We Know Something You Don't Know

They call you a troublemaker, but you know where the real trouble lies....

We Know Something You Don’t Know invites you into the lives of students making their way day-by-day through the education system. In the game, you play as a student who is labeled many times by the educational institution as a “troublemaker,” but you know differently. You and your classmates happen on something the teachers and administrators do not know about-- but has important consequences for the community as a whole. As you play through the game, you will explore your character and the group through a series of collaborative scenes set by you and your classmates with teacher and institution responses always lurking around the corner.

We Know Something You Don't Know uses the Belonging Outside Belonging system, developed by Avery Alder and Benjamin Rosenbaum. In Belonging Outside Belonging games, everyone shares the roll of facilitator. In addition to our game guide, you need a standard deck of playing cards to play. 

Number of Players: 2-6

Time to play: 3-4 hours

Included in the game document are: instructions for playing, safety tools, 5 character playbooks, an optional support role called "the Bell" to support less experienced players, 4 setting elements, a table of 52 "institutional actions," and both a minimalist and more-structured version of an introductory module. 

We designed our game to foster critical conversations about the structures of schools and the people who navigate them. Our game includes reflection questions to support those conversations. 

We're offering this game for free, but if you enjoy it, we encourage you to make a donation to your favorite youth-supporting organization or mutual aid fund. Some of our favorites include:

The Trevor Project

The Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health

Providence Student Union

New City Kids