This one is really fun if you're a fan of TOS or werewolf. You are a town trying to successfully go on quests, but there are bad guys and deceit ready to stop you. You have to figure out who the bad guys are and successfully complete 3 quests, or else the bad guys win.
How to play:
The game starts by picking the number of bad guys based on the number of players. Each game will consist of x amount of bad guys, good guys, and Merlin. Once you play enough of the game and get the hang of it, there are other characters and game changes that can be implemented, but I'll just talk about the base game for now.
The cards are then dealt out to each person anonymously, and the game begins with everyone having their heads down/eyes closed. Some, usually someone who has played the game enough to memorize the speech, starts by having all the bad guys open their eyes and see each other, then close their eyes. The bad guys then put up a thumb, and Merlin opens their eyes. Merlin is a good guy who knows who the bad guys are, but if the bad guys figure out who Merlin is, the bad guys win. Merlin closes their eyes, and everyone awakens.
The active player, whoever your group decides goes first, will have the crown and then assign people to go on a quest. You get 5 chances to do 3 successful quests, but the number of people who have to go on each quest increases each time. Once the quest takers have been chosen, everyone gets to vote on whether they are ok with that group going or are they against it. If majority vote ok, the quest happens. If they vote not ok, the crown gets passed to the next person and they choose a new party.
Now, the quest. Everyone on the quest will get 2 cards, a pass and a fail. Good guys can ONLY vote for the quest to be successful, but bad guys can either vote to succeed or fail. All votes are anonymous. All successes, the quest passes, but just one fail and the quest fails. The game continues until either team has 3 successes/failures. At the end, the bad guys will guess who Merlin is. If they get it right, the bad guys win.
Tips:
- As Merlin, try to be sneaky. If it's your turn to pick quest takers, and you still have a few quests left, take a bad guy with you. It will make you less suspicious.
- If you are a bad guy and chosen for the first quest, you generally want to pass it. The first quest has the least amount of people, and it will be easier for people to figure out who you are and not take you on more quests.
- Suspect everyone. Especially with more characters added, things start to get confusing and even the bad guys don't know one of their own team mates.
Overall:
This is a really fun game, especially when you gave a large size group of people (the game can support up to 10 players). It's fun to suspect everyone, and throw everyone else off. It opens the books to roleplaying, being deceitful, and all around just having fun. This game can be played many times, as no 2 games are ever the same. The rounds can be fairly short, so it's easy for people to jump in or out of a game. All in all, please play this at your next party.
Board Games Feature: Avalon
For the second of the Board Games Feature series, we present Avalon!
21