After you, Bwana

Right...I have this idea for a card game of mutual backstabbing. It starts simply enough a scene we see in a million movies. Our heroes in the scary place. Generally, when exploring the haunted house or inching through the murderous jungle any such party takes the nearly universal position of the line. The question is, where would you want to be in line? One might think the rear would be best, but any one watching movies knows that's not true. Anything brighter than a scientologist knows an attack to the rear will often suprise. The front is full of perils true, traps are never fun. On the other hand, the front allows for decision making and first dibs at goodies. The good and the bad are balanced. If you want to live, the place to be in the middle. Never the first to fall into a trap, or to be attacked from behind, being in the middle means you are basically safe and free to shout out moral support like "Go get 'em!" "They don't look so tough!"

So with this image in mind here's how I see it playing out as a game. Every player gets three people. Two mooks, and a randomly choosen VIP. The mooks are nothing special but the VIPs all have some special power that might be used for creative mischief. After everyone gets their mooks and VIP, cards are dealt to everyone. Basically, the cards fall into the category of Traps (hit the front of the line), Good stuff (also hits the front of the line), Attacks (hit the rear of the line), Defenses, After You cards that change your place in the line, and Special cards which are a hodge podge of various goodies that can be of use.

Once everyone has their characters and cards, then the line will have to be formed. Let's say the mooks have numbers and whomever drew the high mook goes first. Taking turns everyone lays down a mook or a character till the line is finished. Then everyone chooses a card and places it face down besides a character they have in line. Then whoever is first in the line chooses which card is turned over first. Card is turned over, whatever the card says happens then go to the next card in line. If you reach the end of the line and there are still cards unturned in the front of the line then go to the front and unturn those cards till no cards are unturned. Remove all the dead characters, keep all the good stuff you got to one side, and then everyone draws cards to rebuild their hand and then go on to the next round.

Anyway that's my idea so far. What do you think?