The Trap Game

So I have been working on designing a game in my mind for a while now. It is mostly conceptual, and not quite super practical yet. It's called "Trap Game." Here is the summary of it:

You have 3 initial players. There are two primary competitors and a neutral "secular" player initially separate from the conflict between the two primary players. In order for one of the two primary competitors to win, they must get their opponent to fall into a trap they set for them. There is no other way to win, and both sides have a trap that they set for the other player.

The catch is that both players are aware of the dynamics of the game and that there is a trap for each player set by their opponent. Since they are both aware of the trap, the game automatically starts as a stalemate, and the procedure of the game is deception-based. Each player must manipulate or trick the other player into falling into the trap set for them. The "secular" third player is initially neutral, and it is not even aware that a competition or conflict between the two players even exists or is occurring (hence the term "secular").

The secular player only gets involved if one of the two players falls into the trap, and that is how that player loses. The moment one player is successfully baited into falling into the trap, the secular player becomes the enforcer and the game-ender. One of the parameters of the game is that both player one and player two don't want the secular player to even be aware that a conflict is occurring at all, because the awareness of the secular player completely cripples the operational capacity of both primary players with respect to their goals and objectives, and when one player falls into the other's trap, its "cover is blown" and the secular player removes that player from the game, leaving the remaining player victorious. Simply put, the conflict is fought in the shadows and in secret.

The secular player represents the "secular" world, a world that is quite oblivious to the conflicts and wars under its rather shallow surface, nor is it aware of how deep these conflicts go. In fact, much of the secular world would like to believe these hidden conflicts don't exist and turn a blind eye to them.

The two primary competitors represent conflicting elements of a dark underbelly of the world that does its best to conceal the very existence of a conflict from the secular world. It does so because in order to protect the interests of this hidden, secret world, the surface, or "secular" world cannot be made aware of its existence.

The Trap Game scenario is what happens when the secular world is weaponized against its own awareness by one primary competitor baiting and tricking its opponent to expose itself to the secular world, and that secular world obliviously becomes a pawn in neutralizing that player's opponent, and that opponent is taken out of the game and neutralized by a skeptical secular force that doesn't believe that underworld even exists and knows nothing of the conflict within it.

The primary prerogative that is all but guaranteed by the secular player's naivete and skepticism is that the hidden world remains hidden, and any player who the secular player becomes aware of is immediately neutralized and removed from the game, giving that player's opponent the victory. In this game scenario, that can only happen by falling into an opponents trap that exposes the opponent's existence and role in the game to the secular player.