Ubiquitous game designer and researcher Jane McGonigal and I have a new game and we need your help playtesting it. Cruel 2 B Kind is a new game of benevolent assassination Jane and I designed for the Come Out and Play Festival in New York.

Real world games are hard to test in a vacuum, and we need your help to get it right. If you will be in the San Francisco area Sunday September 3 or Sunday September 10, please sign up for one or both of the San Francisco playtests. Read on for the full details.

The playtests will take place in Mission Dolores Park, in San Franciso. They will last about an hour, and be small and casual. Jane will feed you lovely picnic food (alas, I'll be unable to be there). To play, you need a partner (game begins with 2-person teams, although you will collaborate with other players later) and one cell phone between you that can send and receive email-based SMS (which is basically everyone who uses SMS/text at all, and our sign up page has a guide to figuring out your SMS email if you don't know it yet).

San Francisco Playtest #1
San Francisco, September 3, 2006
Location: Mission Dolores Park, all 13.7 acres.
Time: Check-in begins at 1:30 PM. Assassination begins at 2 PM. Game ends at 3 PM, with honors awarded at asassins' picnic.

San Francisco Playtest #2
San Francisco, September 10, 2006
Location: Mission Dolores Park, all 13.7 acres.
Time: Check-in begins at 1:30 PM. Assassination begins at 2 PM. Game ends at 3 PM, with honors awarded at asassins' picnic.