Students ask for this game every week at our outreach event. This is a scenario game that we combined with the games Murder and Mafia.
All students stand in a circle and are given a card. They are not to tell anyone what is on their card. If they get a face card they are a persecutor. If they get a number card they are a Christian. (You can use paper that says the character names instead of playing cards just make sure you have a good ratio of Persecutors to Christians about 3 Christians to 1 persecutor works well).
After everyone gets their card you have them look at it and then hand it back to you. Everyone then closes their eyes and you ask the persecutors to raise their heads quietly so their neighbor does not hear them move. Let the persecutors see who their partners in crime are. Then everyone wakes up and the game begins.
The lights in the church go out and it becomes a time of deciding who you will trust and who you won’t. The students wander through the halls until someone is martyred by a persecutor and they are found by someone. Once a Martyr has been found, lying where ever the persecutor decided to stash them, the discoverer yells Martyr and the game is paused for everyone to file into a common room.
A persecutor can martyr someone by gesturing their hand across the Christians neck. Christians must fall down or go with the persecutor where ever they lead them a stashing must be quick so no one sees.
In the Common room a trial takes place. If someone saw the crime take place they get to motion to put a potential persecutor on trial. Anyone can make an accusation. The accusation must be seconded by someone else before they are put on trial. Once on trial they get the floor to defend themselves for a short time. Take a vote of all remaining alive people and majority rules on whether they remain alive or dead. Have the one voted off tell the people what they were for encouragement or a gut punch. Martyrs can not talk at all.
The game ends when there are no more persecutors or more persecutors than Christians. Tip- you may want some activity for those martyred because the game can go long.