Create a Batman villains game night on a budget – and impress your mates

A few years ago, my friends and I took part in a weekly themed activity night. Each week for three years, we all got together for a few hours of fun.

Theme Nights were budget-friendly affairs, designed to offer a mix of food, games and entertainment and most importantly, a break from the real world. Every week, the themes would rotate, sometimes taking the form of simple topics (Film Night, Quiz Night etc) and sometimes being a little more elaborate (Deal or No Deal Night, The Crystal Maze Night etc).

In this post I’m going to talk about our Batman themed night. The post will include a few photos (captured back in July 2015), along with an explanation of what we did and how we did it.

Want to create your own Batman game? Or simply looking for Batman party ideas? Then read on!

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Batman: Escape from Arkham game night

Now, before I begin, it should of course be noted that I don’t work for DC Entertainment and that the type of game I set out below can be applied to any other subject – not just Batman. This was a fan-made game inspired by a love for the Batman mythology and was/is in no way endorsed by Warner Bros. or DC Comics/DC Entertainment. The game was merely played at home, for fun and nothing more.

So…

This was one of our more elaborate theme nights, which required a bit of preparation. However, once the basics of the night were worked out, it was a fairly straight forward theme to execute and a heck of a lot of fun.

The crux of this night centred around a game (lasting around 90 minutes). The object of the game was to work through a series of mini-challenges, followed by a treasure hunt and then a final puzzle.

The game provided the main entertainment for the Batman-themed night, but to add to the occasion there was a bit of Batman-related food and decorations (including a Batman-themed cake etc).

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The premise of the game

The Riddler had escaped from Arkham Asylum. Batman and the Bat-family were out of town on a case, so it was up to the Police Department (i.e. two teams of players) to track down the Riddler. In order to find him, players had to complete a series of missions that would eventually lead one team to the missing inmate.

All of the missions were delivered through a specially created video, which I made ahead of the evening.

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How to play the Batman theme game

Players were divided up into two teams (one or more players on each team), with one additional non-player (me) taking on the role of the host. The role of the host was to introduce the game in the guise of Commissioner Gordon, and play/pause a specially created video at the appropriate times.

In the video, players (GCPD officers) were introduced to various Arkham inmates who in turn would aid them as they investigated the case. As you can see below, one of the inmates was Clayface.

Other villains appeared in the video, as the first round of the game progressed.

In short: A villain would appear on screen, would pose questions or challenges, give time for players to write down their answers or complete the challenges, and then would eventually make way for other villains to appear.

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Round 1 – The challenges

Each inmate in the video provided the players with a challenge, which was effectively a mini game. The challenges were simple activities which related to a specific Batman villain (a fears and phobias quiz for the Scarecrow, a punchline round for the Joker, etc).

Both teams played the rounds in turn (about 8 in total), answering questions and completing the mini challenges to win points for correct answers. As the host, I kept score for both teams, and played/paused the video.

Once all of the rounds in the video had been played, i.e. all the villains had appeared on screen to introduce their mini-games, it was time to add up all the points.

The team with the most points won overall, then had their points converted into time, with every 5 points turned into 5 seconds. This time allocation was then used as a head start in the next round: A treasure hunt.

So, if the winning team had say 33 points at the end of the video round, they would get 30 seconds of free hunting time in the next round (they must have multiples of five to get five additional seconds).

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Round 2 – The hunt

Once the players had met every inmate, an additional clip in the video explained that in order to find the escaped inmate (i.e The Riddler), the teams had to search out a series of clues in the form of a treasure hunt. These clues took the form of objects (Baby Doll’s lollipop, Maxxie Zeus’ lightning bolt, Killer Croc’s ID tag etc).

On the back of each clue was a letter. The aim of this round was to find as many clues as possible, to get more letters than the other team.

Prior to playing the game, I had hidden these objects around my building. The teams were then set loose to find the clues, with one team granted a head-start based on the amount of points/time they had acquired in Round 1.

The aim here was for the teams to try and grab as many of these clues as possible, before the other team got to them first. They were given ten minutes to seek them out, before they had to return, and the team who won the first round got to set off first with their allocated head start.

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Round 3 – The case file

Once both teams had returned from the treasure hunt, the host (me) presented the final piece of the game – a case file. Each case file contained a sheet of paper with a partially filled in location name.

Using the letters hidden on the back of their clues, players filled in the sheet as best as they could. The winner of the game was the first team to successfully work out the final location and answer the question: Where is The Riddler?

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What you need in order to play this game

• A short home-made video (easy to make)
• A series of mini-challenges
• A collection of clues
• A case file with a missing letters worksheet

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How the Batman Arkham game was created

The video: This sounds complicated, but it wasn’t! It was made with a free voice phone App.

Take an image of a Batman villain, add your voice/mouth movements to the still image using a free phone app, then simply create some short clips, each lasting 30 seconds. You narrate the clips, using different voices for added fun, and during the narration you set quiz questions or challenges.

Then edit all of these clips together using basic movie maker software (which is included on all laptops/PCs) to form one long video. Pick maybe eight iconic Bat villains, theme their mini-challenges around them, and have them appear in succession.

The challenges: For the mini-challenges (aka the games in Round 1), simply create some basic word searches, Q&A sessions, puzzles etc and print any additional material off on paper. These can then be handed out at the appropriate point in the video (as indicated when the Arkham inmates set the challenges).

For example, if the Scarecrow is setting questions based on fears and phobias, hand out a sheet containing images of different fears. The Scarecrow then names the fears and the players have to line up what he says with the images on the sheet.

The treasure hunt: For the ‘treasure hunt’ part of the game, create a collection of clues (either physical objects connected to a Batman villain or just use cardboard cut outs) and place a letter on the back of each clue. Remember, the letters must match up with the missing letters on the case file (Round 3).

Prior to playing the game with your teams, hide these clues around your home/garden/building etc. Put some in easy to find spots, and some in more obscure, challenging locations.

Don’t make the hunt too easy. Let ‘em work for it, and set a time limit for players to return (maybe ten minutes), even if they come back empty handed they must return when the time runs out.

Case file: For the case file, simply set out a GCPD folder with a sheet of paper printed inside. The piece of paper must have part of the final location written on it, with some letters complete and some gaps to be filled in by players.

In the example used earlier, the final location was ‘Gotham State University’. As you could see in the photo, some of the letters were filled in, some were left blank for the players to complete.

It’s important to provide some letters to give both teams a sporting chance in the final round. If one team returns from the treasure hunt empty handed, they still have a chance to locate the Riddler using the letters provided on the sheet.

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OK, so there was quite a lot to explain, but I promise once you get your head around the basic premise of the game it is pretty easy to set up and present. And there’s no reason why you can’t do something similar.

A game like this takes a bit of planning, but the clues, and case files can all be bought very cheaply and adapted to suit your budget. I probably spent around £10 on the clues, but the App/editing software was all free.

Then to add to the game, prepare some Batman-themed snacks (Bat-snacks?), and maybe even encourage your players to dress up as GCPD officers or detectives.

So, what do you think? Fancy creating something similar?

Why not try it out? You can adapt the game to a different theme, such as the Avengers, the X-Men, or Spider-Man, or maybe even a horror icons game, creating your mini-challenges and clues around your theme.

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Thank you for stopping by It’s A Stampede! to read this post about creating a bespoke Batman villains game. For more posts be sure to check out the recommended reads below.