different roles and so engaging all players in each round, (2) removing winning or losing state so as to highlight the objective of the game as discovering something new about fellow players, and (3) making use of “Dig Deeper” tile to engage with one another on a deeper level. All these mechanics help players cultivate Fellowship in the game.
WNRS questions are categorized into three levels: Level 1 are “Perception” cards that are about the impressions players have of one another; Level 2 are “Connection” cards where players build a stronger emotional connection through sharing about the past; Level 3 are “Reflection” cards where players reflect on and strengthen their connections with one another. Players start with Level 1 cards to break the ice and move on to Level 2 where they get more personal and end at Level 3 where they reciprocate the sharing of personal episodes in Level 2 with further responses. The benefit of this tier system manifes
ted itself when I played this game with friends I was not that close with and didn’t have to randomly draw a card and answer questions like “Do you think I’ve ever had my heart broken?”, which would have been awkward and made the players feel defensive. Instead, we warmed up with Level 1 questions like “Do you think I’m a coffee or tea person?”, which creates a relaxing environment and encourages active answers from participants, since it does not hurt even if they get the answer wrong.
But even as players move on to higher levels, the WNRS questions still give them a lot of flexibility at sharing as much or as little as they are comfortable with. When we were in Level 2, the “sharing personal stories” round, I noticed that the questions were designed to be very open-ended. Questions like “What does your heart tell you?” or “Tell us about a time when you surprised yourself” can be answered from a wide range of angles and with varied depths: the players could either give a generic answer like “My heart says I really enjoy the weather today” if they don’t want to share about their personal sentiments and stories, or they can really open up and use this as an opportunity to confess their feelings for their crush. At the end of our game, my fellow players reported that they hardly felt any discomfort answering the questions. And even for questions that brought them some discomfort like “Tell us about a time when you lied to your mom.”, players can easily pass it off by claiming that they don’t remember any or making something up on the spot. On the one hand, this constitutes a problem for the game designer when a player lies or is not willing to answer; on the other hand, giving the player the option of answering or not answering and the freedom in h
ow to answer respects the difference in each player’s personal boundary. Players will only be vulnerable if they are in a comfortable psychological state and WNRS achieves this through well-designed questions that allow them to self-adjust their vulnerability level while still feeling comfortable and safe.
Instead of having each player drawing cards and answering questions in turn, WNRS enhances interaction among players by alternating between “other players answering a question about this player” and “this player answering a question about themselves” in different levels. This mechanic not only enables all players to actively engage in the game even if it is not their turn, but also makes sure that whenever a player opens up and reveals a bit more about themselves, they will be reciprocated by other players’ answer of how their impression of the player has changed through questions like “What surprised you about this player?” in the following level. This interactive mechanism puts the relationship between players at the center and prompts them to reflect on the changes in their relationships brought about by the game. This emphasis of relationship / fellowship among players rather than individual players themselves is reinforced by not having winners or losers in the game, which prevents diverting players’ attention from learning something new about each other to thinking about strategies for getting the most points. “Dig Deeper” tile is an additional mechanic that could help promote the interaction among players by giving them the opportunity to ask follow-up questions. However, when we were playing the game, our reactions / follow-ups happened so naturally that we didn’t even think about using the “Dig Deeper” tile. This serves evidence that the game is pretty successful at fostering interactions and bonds among players.
