Muskrat!

A few months ago I finally hit my threshold for hearing the same stories regurgitated from the same individuals time and time again. Furthermore it occurred to me that the actual story telling events themselves were easily trigger-able. I came to realize that by simply saying the correct words, I was able to invoke a story. So I came up with a little game to encourage new material.

After targeting an individual from the usual lunchtime crew, and selecting one of their best band camp stories, I proceeded to inform the rest of the crew about my new game. The plan was to trigger the poor sole into telling their story. Lunchtime came and like clockwork the trap was sprung with much success. Over the next few days the lunchtime banter diminished as everyone became afraid of being the victimized. And then something magical happened ... new stories began to appear.

The game went through a few iterations and it was collectively modified to remove the embarrassment element and make it a bit more benign to the sensitive Nanceys. For example an individual can now say "muskrat" to indicate they are on to the setup. This effectively calls everyone else out and makes the game even. In the following weeks the game it self became the lunchtime topic of discussion and then slowly disappeared.

Today we very rarely set anyone up any more but, just knowing you could be a victim and publicly embarrassed is enough to keep the stories fresh.

Mission accomplished.